I stopped by the local Monop to pick up a couple of things and had an odd exchange with the cashier. It took place in French, here’s a rough translation.
Him: Bonjour
Me: Bonjour
Him: (after a few seconds): Do you speak English?
Me: Yes
Him: Are you Anglophone?
Me: Yes
Him: You’re not American?
Me: Yes
Me: Did you ask because of my accent? (even though all I had said was “bonjour)
Him: No, I’ve seen you a couple of times and you have a certain style.
I’m not sure how I should interpret his comment…
Monday, October 11, 2010
Anglophone?
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4 comments:
Compliment?!! : )
Anglophone? is that like anglophobia, anglophile?
seems to me like the large heavy black rotary phone my parents had in their 70's house....
such weighty heavy matters - are we?
Anglophone = native English speaker. Sometimes I forget that some words don't work so well in both languages.
James Fallows had an extended discussion on his blog a while back about identifying people's nationality by sight, based on how they dress or walk.
See:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/11/field-guide-to-identifying-americans/66165/
(That post has links to previous posts that started the topic.)
Greetings from a fellow Seattle-ite soon to move to Paris. :)
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