Glenn, my experience with French is the same as in English: the spoken language is much less formal and rules-bound than the written. I studied French at school, and then for some years was only able to read it rather than speak it, and thought myself fairly good at it. Then I went to Paris to work, and wow! I might as well have been a mute! It took me a long time to get to the point where I could hold a reasonable conversation, and I am now, twenty-five years later, as rusty as hell again.
It takes constant exposure to the 'sound' of the language to be really fluent, IMHO. John Coyle Brisbane, Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2003 1:56 AM Subject: Re: OT: Obnoxious Sonofabitch Copyeditor > Graywolf, Keith, > > Note that in certain contexts, linguists and grammarians distinguish > between "standard written English" and spoken English almost as > though they are two different dialects. Does that happen in other > languages as well? > > -- Glenn > >
