How Can I Get Used To French Accent In English? Yesterday I had a job interview by telephone with a person from France speaking in English. It was very difficult to understand him, even basic sentenc

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Javier

How Can I Get Used To French Accent In English? Yesterday I had a job interview by telephone with a person from France speaking in English. It was very difficult to understand him, even basic sentences. I had never had problems to understand a common conversation in English . When I speak with people not native English I can understand them better than natives one, but in this occasion was imposible. I need to understand him because he is going to be my boss. Can anybody help me?

Feb 21, 2012 11:11 AM

Answers · 3

It's simply practice. You'll get to understand any accent simply by listening to it and recognising the patterns. Some sounds in English are either different or nonexistent in French, so a French person would substitute these sounds with their own French habits. You might have heard the R at the back of the throat, a dropped H, and TH changed to either a T or Z sound. Maybe some words which are similar in French and English received the French pronunciation. Please don't ever worry too much about it, just look for examples online - it's really quite enjoyable to listen to accents. :)

February 21, 2012