Jigglypuff :: Rondoudou

Everyday I like to believe that my French is getting better.  Certainly, that was the goal for a year in France.  I'd hoped that I'd be fluent by the time I return, though that dream seems to be getting further and further away whenever I say a French word that has an R.

Seriously, for such a pretty language, the Rs sound très guttural.  Except not even, it's just that when I attempt to say it, I sound like a cat hacking up a hairball.  I bet that Minette could still make a prettier sound than I though.

PARFAIT! Except I can't even say that properly

Apparently, for pronunciation, northern French people don't have a lot of tonality.  They place emphasis on every syllable, and that's why the French accents sounds so funny to us.  I can't pronounce the Rs and I place accents where it's unnecessary.

My friends and I tease each other about our accents.  I'm not too sensitive about it.  I think it's more of, they tease my accent, and I tease their English grammar.  Or actually, they tease my accent and grammar.  I accept that my French is terrible...or Teh-HIRRRgh-bleh.

They always give me a bunch of sentences with an abundance of Rs.  A couple days ago, they gave me a sentence with "Rondoudou" and I was like, as always, "c'est quoi, un rondoudou?" (I hope my French teacher never finds out about my terrible grammar here.  I got back a test paragraph I wrote and I could barely see what I'd written past all the red corrections).

Anyways, they gave Jigglypuff such a sad description!  It took me two minutes to realize that they were talking about a Pokemon!  

"Blue eyes, pink, fat, short, no one likes to hear it's singing.  It's got something sticking out the top of it's head."  I thought they were talking about a type of person!

maybe I didn't understand the words for cute and cuddly

In case you haven't realized by this point, yes Pokemon have different names in France.  There are some that have the same name, like Pikachu, but most of them have different names.  One of my host brothers was playing Black and White yesterday (though here it's Noir et Blanc) and all of the attack moves have different names too.

It surprises me that I was surprised that everything had a different name.  I forgot that Pokemon is Japanese.

should've thought of the spiky hair

I keep finding out that thing aren't American!  How close-minded I am!  I got my host brother an angry birds hat, as I've said before, but I found out that Rovio, the company for Angry Birds, is Finnish.