His French is very good, but he is not speaking it perfectly. If you listen to his intersjections (commons ones in English: ah, um, etc) he consistently says "ah." In French, the proper interjection interjection sounds more like "uhhhhh "
probably a little insincere. it's common for people to boost themselves
Are you saying that Habz is insincere about something?
this thread, ultimate trivia babble, forced to add the following:
Gemini says Joke Setup "What did the baker say when he accidentally drove his car into a loaf of bread?" Punchline Oops! I wrecked my khubz!" (Sounds like: oops! I wrecked my habz!), That AI is a work in progress.
On the topic of Swedish mothers, I wish my mom was Swedish, like the blond in Abba, growing up would have been cool, with that eye candy around 24 7.
On the topic of Habz and believability, he will come on board, when he says full throttle EPO is the bomb.
i hope this fits in well with the rest of the posts here.
Most people from Morocco and Algeria speak pretty good French. So I'm pretty sure he didn't start from zero.
That depends on their economic background. Habz's family were farmers in the valley, where French usage is minimal. It's a compulsory subject in school, but so is French, Spanish and German in many countries.
I taught French in Whitby, Ontario, Canada many years ago, level was not impressive.
Same with English, which I taught in Montreal, Quebec. In Canada both subjects are compulsory, and most Francophone students hate learning English, and opposite is true for Anglophones learning Français. It's forced on them.
Recently, however, I was very impressed with Portugal and students' level in English, far surpassing Spanish students, across the border. I think the fact that nothing is dubbed in Portuguese TV is a big advantage.
As an African i’ll tell you for free (nous parlons toutes les langues des colons)
As someone who speaks French, his accent is so good and basically sounds native, that I actually don’t believe that he “barely spoke French and only knew a few words” when he moved from Morocco at 19 as he puts it in the video. I think people can be linguistically gifted and learn to talk like a native with enough practice but I don’t think it’s possible (i looked it up and scientifically it’s extremely rare) to actually have an accent sounding like a native if you start learning at 18/19. It comes down to certain parts of your brain closing down or being less flexible as you mature and aren’t developing as much.
I don’t think he’s being completely truthful here lol
As someone who speaks French, his accent is so good and basically sounds native, that I actually don’t believe that he “barely spoke French and only knew a few words” when he moved from Morocco at 19 as he puts it in the video. I think people can be linguistically gifted and learn to talk like a native with enough practice but I don’t think it’s possible (i looked it up and scientifically it’s extremely rare) to actually have an accent sounding like a native if you start learning at 18/19. It comes down to certain parts of your brain closing down or being less flexible as you mature and aren’t developing as much.
I don’t think he’s being completely truthful here lol
Habz's French ability: Absolutely - right. People have a tendency to exaggerate, sometimes even grossly exaggerate, their accomplishments. In this case, language ability.
American diplomats and army personnel who train at DLI (Defence Language Institute) which is the foremost language training center in the United States for people later occupying positions in very key roles throughout the world, learn foreign languages at very high levels but (almost) always have that American (slight) twang within their speech in their new adopted tongue.
There are a few outliers in that department but usually they are individuals who had some exposure to that foreign language when they were children.
My thought on all of this is that Habz, without wishing to call him a liar, grossly underestimated his French ability when he came to France aged 19, and that he knew a lot more French than he stated, because otherwise, in my mind, it would be virtually impossible to be at the level he's at now with such fluency and vast vocabulary. Not happening, and I've been involved with foreign languages, both as a teacher and as a student, all my life.
Morocco is a former French colony and French is widely spoken in the country. Many schools teach in French.
Indeed, so it would be really strange if he had learned no French there before moving to France.
Agreed. There are clues to not being a native speaker from those interjections, hesitancy in phrasing, certain words used and sentence construction, and verb tense/conjugation, among others.
Agreed. There are clues to not being a native speaker from those interjections, hesitancy in phrasing, certain words used and sentence construction, and verb tense/conjugation, among others.
He speaks better French than many poorly educated French people that I've come across over the years. Quasi flawless with a neutral accent. Yep, a few hesitancies, but that doesn't detract from overall performance. I'll classify him as C1 in French.
Jan Molby was a Danish footballer who joined Liverpool in the English top league at the age of 22 in the mid 80s. The Danes learn English at school but what was interesting about him is that he soon picked up the Liverpool accent which is strong and distinctive. There's no way his English teacher at school spoke English with that accent.
I used to live in the south. A family from very rural South Asia moved in down the street and their native language is some weird isolate.
Anyway our kids were the same age and their son was over at our house basically all day every day.
id say in 9-10 months he went from no English to very solid English, at a year and a half he was the most Americanized kid ever. Played football on the middle school team, would come watch sports at our house. Fortnight, you get it. Zero accent
he said the biggest factor is he had no way of doing anything in his own language. no media available in the US, no other native speakers besides his family. It was full emersion
That tends to happen when you’ve lived in a country for the past 13 years, but what do I know
Not really. There are Hispanics who have lived in the USA for over 20 years and yet can barely speak a word of English. It tends to happen when there is a requirement in the host country, that you speak the language of your host country.
Some people are liguistically gifted - just like other areas and talents in life. Maybe the case for him. And, perhaps he really applied himself. Having studied French, I would say that attaining accent-less fluency is no small task.
My thought on all of this is that Habz, without wishing to call him a liar, grossly underestimated his French ability when he came to France aged 19, and that he knew a lot more French than he stated, because otherwise, in my mind, it would be virtually impossible to be at the level he's at now with such fluency and vast vocabulary. Not happening, and I've been involved with foreign languages, both as a teacher and as a student, all my life.
I rarely meet random people on the street who can run a 3:27 1500 either. I acknowledge that picking up a new language so quickly is extremely rare, but I imagine it’s slight less rare than his athletic achievements are.
I used to live in the south. A family from very rural South Asia moved in down the street and their native language is some weird isolate.
Anyway our kids were the same age and their son was over at our house basically all day every day.
id say in 9-10 months he went from no English to very solid English, at a year and a half he was the most Americanized kid ever. Played football on the middle school team, would come watch sports at our house. Fortnight, you get it. Zero accent
he said the biggest factor is he had no way of doing anything in his own language. no media available in the US, no other native speakers besides his family. It was full emersion
Why was this 19 year old adult at your house every day (all day). Also, why was he still in middle school at 19 years old?
I had a conversation with a guy in Taiwan who was Québecois and he said he didn't really start learning English until late in his teens and I didn't realize he wasn't anglo until he told me. Of course he would have learned a bit in his classes at school, but there was no attempt to learn it before. Some people just have that ability. I asked him about his Mandarin and of course he had learned that as well. I have lived in Taiwan and Québec, and can get by in both languages, but nothing like this guy. I figure it's the same reason why guys like Justyn Knight can run times in gym class that I worked for years to get. Some people just have it.