September 30, 2025 • 43 mins
Polite French is a travel cheat code. A single “Excusez-moi” can turn a hurried barista into a guide, a packed metro into a clear path, and a confused check into a smile and “l’addition” arriving without fuss. We sat down with Paul, a French native, to break down simple phrases and cultural nuances that make moving through France, Belgium, and other French-speaking regions easier, friendlier, and a lot more delicious.
We start with the essentials: when to use bonjour versus bonsoir, why vous signals respect, and how “Excusez-moi, parlez-vous anglais ?” softens almost any interaction. From there, we get practical. You’ll learn how to ask for help (Aidez-moi, s’il vous plaît), admit confusion (Je ne comprends pas), and get un-stuck quickly (Je suis perdu, Où est…?). We also cover the basics that save time and stress—finding les toilettes, asking for l’eau, and navigating taxis with a simple Où allez-vous and a pointed map. Along the way, Paul shares why effort matters more than perfect pronunciation and how a calm tone, a nod, and “s’il vous plaît” transform the whole vibe.
Food lovers, this one’s for you. We walk through ordering at cafés and bakeries: Je voudrais du pain, s’il vous plaît, un café, du thé, and the great national debate between pain au chocolat and chocolatine. You’ll learn how to ask for the check with grace, spot the difference between a boulangerie, boucherie, and fromagerie, and even request a taste of cheese without overstepping. We wrap with easy goodbyes—Au revoir and À bientôt—so you leave every encounter on a warm note.
Ready to travel lighter and connect deeper? Hit play, practice a few lines, and try them on your next coffee run or metro ride. If this helped, subscribe, leave a quick review, and share the episode with a friend planning a trip—what phrase will you use first?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
I am Alexa.
SPEAKER_02 (00:03):
Together we are welcome to each other.
Right.
We are a touring musical duo.
SPEAKER_00 (00:11):
And our music has taken us to all kinds of places
all around the world and keepsus always on the go.
SPEAKER_02 (00:16):
So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while
running around working to eatall your plates made.
SPEAKER_00 (00:22):
And we hope to facilitate your busy lifestyle
and feed your inner travel bug.
SPEAKER_02 (00:38):
Well, you can't speak it yet.
We haven't taught it yet.
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
Okay.
Y'all, welcome again to theRomies Podcast.
We are in our series of learninglanguage for travel.
SPEAKER_02 (00:47):
Hello, vehicle men.
Because probably we've alreadyheard the German.
SPEAKER_00 (00:51):
Yes, because English German.
So, y'all, today we're going tolearn French.
Yay.
Now, French, it's going to getyou through France, right?
Yay.
That's awesome.
When you visit France.
But you're also going to useFrench when you visit Belgium.
When you visit some many Africancountries, you're going to use
(01:13):
French.
Yes.
Yes.
Middle Eastern.
SPEAKER_02 (01:17):
And you know why it's so helpful?
French was the internationallanguage forever.
When I was a boy.
It was the internationallanguage.
SPEAKER_03 (01:24):
Good old days.
Yeah, the good old days.
SPEAKER_00 (01:28):
So it's a very helpful language.
And we that's what Roy and Ieach studied like in school
growing up.
SPEAKER_02 (01:34):
Yeah, in the second grade, they start teaching us
French where I'm from.
SPEAKER_00 (01:37):
We have so much fun with the language.
We love it.
We're not yet fluent after allof these years, but we have
learned enough where we cancarry a conversation, we can get
by.
It's been super helpful.
Yeah.
But it's also helpful, likebecause it's a romance language.
So when you learn French,Italian, Spanish, and
Portuguese, for example, all ofthose are like romance languages
(01:59):
that all have this foundationtogether.
And so as you're learning one,you find so many similarities
between the others and then howthey connect with English.
And it's just a wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_02 (02:10):
If you're fluent into Spanish, a great, much
easier second language to pickup would be French.
If you're fluent in French, youcan pick up more quickly on
Spanish.
SPEAKER_00 (02:19):
And Italian and Italian.
SPEAKER_02 (02:20):
Did you speak both of those Portuguese?
unknown (02:22):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (02:22):
In the band.
SPEAKER_02 (02:23):
I'm going to blend it.
SPEAKER_00 (02:25):
That's what we hear anyway.
So today we are so excited tohave with us Paul.
Paul, thank you so much forjoining us.
And Paul is, okay, so we arerecording this in Finland, but
Paul is actually French.
And so we figured even thoughwe're in Finland, you are our
(02:46):
expert French guy here.
So we're really, really excitedto learn some French from you
today for travel.
So do you what do you want tojust give us a quick little
cultural insight on, you know,before we dive into maybe some
words, what might be somecultural things that a traveler
should be maybe a little awareof or sensitive to or anything?
SPEAKER_03 (03:07):
Yeah.
Well, thank you for having me.
Uh I think I would start withthe fact that French people can
be very, they really want you tospeak French.
So they we can have this kind ofpride thing as a Frenchman that
uh we don't like when peoplecome to our country and don't
make efforts.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (03:26):
So I think I think same with English.
I mean, it's you know, we wantpeople, if they're gonna come to
our country, to speak English,right?
We just expect to be right.
SPEAKER_02 (03:34):
It's been respectful to no matter what country you go
to.
SPEAKER_03 (03:38):
Totally.
That's true.
Uh maybe we push it a bit farsometimes, but yeah, maybe you
know.
SPEAKER_00 (03:42):
Maybe I can take the critically.
Yeah, no, I do feel like FranFrance has a reputation for
that.
Yeah, yeah.
But I I it's completelyunderstanding.
SPEAKER_02 (03:50):
I've been chewed out in French before.
SPEAKER_03 (03:53):
Totally.
But yeah, I would say thatthat's uh anything you can throw
in French, I think we appreciateit a lot as long as you try.
And of course, I think we'regetting better and better in
English, I believe.
But yeah, whatever you can throwin French, it's always
appreciated.
SPEAKER_00 (04:08):
Great, great.
So maybe down the road intoday's lesson, you'll teach us
I don't speak French or or Idon't understand French, or you
know, maybe we can go theresometimes.
So, in an effort to be polite,we can start with hello.
What's what's sounds good?
SPEAKER_03 (04:24):
So we have uh one way to say good morning, good
afternoon.
It's bonjour, bonjour.
So very like straightforward,and then after it becomes like
evening-ish, I would say likeafter six, we start to say
bonsoir, so good evening.
So those are the two ways thatare polite, and of course, if
(04:46):
you know the person a bitbetter, you can say hi and it's
salute.
But that's for the intimates.
SPEAKER_02 (04:54):
Ah, okay.
So say say those three slowlyfor us.
The one for the earlier in theday.
SPEAKER_03 (05:01):
So whenever you wake up in the morning, you say hello
to people, you say bonjour.
Bonjour.
And if it's midday afternoon,you still say bonjour, and
whenever it's past aroundsix-ish, you say bonsoir.
Bonsoir.
SPEAKER_02 (05:19):
Okay, so they have this similarity that I hear in
the beginning of each of them.
SPEAKER_03 (05:23):
Yes.
Bon.
Bon means good.
Okay.
So good afternoon, good day,good morning, and then jour,
which is for good morning, goodafternoon, whatever you want to
say in there, it means day.
So it's pretty much good day.
Yeah.
But it also means good morning.
Okay.
And bon soir is good evening.
(05:43):
So means evening.
unknown (05:45):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (05:46):
All right.
SPEAKER_03 (05:47):
Excellent.
SPEAKER_00 (05:48):
And then if we want to say excuse me.
SPEAKER_03 (05:54):
So there's two ways to go about it.
I think I'd like to say thatthere's uh the easy route, which
is maybe the good, like kind ofif you need to throw something
in and you don't remember yourFrench, uh, maybe it's better to
stick with this.
So the easy route is pardon.
SPEAKER_00 (06:08):
Like pardon, like we would say pardon, and then just
French it up.
Pardon?
SPEAKER_03 (06:12):
Yes, pardon.
You add the little mm-mm in thecountry.
SPEAKER_01 (06:15):
That's right.
SPEAKER_03 (06:18):
Exactly, classic.
And if you want to be polite,there's excusez-moi.
And I think there's somethingreally important to know with
French is that we have kind ofour language is trying to be as
polite as possible.
So we have a way to talk topeople we know and a way to talk
to people we don't know, and wewant to show respect.
(06:41):
And so there is it's quitetricky, but there is like
different ways to address tosomeone you don't know, and as
well as to the elderly, eventhough you know them, you still
want to show respect.
SPEAKER_02 (06:50):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (06:51):
So the thing with this is that if, for example, I
don't know you and we get toknow each other, I will say vo
to say you, vo.
And it also means you in plural.
And so that's a bit tricky.
But you never say to, which isalso you, but this is for the
intimate.
But if you say that to a Frenchperson that you don't know, he's
(07:12):
gonna see it as an offense.
So that's very important.
SPEAKER_00 (07:15):
Yeah, and as you're traveling, the majority of the
people you come across are goingto be strangers.
You need to know that that'sfocus on the voo, and even if
you know someone, you're notgonna offend them saying vo,
like right.
SPEAKER_03 (07:27):
It's they will correct you to say, Hey, by the
way, you can say two, but atleast you come as very
respectful, and that's superimportant.
So if you say excuse me, you sayexcusez-moi.
That's like the polite way, andthe more straightforward is
excuse-moi.
But so pay attention to, I mean,more focus on excusez-moi.
SPEAKER_00 (07:50):
Right, right.
And so the and those and I thinkfor purposes today, we can focus
on the vo forms, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:56):
Yeah, and so uh, it's are those two different
words you're saying there withexcusez-moi.
SPEAKER_03 (08:01):
Yeah, so excuse is like excuse.
Well, it's pretty much Finnishand unfinished.
I mean, English and French isvery connected.
Okay, uh, there's a lot of uhsimilarities.
Yeah, French.
SPEAKER_00 (08:12):
So again, you can say excuse me, and then just
he's French either.
SPEAKER_03 (08:18):
So yeah, there's the excuse and then me, moi, moi is
me.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (08:26):
And then the the pardon you said is more for it
it means the same thing.
SPEAKER_03 (08:33):
I think it's more it's not as polite.
If you want to be as polite asyou can, you kind of avoid it.
But pardon is mostly used whenyou, for example, you bump
someone or you drop something,or if you're in the metro and
you need to pass or then you canplay with both.
Okay, um, so it's kind of likemore of a hurry thing, I would
(08:53):
say.
SPEAKER_00 (08:54):
Now, would you use sorry in French?
SPEAKER_03 (08:57):
Sorry?
SPEAKER_00 (08:58):
Like sorry, yeah, like instead of pardoning, you
would say sorry, you wouldn'tsay that.
SPEAKER_03 (09:02):
Yeah, we tried uh anything you can throw that's
not that doesn't sound English,people French people will like
it.
Uh they'll appreciate they havea beef with the English speaking
for some reason.
Yeah, just uh yeah, in case yougo to Paris and you don't get
some uh attack for that, it'sgood to know.
SPEAKER_00 (09:18):
Totally in my experience, in order to have
someone engage with me, even ifI even if they need to speak
English to me, because I don'tknow French, for example, if I
say, excuse me, do you speakEnglish?
I find that's a really good dooropener.
And what's really funny, I'mjust doing a little side rabbit
here, but like a side rabbit.
SPEAKER_02 (09:39):
That's interesting.
Have you ever heard of it?
A rabbit trail, but you've got aside rabbit.
SPEAKER_00 (09:43):
I do have a side rabbit.
Okay.
And you're making it longer.
So Rory's really good withlanguages.
Like so, when when we travelaround the world, he'll he'll
say the local phrases, he'll saythese things we're learning, you
know, on on this uh series.
And he people will speak back tohim in their language because he
says it so well.
(10:03):
When I'm in a French-speakingcountry and I say something in
French, they speak back to me inEnglish because my friend, I
sound like an American trying tospeak French, right?
So I think even if you can learnthat, excuse me, do you speak
English?
Is is very like you can correctme if I'm wrong, but like I feel
(10:24):
like that's a good door openerto at least, hey, I want to make
an effort.
SPEAKER_02 (10:28):
Yeah, instead of just assuming, oh, they're gonna
speak English because English isthe international language, and
I'm American, so you just startin English, not a good way to
begin.
SPEAKER_03 (10:38):
I've learned, yes.
Well, we we can we can learnthat.
I think uh first I would say onbehalf of all the French people,
I'm sorry for that.
We're so rude.
SPEAKER_00 (10:46):
And uh But it's not rude, it's your country.
Yeah, I mean we're coming toyour country.
So we're rude if we're notspeaking your language, right?
Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_03 (10:56):
All right, let's let's keep the rudeness uh in
place.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um yeah, really good point.
I think it's really good tostart with uh what we learn, uh
excusez-moi, to open the theconversation because I think
what will happen is that youwill go to someone on the street
or like someone that works insomewhere in some shop.
So you start with excusez-moi,parlez-vous anglais.
(11:20):
Parlez means do you like speak?
And vous is what we learn, it'sthe polite you.
So speak you English.
Parlez vous anglais.
SPEAKER_02 (11:32):
And uh to make it a question, you just sort of raise
we put it like uh kind ofbackwards, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (11:39):
So it's more like do you speak?
It's like speak you English.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (11:44):
That's the way you can even raise the tone a bit at
the end, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (11:49):
Like we're doing parlez, yeah, exactly.
So you you start withexcusez-moi, parlez vous
anglais.
Parlez-vous anglais.
SPEAKER_02 (12:04):
The anglais is interesting, yeah.
It's like our in G sound.
SPEAKER_00 (12:08):
Can you say uh syllable by syllable?
SPEAKER_03 (12:11):
Yeah, uh so the the beautiful thing about French is
that we have so many lettersthat you don't even pronounce,
so it's very, very confusing.
SPEAKER_00 (12:19):
Well, one thing I'm I'm noticing is I'm hearing you,
I don't hear excusez-moi.
I hear excusez-moi.
SPEAKER_01 (12:27):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (12:28):
So so I've noticed that.
So yeah, if we I want to makesure that I'm hearing the vowels
in the right direction and allthat.
SPEAKER_03 (12:35):
Yeah, I I think uh because the French people speak
really really quickly.
And I think we can just uh sharesome words.
Okay, but yeah, excusez-moi isexcusez-moi.
SPEAKER_00 (12:47):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (12:48):
I want to say it very properly, and then it's
parlez vous anglais.
unknown (12:55):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (12:56):
But yeah, if you would say all the syllables, it
would be parlaise vos englise.
Yeah, that's right.
It's really a mess.
I think uh learning to write andread is really, really hard.
Yeah, it's a different thing.
SPEAKER_00 (13:10):
All right, and then uh say it again fast.
Excuse me, do you speak English?
SPEAKER_03 (13:14):
Excuse-moi, parlez-vous anglais.
There you go.
That's good to know.
Very good.
SPEAKER_00 (13:18):
Click me, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:20):
Yeah, yeah, good way to start.
SPEAKER_03 (13:21):
And even if the pronunciation is not great, I
think as long as they understandyou, they will really appreciate
it.
SPEAKER_00 (13:26):
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (13:26):
Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00 (13:27):
They just appreciate the effort.
Okay, so what is so I we justsaid très bien, what does that
mean?
SPEAKER_03 (13:32):
Very good.
Okay, très bien is good also.
Okay, and and of course, uh, youcan learn the how are you, very
good uh, and you.
I think that's uh that can be apolite thing.
How are you is comment?
And then you can answer eithertrès bien, very good, or bien,
(13:52):
good.
SPEAKER_00 (13:53):
Now, are you gonna say comment ça va to a stranger?
SPEAKER_03 (13:57):
Maybe not.
Maybe maybe it depends.
I think it's it can be somethingin the conversation that the
other person is asking you, andyou can answer good and you.
So good and you is bien et toi.
I think it's pretty rare that asa non-French speaker that you
will go to someone and askactually, like, hey, how are
you?
Because that's very likeuncomfortable kind of to say.
(14:20):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (14:20):
So that's why we went and say evu.
SPEAKER_03 (14:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:23):
Okay, because yes.
SPEAKER_03 (14:24):
So maybe you just like learn the good and you, so
bien et vous.
That's like I'm doing good andyou.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:32):
Okay, so then we would use vo.
SPEAKER_03 (14:34):
Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:35):
Okay, yeah.
Bien evu.
SPEAKER_03 (14:37):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (14:37):
Okay.
And so then if we were speakingto this person, are we gonna say
como sava or are we going to saysomething else?
SPEAKER_03 (14:44):
Like, yeah, you can that's a very polite way.
The non-polite, what I wouldtell my brother, for example, I
would just say, Hey Sava.
Okay, you know, or uh salutsava, just like very like the
shorter way.
But that's not seen as the mostpolite thing you would say to a
stranger, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
And then so what's the difference between como sava
and tale vu?
SPEAKER_03 (15:06):
That's really good.
Kommentale is maybe the highestdegree of politeness, I would
say.
And that's really like verypolite.
So if you can pull that off,it's it's even better.
But I don't think it's neededper se.
Like it's it's really somethingthat's for example, someone will
say from a store to someonecoming in, like very, very
polite.
But commentalez-vous is also agood one.
(15:29):
Okay, but it's but it's easierto say comment.
Yeah, it's pretty much how areyou, and comment allez-vous is
how are you doing.
Yeah, it's like you push it abit further, but yeah, two both
of them are really good ones.
SPEAKER_02 (15:41):
Okay.
And are the answers?
SPEAKER_03 (15:47):
Yeah, so bien is good.
So if you're just good, nothingelse, then you say bien, and
then if you are doing very well,you say très bien.
Tre means very.
So you just add that.
SPEAKER_02 (15:58):
Now, what if what if you're being honest and things
are going poorly and that's whythey're asking?
Because like something happened.
Yes, okay.
How would you answer not good,you know?
SPEAKER_03 (16:09):
Or so so.
Yeah, yeah, there's a few waysto go about this.
I would say the the first one isnot doing great is Sava Pa.
I'm not doing well, like it's orit's more like it's not going
good.
Sava pa pa means it's like anegative kind of word.
Like not, not not doing well.
It's like sava pa.
SPEAKER_02 (16:29):
And the good thing about that is it that a lot of
that is what you just just camefrom the question, como sava,
and then you answered sava yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (16:36):
And you can do sava bien also if you want to.
Yeah, doing that's good.
Yeah, you can French is really alot of mismatch.
You can just put things aroundand uh and make it work.
SPEAKER_00 (16:46):
Yeah, you just said bien is well, and I think that's
kind of a good distinctionbecause Rory asked earlier, bon
is good, bien.
So, but you were saying bien,I'm doing good.
Yeah, like so.
We want to say bon is more goodand bien is more well.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_02 (17:04):
All right, there you go.
Okay, so so run us through thatagain.
If someone says and it's notgoing great, you might say,
Okay, so you can use part of thequestion to answer the question,
right?
SPEAKER_03 (17:16):
So that's nice.
Then you need to be ready toexplain why it's not going well.
Right?
That's another difficulty.
SPEAKER_00 (17:21):
Then you say parlay bou anglais.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (17:25):
Yeah, but if if something happens, you fall or
you see uh, I don't know, moresomething happens bad to you,
it's it's good to right away sayit's not doing well, then the
person knows that something is.
SPEAKER_00 (17:35):
You need some kind of help or something.
And then what if you're justkind of doing okay?
SPEAKER_03 (17:42):
I would say the best is to say pas terrible, it's not
not terrible.
SPEAKER_00 (17:46):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (17:47):
So again, French English, terrible.
Yeah, it's terrible, terrible.
You just terrible don't say theend.
Yeah.
Terrible.
Isn't that great?
So you say pas terrible, notterrible, not terrible.
SPEAKER_02 (18:01):
And if it is going terrible, just leave off the
pot.
Terrible, yeah.
That's really bad.
SPEAKER_03 (18:05):
If you say it in French, it's really bad.
It's really something bad hashappened, someone has died or
something.
SPEAKER_00 (18:12):
You can say horrible, too.
You can say terrible, horrible.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (18:15):
Oh, you'll be saying okay.
So, what are the things ifsomeone is visiting France and
they're trying to or aFrench-speaking country?
Yeah, a French-speaking country,trying to make their way around.
What are some helpful phrasesthey would like if they're lost?
SPEAKER_03 (18:28):
Yeah, I am lost is a good one to to know.
Um that it can be useful manytimes if we visit places.
I am lost, it's je is I, je suisperdu.
I am lost.
Je suis perdu.
Perdu is lost.
SPEAKER_02 (18:45):
Okay.
Yeah.
I say the perdu slowly for us,the syllables.
SPEAKER_03 (18:48):
Perdu.
SPEAKER_02 (18:49):
Okay.
Perdu.
SPEAKER_03 (18:51):
Okay.
Je suis perdu.
Je suis is good to know.
It's I am.
So if you want to someone isasking what's your name.
So what's your name is Okay, uhthere's the the the nice and the
I mean the polite way in thenon-polite way, so we can go
straight to the polite way.
Um comment vous appelez vous.
(19:12):
It's a hard one.
SPEAKER_01 (19:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (19:14):
Or maybe the easier is quel est ton prénom.
It's not even easier, but that'slike the first one is what are
you called?
It's the most classic that weuse.
And then what is your name?
Is Kel eston prenom.
This is like not super common.
It's more like if you go to theborder patrol and then ask
(19:34):
what's your name, yeah.
Then we say like, quel est tonprénom, like tell me your name.
But we would more say commentvous appelez-vous, uh, which can
sound pretty uh tricky, butusually you don't have to say it
yourself, so it's more someonewill say it to you.
So if you kind of remember that,and then you can say je suis
(19:54):
Paul.
I am Paul.
Okay.
Or je m'appelle Paul, I amcalled Paul.
SPEAKER_00 (20:02):
Yeah.
I call myself Paul.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (20:05):
Yeah, I call myself Paul.
SPEAKER_02 (20:06):
But it's great if they could use the je suis,
which is what they used a minuteago too.
SPEAKER_03 (20:10):
Yeah, you can use it like uh pretty much for a lot of
things, yeah.
Je suis Paul, and yeah, andthat's really good.
And then you can say and you,which you remember from earlier,
it's evu.
Okay, that's good to know.
Nice.
Yeah, yeah.
Uh then something like where is,for example, that's quite
useful.
So you can start with je suisperdu, I am lost.
(20:39):
Very simple two words.
Ou eh.
Sounds like you're singingsomething.
SPEAKER_02 (20:43):
Yeah, or like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Or the first thing I thought ofwas a monkey.
Yeah, in any case, we go, right?
SPEAKER_03 (20:49):
Exactly.
Yeah, so where is where is andthen it's very tricky uh the
following because in French alsowe have feminine and masculine
words.
So if it's for example, where isthe castle?
It's le chateau.
But if it's like, for example,uh what is where's the hotel?
(21:14):
L'hôtel is neutral.
For example, where is the TV?
That's the first thing.
Yeah, ou e la tele.
So you can have things with laand le is for masculine, so it's
very tricky.
But this is not a big mistake.
If you mistaken like le la un,which is like one in feminine,
masculine, it's not a big issue,we'll still understand you, but
(21:37):
it's good to know that there'sthose types of things.
Yeah, so ooh e, and then you canshow your things on the phone,
or you can just, if you know thething, the chateau or the menu.
SPEAKER_02 (21:48):
Yeah, or write the address and say ooh e and show
the menu.
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (21:52):
Yeah, menu is menu.
So ou e le menu.
SPEAKER_00 (21:56):
Okay.
And where is the restaurant?
SPEAKER_03 (21:59):
Ou e le restaurant, same word as English.
SPEAKER_00 (22:02):
Okay, can you slow that down?
SPEAKER_03 (22:04):
Ou e le restaurant.
So nice.
Where is the restaurant?
Restaurant.
Restaurant.
SPEAKER_00 (22:16):
All right, okay.
Where are the restrooms or thetoilet?
In the in the in Europe, peopleare using saying toilets more
than restrooms.
SPEAKER_03 (22:26):
So for plural, because it's the toilets, it's
ouson le toilet.
So whenever it's plural, youhave to switch.
SPEAKER_00 (22:37):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (22:37):
So o e is singular.
SPEAKER_00 (22:42):
Okay.
Because you're not gonna ask forwhere is the toilet, you're
going to be saying where are thetoilets?
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (22:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:49):
And so that therefore it makes it plural.
So we're gonna bring that in.
SPEAKER_02 (22:52):
Yeah, what if somebody messes up and like ou
le toilet?
SPEAKER_03 (22:56):
That's fine too.
Yeah.
They'll understand it.
They will understand it.
Yeah.
And I I think people, I mean,French people, we have the pride
of that you need to speakFrench, but if you try, they
will be very happy to kind ofwalk you through whatever you're
going, you know, you need helpwith.
SPEAKER_02 (23:09):
So yeah, they may answer in English because you
tried exactly French.
SPEAKER_03 (23:13):
As long as you try, it's yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:15):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (23:16):
Totally.
SPEAKER_00 (23:16):
Okay, and then I always need to know like where
is water?
Because I'm drinking water allthe time.
So, what's our word for water?
SPEAKER_03 (23:24):
Water is uh, just uh oh.
It's written E A U, but it'spronounced O.
unknown (23:30):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (23:31):
Same as my as my uh last name, actually.
Um my name is Le Pino, but it'swritten E A U.
Okay, it's O.
So uh E A U O is water, and thenuh it kind of you have to say
lope with an L like the water.
So if you want to say like uh doyou want to say like words?
SPEAKER_00 (23:52):
I would how about I would like, I would like to.
Yeah, yeah, like I'm thirsty alot.
SPEAKER_03 (23:56):
I would like is let's say the easiest way is je
voudrais, I would like jevoudrais.
SPEAKER_00 (24:03):
So the je is the I I would like voudrais de l'eau.
SPEAKER_03 (24:09):
I would like some de lo.
I would like some water.
So je voudrais de l'eau, s'ilvous plaît.
Ah, this is very good.
We haven't touched from the goodcard.
This is very good.
So uh, whenever French is, youhave to think of French as uh
you have to try to be as politeas possible.
Yes, uh, it's very tricky, andso you have to add like s'il
(24:32):
vous plaît in a lot of things.
Well, it's kind of like pleasein in English that you have to
add after sentences, and so youhave to say s'il vous plaît,
s'il vous plaît, s'il vousplaît.
It's like je peux pas avoir orje voudrais de l'eau, s'il vous
plaît.
Um, that's very important.
(24:52):
And then thank you, uh, merci.
Yeah, those are really importantones.
Merci beaucoup, thank you verymuch.
Merci beaucoup.
SPEAKER_00 (25:01):
All right, syllable those out, please.
SPEAKER_03 (25:03):
The merci beaucoup.
Uh you want the every letter oryeah, or mer.
SPEAKER_00 (25:13):
Okay, great.
There you go.
SPEAKER_02 (25:14):
And boku is something we've taken into
English.
We say, oh, boku.
Boku sometimes, and or whatever.
We it's a word that at leastwhere I'm from.
That's true.
SPEAKER_03 (25:23):
Yeah.
Use it a lot.
And I think it's the same word.
I and also a thing at therestaurant that I think is
pretty good to know is the bill.
Yes, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
Asking the guy, you raised yourhand, and then you say
l'addition.
SPEAKER_02 (25:38):
Now, it is related to a word that we will recognize
in English, addition.
SPEAKER_03 (25:43):
Addition.
It's the same in French.
It means the calculations, youknow, the you add up.
And I just used it for that.
So the addition, the addition ofwhat you you have eaten.
And then you add laddition, s'ilvous plaît.
unknown (25:56):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (25:56):
That's very important.
If you just say addition, it'sgonna take it as your very root
and uh you're taking him as uh,you know, yeah, bring it to
remember.
SPEAKER_00 (26:04):
And it's not just addition, right?
You put that L in front of it,you put the article in front of
it because you're pretty muchalways gonna have the la, the
la, the right common in front ofit.
SPEAKER_03 (26:15):
So it's okay.
And you of course if you mess upand you say le addition, it's
it's fine, it's still not gonnaunderstand.
But there's a little thingbefore.
SPEAKER_02 (26:25):
I often make use of this.
SPEAKER_00 (26:28):
Right.
The sign language.
They're not gonna hear that inthe everyday.
Or he's doing sign language.
SPEAKER_02 (26:34):
Listen closely, everyone.
I do this.
Got it.
Did you hear me in my hand?
Yeah, it's it's uh it's like umif I'm in a restaurant and I
need and I need the bill,whatever country I'm in, if I
don't speak the language, I'llit's like your signature.
Like you move your fingers likeyou're signing something in the
air, you get their attention andlike and look polite on your
face and like that's right,please, you know.
(26:56):
And they usually understand.
Yeah, usually and so if you'rein a sign language.
Oh, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (27:03):
Excusez-moi, and then sign.
SPEAKER_02 (27:05):
But if they don't like it, they might resort to
sign language too.
I'm just the less resort, yeah.
Yeah, they're excited too.
Yeah, yeah.
unknown (27:13):
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (27:14):
Okay, so we've learned where is um How are you?
SPEAKER_02 (27:18):
Hello.
SPEAKER_00 (27:19):
Now, okay, tell me the difference.
Let's let's because you you didtwo words that are quite
similar.
What's the difference betweenthe word where and the word
water?
Or just just repeat them for us.
SPEAKER_03 (27:33):
Yes, that's uh that's a small uh difference.
Uh where is ooh, ooh, and wateris ooh.
SPEAKER_00 (27:41):
Okay.
Okay.
So we got our ooh and our own.
SPEAKER_03 (27:43):
That's right.
Ooh, ooh, oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:47):
So where is the water?
SPEAKER_03 (27:49):
Ooh e-lo.
Ooh, ooh, or is the water?
I don't know when when you wouldsay that, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maybe if you're looking for aswimming pool.
SPEAKER_00 (28:01):
And then you'd use pool or whatever.
SPEAKER_03 (28:03):
Yeah, pool, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (28:04):
Okay.
Um, all right.
Anything else?
Yeah, what else?
Before we say go go.
SPEAKER_02 (28:10):
We can't say that yet.
We have to again, what elsemight be helpful to someone
because they're in France thatyou guys would think that'd be
really nice if they would havetried that or said that or
something of that nature.
Or do we need to know trainstation and airport or I don't
know, something.
SPEAKER_03 (28:26):
For example, maybe you would use the taxi quite
much.
SPEAKER_02 (28:29):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (28:30):
So the taxi driver is gonna ask you, or it depends
nowadays if you use Uber oranything like that.
But if he asks you, for example,where are you going?
So he's gonna ask the samething.
We learn who where ale vu.
Where going you very much, butAle is going.
So ale vu.
(28:51):
Uh, and then you have to answeruh nu it's alon we are going to
nu it's us, it's going to.
SPEAKER_00 (29:05):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (29:06):
Whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (29:06):
And then if we're solo traveling, then what would
we say?
SPEAKER_03 (29:10):
You're by yourself.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (29:16):
So I often when when I'm traveling, my brain is often
thinking about a hundred things.
So when I would get in a taxi, Iwould often write down where I'm
going.
Uh when I was in Russia, wewould do this, they would ask
us, and we would recognize oneword like ooh, and so we know,
oh, they're asking where,something about where.
And so then we would hand themwhere we're like the business
(29:39):
card from your hotel, yeah,yeah, and then follow up with
Bajovsta, please.
Oh, right.
So if you're in a if you can'tremember how to say some of
these things, and you hear themsay something and there's ooh in
there, and you're in a taxi oran Uber.
An Uber, you know, no, an Uber.
SPEAKER_03 (29:56):
Yeah, remember s'il vous plaît, s'il vous plaît, and
also you can.
Say here uh if you havesomething to point on the map,
okay easy uh easy, easy, it'seasy, uh easy, but with this,
yeah, yeah, easy, easy, and thenyou point it.
SPEAKER_02 (30:11):
Yeah, that's good.
And then follow up with theplease.
Yeah, simple please.
Yeah, easy, easy.
Okay, yeah, great.
Remember, the goal is to bereally, really polite when
you're in France.
Yes.
If if you're questioning, shouldI do this or not do this, just
think of the most polite way youcan pull it off, even if you
can't say it in French, that'sright, and you're gonna say it
(30:31):
in English, have the expressionon your face in your body
language, like uh that looks abit apologetic because you don't
say anything in French tosomeone when you first approach
them in their own country,right?
Yeah.
We know how it is if someoneapproaches us in America and
just starts going off in anotherlanguage when they're looking at
us, we're thinking, what makesyou think I speak anything other
(30:52):
than English?
Right?
I mean, uh, why are you speakingmy language?
It's really odd.
So it's the same when you're inwhen you're in France, except
they really want you to bepolite.
SPEAKER_01 (31:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (31:00):
I was in the train and I was headed to Paris.
I had to go to the airport, andI was traveling from somewhere
in southern France, and I knewhow to ask the guy in French,
which train do I take to get toChard de Gaulle, right?
I probably Charg de Gaulle.
I said that terribly anyway.
How do I get to this to theairport, right?
I knew how to say it.
(31:20):
And I got off the train and Iwalk up to the conductor and I
totally chickened out.
Oh, that's horrible.
I don't know why.
And so I said, How do I get?
I immediately, first of all, theconductor's doing a hundred
things.
He's got people all around him,he's trying to figure out, make
sure everything goes on you knowon time and happens as it's
supposed to.
So I walk up and immediatelylike English in his face.
(31:44):
I know he understood me becauseit was a main train station,
like a big one, and of course hespeaks English.
Hey, which train do I take toget to the airport?
And man, he laid it to me inFrench.
I mean, not a single word inEnglish, and he let me have it.
And I was like, uh, and he'she's telling me off at the same
time, pointing where I need togo.
(32:04):
And if I had just said anythingin French to start the
conversation, start thequestion, it would have made all
the difference in the world.
SPEAKER_00 (32:12):
Excuse-moi.
SPEAKER_02 (32:13):
I would feel the same way if somebody did this to
me, right?
So it's a big lesson learnedfrom me.
I chickened out, but even if I Iwould have said, excusez-moi,
yeah, yeah, and then jump intoEnglish after that.
SPEAKER_00 (32:24):
But at least you start with something.
SPEAKER_02 (32:26):
I don't speak French.
Even if you say it in English,you start with the excusez-moi.
Anything you can do to be aspolite.
SPEAKER_03 (32:33):
I think a good one is help me, please.
Yeah, that's good.
Uh so straightforward help me isI think it's the easiest rather
than can you help me?
Uh help me is aid moi.
The food.
SPEAKER_00 (32:51):
So it's just like English the word aid.
A I Dive me, give me aid.
Yes, so it's the verb is thesame.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (33:00):
And we learn moi.
Moi is me.
And uh another one that we'regonna do them all, but I don't
understand.
Yeah, so someone is like reallygoing at you ranting about it.
You say je comprends pas.
Je comprends pas.
I don't understand you.
And we learned pas a while ago,it's the negative.
(33:21):
Yeah, and je and pas, and thenin between you say comprend,
understand, je comprends pas.
SPEAKER_00 (33:28):
And you can remember that because we have the word
comprehend.
SPEAKER_03 (33:31):
Comprehend, exactly.
You'll see French is very closeto English.
SPEAKER_00 (33:35):
Super fun.
Now, you're gonna when you're inFrance, you're gonna need to eat
some bread.
I was almost said it.
SPEAKER_02 (33:45):
Uh-uh.
SPEAKER_00 (33:46):
You're gonna need some bread.
Of course, you're gonna bread'salso.
You're gonna need coffee and teaand things like that.
So, how do we ask, you know,like, may I have some or I would
like insert wonderful,delicious, delicacy?
SPEAKER_03 (34:00):
Have your choice, yes.
So, okay, which way to go aboutit?
The simplest way possible andpolite.
I think the the most the moststraightforward and easy to
remember is some bread, please.
We can learn that first.
(34:22):
Then if you want to really havespecial uh units like one bread
or uh one, you know, a piece ofbread or something, it's usually
called uh a baguette.
So you will say baguette s'ilvous plaît.
If you want many de baguette,then you have to learn the
numbers, what's that?
Yeah, yeah.
Um and if you want to be extrapolite and you want to learn
(34:43):
this one, is can I have somebread, please?
Is puis avoir du pain s'il vousplait.
That's a tough one.
That's a tough one.
I think it's better to say dupain s'il vous plaît.
S'il vous plaît, yes, or decroissant s'il vous plaît.
SPEAKER_01 (35:01):
Yeah, you gotta do it.
SPEAKER_03 (35:03):
Yes, but uh it's good to know the units also if
you want to order a specialamount, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (35:07):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:07):
Okay.
So give us one, two, three.
SPEAKER_03 (35:10):
Un deux trois.
So like uh Spanish, for example,uno dos tres, or Italian uh uno
something.
Sorry, Italians I don't know.
Yeah, but uh very close it.
So unde.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (35:29):
Alright, so we've had our baguettes and our
croissants.
You know, they have a fun thingthat I didn't know about till we
went to France and Belgium andall that.
You have this bread withchocolate inside of it.
SPEAKER_03 (35:40):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:42):
I mean, you're kind of combining a lot of luxuries
there in the city.
SPEAKER_03 (35:45):
That's really one of my favorites for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (35:47):
Yes, so what is that?
SPEAKER_03 (35:49):
So there's a big uh kind of controversy in France
about this.
SPEAKER_00 (35:53):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (35:53):
There's the whole northern kind of the country
split in two, and my team we saypain au chocolat.
SPEAKER_00 (36:01):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (36:01):
It's like bread with chocolate.
But the guys in the south, theywill say chocolatine.
It's like chocolatine, likechocolate thing.
What?
Uh yeah, it there's a big I'venever heard that.
Yes, yeah, neither have I.
It's a very internal thing.
It's a big beef, but I thinkwe're winning it really clearly.
SPEAKER_02 (36:19):
I would say internationally, you have
already won't be.
SPEAKER_00 (36:26):
Okay.
So let's go with the winningphrase.
How do we say this bread withchocolate?
It's a it's like a croissantwith chocolate inside.
SPEAKER_03 (36:33):
Yeah, with kind of a chocolate pastry with chocolate.
Yeah, it's all good.
Pan or chocolat.
Pan or chocolat.
We learned pan is also bread.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (36:42):
And chocolat is almost chocolate.
Yes.
Yes, chocolat.
Except there's the O in themiddle.
Yeah.
And no E at the end.
SPEAKER_03 (36:50):
And no E at the end.
Yeah, not chocolate chocolat.
Yeah, you don't say the T.
Of course it's written with a T,but typical French, you don't
say it.
So you're gonna know it, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (37:00):
Okay.
Um, and just for Grins, uh isspelled like we spell pain.
P-A-I.
P-A-I-N is how you spell bread.
So when you see pain, you'rejust you know unless you're
gluten intolerant, it's notpainful.
Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (37:15):
Unless you are, it's the opposite of pain in front.
Because the bread's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (37:18):
Yeah.
Okay, now coffee, tea, how do wesay those?
SPEAKER_03 (37:23):
Coffee is cafe.
So, like a coffee place, cafe.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (37:27):
So we're gonna use the same word for a cafe and a
coffee.
SPEAKER_03 (37:30):
So you will say un cafe, s'il vous plaît, a coffee,
please.
Or you can say je vais au cafe,I'm going to the coffee place.
And so you can use both.
SPEAKER_00 (37:40):
Or ooh le cafe.
SPEAKER_03 (37:46):
Uh usually you follow up like où est le cafe.
I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (37:50):
The name of the cafe.
SPEAKER_03 (37:50):
The name of the cafe, because there is plenty of
coffee, but uh coffee places.
But if someone says we're goingto this coffee place, then you
can say où est le cafe.
Où est le café?
Tea.
So very similar.
Du te.
SPEAKER_02 (38:04):
And again, you learn a while ago, like some.
SPEAKER_03 (38:06):
Some, yeah.
Yeah.
Du te, du pain, des croissants,if it's many.
SPEAKER_02 (38:12):
Yes, definitely.
Of course, that's the oneeveryone should remember because
they're gonna throw their one.
Yeah, many, of course.
You'll find if you eat one, thenyou'll want to learn what's the
plural.
That's all I need.
Yeah, always.
SPEAKER_00 (38:24):
Yeah.
And then pastries.
There's a lot of pastries aswell.
So is there a different word forjust a pastry?
SPEAKER_03 (38:32):
It's a good one.
Pastry, pastry.
What is the word for pastry?
SPEAKER_00 (38:36):
I don't know.
You know, I don't know.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (38:38):
Okay, here's a here's a better question.
If someone knows they want somebread, where do they go to find
fresh bread?
What's the place called?
SPEAKER_03 (38:46):
Actually, pastry is we have a word for it that just
now came to my mind isvienoiserie.
So it's you don't need to usethat, but that's if you want to
be fancy.
Okay.
Viennoiserie.
That is fancy, and that's theword for pastry.
That's for pastry, yeah.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (39:05):
Wow.
SPEAKER_03 (39:05):
Okay.
If you say je veux, je veux ispretty good.
This I want.
SPEAKER_00 (39:09):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (39:09):
Je veux des viennoiseries.
It's like I want pastry.
Like I want all of them.
SPEAKER_01 (39:14):
I want stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (39:16):
But I don't think it's really useful for like
beginners.
SPEAKER_01 (39:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (39:20):
And what was the other question?
So where would someone go tofind where would someone go?
SPEAKER_00 (39:23):
Yeah, because they're that's one thing that's
fun about the French culture.
SPEAKER_03 (39:27):
Oh, yeah.
That's you can see them allaround the every corner, every
street.
Yeah.
So they're called boulangerie.
Boulangerie.
It's uh the the bakery.
And the baker is boulanger.
So you just make it a little bitlonger.
It's the bakery.
Okay.
Boulanger boulangerie.
SPEAKER_00 (39:43):
And we can get at this boulangerie, we can get the
bread and the pastries, yeah?
SPEAKER_03 (39:47):
Yeah.
So basically in France, kind ofdistinct between like you don't
really go to the store to buy abaguette or to buy croissant or
chocolate.
Usually you go to thosebakeries, it's kind of still
traditional.
SPEAKER_01 (39:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (39:58):
Stay the same with the butchers, yeah.
But I think more and more, ofcourse, people are still buying
at the local shopping, likeshopping center or uh grocery
store.
But um there's a lot ofbutchery, and I would recommend
to go to those and the bakeries.
What are those called?
SPEAKER_00 (40:16):
What are the butcheries?
SPEAKER_03 (40:17):
Groceries, uh butcheries.
SPEAKER_00 (40:18):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (40:20):
So very close.
Very close.
SPEAKER_00 (40:21):
And you also have one for cheese.
Hello!
SPEAKER_03 (40:25):
Yeah, because cheese.
SPEAKER_00 (40:27):
What's that store called if you're gonna just go
to the cheese store?
SPEAKER_03 (40:30):
Yes, so cheese is fromage, and the cheese store is
fromagerie, same as boulangerie.
Same ending.
SPEAKER_00 (40:39):
And you can go in and taste different cheeses,
right?
You could go in and say, let metaste that.
SPEAKER_03 (40:43):
Yeah, they can use that.
SPEAKER_00 (40:45):
Silver play.
SPEAKER_03 (40:46):
If you don't say silver play, they're like, no,
we don't let you taste.
SPEAKER_00 (40:50):
It will spit on your cheese.
Yes, you can taste it.
All right, well, anything elsethat we need to learn before we
head out?
SPEAKER_02 (41:02):
Yes, before we say goodbye.
Is there anything else we needto learn before we say goodbye?
SPEAKER_03 (41:10):
I think that's a lot of homework already with
everything they have.
Yeah, they're pretty much setwith what they you can survive
in France with this.
SPEAKER_00 (41:18):
So, how how will we say goodbye?
SPEAKER_03 (41:20):
Yeah.
Oh, goodbye is au revoir, aurevoir, au revoir.
Nice, goodbye.
Okay, and if you want to say seeyou later or see you is à
bientôt.
A bientôt.
And if you want to say welcome,it's that's also good to know
it's bienvenue.
(41:41):
That's good.
So bienvenue.
Can someone say ciao or I saythat actually on the phone a lot
uh when I hang up?
Ciao, ciao.
Yeah, in France, it's quiteyeah, I don't know why, but uh,
it's not really typical Frenchthough.
It's yeah, you took it from theItalians, but yeah, sure.
Yeah, yeah.
But yeah, Albiento is the mostcommon.
SPEAKER_02 (42:03):
Uh in Belgium, they said a lot of uh ciao tschüss.
SPEAKER_03 (42:07):
Can you say this?
In the eastern part of France,yeah.
Okay, in Strasbourg they saychoose.
Yeah.
That's more like right on theborder, yeah.
Yeah, French.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (42:16):
Okay.
And so can you just slow downthe yeah?
SPEAKER_03 (42:21):
So goodbye is au revoir.
SPEAKER_00 (42:24):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (42:24):
Au revoir.
And see you is a bientôt.
A bientôt.
Actually, the translation ispretty funny.
It's uh to to like a good oh,it's hard to say see you again.
See you in a good early time.
Yeah, like see you in it's likegood bien toll is like early.
So good early.
(42:45):
Good early.
See you in good early in thegirl.
SPEAKER_00 (42:49):
But I think you can use tall as soon.
So like see you soon.
I think that's the implication.
At least that's how I rememberit when I Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (42:57):
You can use that.
The straight restation is early.
SPEAKER_00 (43:03):
Good early.
SPEAKER_03 (43:04):
Good early.
SPEAKER_00 (43:07):
Okay, good early.
SPEAKER_03 (43:12):
Next time.
SPEAKER_00 (43:16):
We hope we've inspired you this episode.
So join us next time.
Please subscribe to rate andshare our podcast with your
friends.
SPEAKER_02 (43:24):
Who member?
SPEAKER_00 (43:25):
And please like and follow us on Instagram, YouTube,
and Facebook.
SPEAKER_02 (43:27):
We're also on editing and on all social
platforms.
We are at the roomies.
That's T H E.
R-O-A-M.
I E S T.
And our main hub is our website.
SPEAKER_00 (43:39):
At www.theRoomies.com.
SPEAKER_02 (43:42):
That's right, that's T H E.
SPEAKER_00 (43:44):
R O A M.
I E S D We'll be there untilnext time.
Yeah, thanks for listening.
Bye.
I am Alexa.
SPEAKER_02 (00:03):
Together we are welcome to each other.
Right.
We are a touring musical duo.
SPEAKER_00 (00:11):
And our music has taken us to all kinds of places
all around the world and keepsus always on the go.
SPEAKER_02 (00:16):
So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while
running around working to eatall your plates made.
SPEAKER_00 (00:22):
And we hope to facilitate your busy lifestyle
and feed your inner travel bug.
SPEAKER_02 (00:38):
Well, you can't speak it yet.
We haven't taught it yet.
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
Okay.
Y'all, welcome again to theRomies Podcast.
We are in our series of learninglanguage for travel.
SPEAKER_02 (00:47):
Hello, vehicle men.
Because probably we've alreadyheard the German.
SPEAKER_00 (00:51):
Yes, because English German.
So, y'all, today we're going tolearn French.
Yay.
Now, French, it's going to getyou through France, right?
Yay.
That's awesome.
When you visit France.
But you're also going to useFrench when you visit Belgium.
When you visit some many Africancountries, you're going to use
(01:13):
French.
Yes.
Yes.
Middle Eastern.
SPEAKER_02 (01:17):
And you know why it's so helpful?
French was the internationallanguage forever.
When I was a boy.
It was the internationallanguage.
SPEAKER_03 (01:24):
Good old days.
Yeah, the good old days.
SPEAKER_00 (01:28):
So it's a very helpful language.
And we that's what Roy and Ieach studied like in school
growing up.
SPEAKER_02 (01:34):
Yeah, in the second grade, they start teaching us
French where I'm from.
SPEAKER_00 (01:37):
We have so much fun with the language.
We love it.
We're not yet fluent after allof these years, but we have
learned enough where we cancarry a conversation, we can get
by.
It's been super helpful.
Yeah.
But it's also helpful, likebecause it's a romance language.
So when you learn French,Italian, Spanish, and
Portuguese, for example, all ofthose are like romance languages
(01:59):
that all have this foundationtogether.
And so as you're learning one,you find so many similarities
between the others and then howthey connect with English.
And it's just a wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_02 (02:10):
If you're fluent into Spanish, a great, much
easier second language to pickup would be French.
If you're fluent in French, youcan pick up more quickly on
Spanish.
SPEAKER_00 (02:19):
And Italian and Italian.
SPEAKER_02 (02:20):
Did you speak both of those Portuguese?
unknown (02:22):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (02:22):
In the band.
SPEAKER_02 (02:23):
I'm going to blend it.
SPEAKER_00 (02:25):
That's what we hear anyway.
So today we are so excited tohave with us Paul.
Paul, thank you so much forjoining us.
And Paul is, okay, so we arerecording this in Finland, but
Paul is actually French.
And so we figured even thoughwe're in Finland, you are our
(02:46):
expert French guy here.
So we're really, really excitedto learn some French from you
today for travel.
So do you what do you want tojust give us a quick little
cultural insight on, you know,before we dive into maybe some
words, what might be somecultural things that a traveler
should be maybe a little awareof or sensitive to or anything?
SPEAKER_03 (03:07):
Yeah.
Well, thank you for having me.
Uh I think I would start withthe fact that French people can
be very, they really want you tospeak French.
So they we can have this kind ofpride thing as a Frenchman that
uh we don't like when peoplecome to our country and don't
make efforts.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (03:26):
So I think I think same with English.
I mean, it's you know, we wantpeople, if they're gonna come to
our country, to speak English,right?
We just expect to be right.
SPEAKER_02 (03:34):
It's been respectful to no matter what country you go
to.
SPEAKER_03 (03:38):
Totally.
That's true.
Uh maybe we push it a bit farsometimes, but yeah, maybe you
know.
SPEAKER_00 (03:42):
Maybe I can take the critically.
Yeah, no, I do feel like FranFrance has a reputation for
that.
Yeah, yeah.
But I I it's completelyunderstanding.
SPEAKER_02 (03:50):
I've been chewed out in French before.
SPEAKER_03 (03:53):
Totally.
But yeah, I would say thatthat's uh anything you can throw
in French, I think we appreciateit a lot as long as you try.
And of course, I think we'regetting better and better in
English, I believe.
But yeah, whatever you can throwin French, it's always
appreciated.
SPEAKER_00 (04:08):
Great, great.
So maybe down the road intoday's lesson, you'll teach us
I don't speak French or or Idon't understand French, or you
know, maybe we can go theresometimes.
So, in an effort to be polite,we can start with hello.
What's what's sounds good?
SPEAKER_03 (04:24):
So we have uh one way to say good morning, good
afternoon.
It's bonjour, bonjour.
So very like straightforward,and then after it becomes like
evening-ish, I would say likeafter six, we start to say
bonsoir, so good evening.
So those are the two ways thatare polite, and of course, if
(04:46):
you know the person a bitbetter, you can say hi and it's
salute.
But that's for the intimates.
SPEAKER_02 (04:54):
Ah, okay.
So say say those three slowlyfor us.
The one for the earlier in theday.
SPEAKER_03 (05:01):
So whenever you wake up in the morning, you say hello
to people, you say bonjour.
Bonjour.
And if it's midday afternoon,you still say bonjour, and
whenever it's past aroundsix-ish, you say bonsoir.
Bonsoir.
SPEAKER_02 (05:19):
Okay, so they have this similarity that I hear in
the beginning of each of them.
SPEAKER_03 (05:23):
Yes.
Bon.
Bon means good.
Okay.
So good afternoon, good day,good morning, and then jour,
which is for good morning, goodafternoon, whatever you want to
say in there, it means day.
So it's pretty much good day.
Yeah.
But it also means good morning.
Okay.
And bon soir is good evening.
(05:43):
So means evening.
unknown (05:45):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (05:46):
All right.
SPEAKER_03 (05:47):
Excellent.
SPEAKER_00 (05:48):
And then if we want to say excuse me.
SPEAKER_03 (05:54):
So there's two ways to go about it.
I think I'd like to say thatthere's uh the easy route, which
is maybe the good, like kind ofif you need to throw something
in and you don't remember yourFrench, uh, maybe it's better to
stick with this.
So the easy route is pardon.
SPEAKER_00 (06:08):
Like pardon, like we would say pardon, and then just
French it up.
Pardon?
SPEAKER_03 (06:12):
Yes, pardon.
You add the little mm-mm in thecountry.
SPEAKER_01 (06:15):
That's right.
SPEAKER_03 (06:18):
Exactly, classic.
And if you want to be polite,there's excusez-moi.
And I think there's somethingreally important to know with
French is that we have kind ofour language is trying to be as
polite as possible.
So we have a way to talk topeople we know and a way to talk
to people we don't know, and wewant to show respect.
(06:41):
And so there is it's quitetricky, but there is like
different ways to address tosomeone you don't know, and as
well as to the elderly, eventhough you know them, you still
want to show respect.
SPEAKER_02 (06:50):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (06:51):
So the thing with this is that if, for example, I
don't know you and we get toknow each other, I will say vo
to say you, vo.
And it also means you in plural.
And so that's a bit tricky.
But you never say to, which isalso you, but this is for the
intimate.
But if you say that to a Frenchperson that you don't know, he's
(07:12):
gonna see it as an offense.
So that's very important.
SPEAKER_00 (07:15):
Yeah, and as you're traveling, the majority of the
people you come across are goingto be strangers.
You need to know that that'sfocus on the voo, and even if
you know someone, you're notgonna offend them saying vo,
like right.
SPEAKER_03 (07:27):
It's they will correct you to say, Hey, by the
way, you can say two, but atleast you come as very
respectful, and that's superimportant.
So if you say excuse me, you sayexcusez-moi.
That's like the polite way, andthe more straightforward is
excuse-moi.
But so pay attention to, I mean,more focus on excusez-moi.
SPEAKER_00 (07:50):
Right, right.
And so the and those and I thinkfor purposes today, we can focus
on the vo forms, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:56):
Yeah, and so uh, it's are those two different
words you're saying there withexcusez-moi.
SPEAKER_03 (08:01):
Yeah, so excuse is like excuse.
Well, it's pretty much Finnishand unfinished.
I mean, English and French isvery connected.
Okay, uh, there's a lot of uhsimilarities.
Yeah, French.
SPEAKER_00 (08:12):
So again, you can say excuse me, and then just
he's French either.
SPEAKER_03 (08:18):
So yeah, there's the excuse and then me, moi, moi is
me.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (08:26):
And then the the pardon you said is more for it
it means the same thing.
SPEAKER_03 (08:33):
I think it's more it's not as polite.
If you want to be as polite asyou can, you kind of avoid it.
But pardon is mostly used whenyou, for example, you bump
someone or you drop something,or if you're in the metro and
you need to pass or then you canplay with both.
Okay, um, so it's kind of likemore of a hurry thing, I would
(08:53):
say.
SPEAKER_00 (08:54):
Now, would you use sorry in French?
SPEAKER_03 (08:57):
Sorry?
SPEAKER_00 (08:58):
Like sorry, yeah, like instead of pardoning, you
would say sorry, you wouldn'tsay that.
SPEAKER_03 (09:02):
Yeah, we tried uh anything you can throw that's
not that doesn't sound English,people French people will like
it.
Uh they'll appreciate they havea beef with the English speaking
for some reason.
Yeah, just uh yeah, in case yougo to Paris and you don't get
some uh attack for that, it'sgood to know.
SPEAKER_00 (09:18):
Totally in my experience, in order to have
someone engage with me, even ifI even if they need to speak
English to me, because I don'tknow French, for example, if I
say, excuse me, do you speakEnglish?
I find that's a really good dooropener.
And what's really funny, I'mjust doing a little side rabbit
here, but like a side rabbit.
SPEAKER_02 (09:39):
That's interesting.
Have you ever heard of it?
A rabbit trail, but you've got aside rabbit.
SPEAKER_00 (09:43):
I do have a side rabbit.
Okay.
And you're making it longer.
So Rory's really good withlanguages.
Like so, when when we travelaround the world, he'll he'll
say the local phrases, he'll saythese things we're learning, you
know, on on this uh series.
And he people will speak back tohim in their language because he
says it so well.
(10:03):
When I'm in a French-speakingcountry and I say something in
French, they speak back to me inEnglish because my friend, I
sound like an American trying tospeak French, right?
So I think even if you can learnthat, excuse me, do you speak
English?
Is is very like you can correctme if I'm wrong, but like I feel
(10:24):
like that's a good door openerto at least, hey, I want to make
an effort.
SPEAKER_02 (10:28):
Yeah, instead of just assuming, oh, they're gonna
speak English because English isthe international language, and
I'm American, so you just startin English, not a good way to
begin.
SPEAKER_03 (10:38):
I've learned, yes.
Well, we we can we can learnthat.
I think uh first I would say onbehalf of all the French people,
I'm sorry for that.
We're so rude.
SPEAKER_00 (10:46):
And uh But it's not rude, it's your country.
Yeah, I mean we're coming toyour country.
So we're rude if we're notspeaking your language, right?
Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_03 (10:56):
All right, let's let's keep the rudeness uh in
place.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um yeah, really good point.
I think it's really good tostart with uh what we learn, uh
excusez-moi, to open the theconversation because I think
what will happen is that youwill go to someone on the street
or like someone that works insomewhere in some shop.
So you start with excusez-moi,parlez-vous anglais.
(11:20):
Parlez means do you like speak?
And vous is what we learn, it'sthe polite you.
So speak you English.
Parlez vous anglais.
SPEAKER_02 (11:32):
And uh to make it a question, you just sort of raise
we put it like uh kind ofbackwards, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (11:39):
So it's more like do you speak?
It's like speak you English.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (11:44):
That's the way you can even raise the tone a bit at
the end, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (11:49):
Like we're doing parlez, yeah, exactly.
So you you start withexcusez-moi, parlez vous
anglais.
Parlez-vous anglais.
SPEAKER_02 (12:04):
The anglais is interesting, yeah.
It's like our in G sound.
SPEAKER_00 (12:08):
Can you say uh syllable by syllable?
SPEAKER_03 (12:11):
Yeah, uh so the the beautiful thing about French is
that we have so many lettersthat you don't even pronounce,
so it's very, very confusing.
SPEAKER_00 (12:19):
Well, one thing I'm I'm noticing is I'm hearing you,
I don't hear excusez-moi.
I hear excusez-moi.
SPEAKER_01 (12:27):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (12:28):
So so I've noticed that.
So yeah, if we I want to makesure that I'm hearing the vowels
in the right direction and allthat.
SPEAKER_03 (12:35):
Yeah, I I think uh because the French people speak
really really quickly.
And I think we can just uh sharesome words.
Okay, but yeah, excusez-moi isexcusez-moi.
SPEAKER_00 (12:47):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (12:48):
I want to say it very properly, and then it's
parlez vous anglais.
unknown (12:55):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (12:56):
But yeah, if you would say all the syllables, it
would be parlaise vos englise.
Yeah, that's right.
It's really a mess.
I think uh learning to write andread is really, really hard.
Yeah, it's a different thing.
SPEAKER_00 (13:10):
All right, and then uh say it again fast.
Excuse me, do you speak English?
SPEAKER_03 (13:14):
Excuse-moi, parlez-vous anglais.
There you go.
That's good to know.
Very good.
SPEAKER_00 (13:18):
Click me, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:20):
Yeah, yeah, good way to start.
SPEAKER_03 (13:21):
And even if the pronunciation is not great, I
think as long as they understandyou, they will really appreciate
it.
SPEAKER_00 (13:26):
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (13:26):
Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00 (13:27):
They just appreciate the effort.
Okay, so what is so I we justsaid très bien, what does that
mean?
SPEAKER_03 (13:32):
Very good.
Okay, très bien is good also.
Okay, and and of course, uh, youcan learn the how are you, very
good uh, and you.
I think that's uh that can be apolite thing.
How are you is comment?
And then you can answer eithertrès bien, very good, or bien,
(13:52):
good.
SPEAKER_00 (13:53):
Now, are you gonna say comment ça va to a stranger?
SPEAKER_03 (13:57):
Maybe not.
Maybe maybe it depends.
I think it's it can be somethingin the conversation that the
other person is asking you, andyou can answer good and you.
So good and you is bien et toi.
I think it's pretty rare that asa non-French speaker that you
will go to someone and askactually, like, hey, how are
you?
Because that's very likeuncomfortable kind of to say.
(14:20):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (14:20):
So that's why we went and say evu.
SPEAKER_03 (14:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:23):
Okay, because yes.
SPEAKER_03 (14:24):
So maybe you just like learn the good and you, so
bien et vous.
That's like I'm doing good andyou.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:32):
Okay, so then we would use vo.
SPEAKER_03 (14:34):
Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:35):
Okay, yeah.
Bien evu.
SPEAKER_03 (14:37):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (14:37):
Okay.
And so then if we were speakingto this person, are we gonna say
como sava or are we going to saysomething else?
SPEAKER_03 (14:44):
Like, yeah, you can that's a very polite way.
The non-polite, what I wouldtell my brother, for example, I
would just say, Hey Sava.
Okay, you know, or uh salutsava, just like very like the
shorter way.
But that's not seen as the mostpolite thing you would say to a
stranger, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
And then so what's the difference between como sava
and tale vu?
SPEAKER_03 (15:06):
That's really good.
Kommentale is maybe the highestdegree of politeness, I would
say.
And that's really like verypolite.
So if you can pull that off,it's it's even better.
But I don't think it's neededper se.
Like it's it's really somethingthat's for example, someone will
say from a store to someonecoming in, like very, very
polite.
But commentalez-vous is also agood one.
(15:29):
Okay, but it's but it's easierto say comment.
Yeah, it's pretty much how areyou, and comment allez-vous is
how are you doing.
Yeah, it's like you push it abit further, but yeah, two both
of them are really good ones.
SPEAKER_02 (15:41):
Okay.
And are the answers?
SPEAKER_03 (15:47):
Yeah, so bien is good.
So if you're just good, nothingelse, then you say bien, and
then if you are doing very well,you say très bien.
Tre means very.
So you just add that.
SPEAKER_02 (15:58):
Now, what if what if you're being honest and things
are going poorly and that's whythey're asking?
Because like something happened.
Yes, okay.
How would you answer not good,you know?
SPEAKER_03 (16:09):
Or so so.
Yeah, yeah, there's a few waysto go about this.
I would say the the first one isnot doing great is Sava Pa.
I'm not doing well, like it's orit's more like it's not going
good.
Sava pa pa means it's like anegative kind of word.
Like not, not not doing well.
It's like sava pa.
SPEAKER_02 (16:29):
And the good thing about that is it that a lot of
that is what you just just camefrom the question, como sava,
and then you answered sava yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (16:36):
And you can do sava bien also if you want to.
Yeah, doing that's good.
Yeah, you can French is really alot of mismatch.
You can just put things aroundand uh and make it work.
SPEAKER_00 (16:46):
Yeah, you just said bien is well, and I think that's
kind of a good distinctionbecause Rory asked earlier, bon
is good, bien.
So, but you were saying bien,I'm doing good.
Yeah, like so.
We want to say bon is more goodand bien is more well.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_02 (17:04):
All right, there you go.
Okay, so so run us through thatagain.
If someone says and it's notgoing great, you might say,
Okay, so you can use part of thequestion to answer the question,
right?
SPEAKER_03 (17:16):
So that's nice.
Then you need to be ready toexplain why it's not going well.
Right?
That's another difficulty.
SPEAKER_00 (17:21):
Then you say parlay bou anglais.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (17:25):
Yeah, but if if something happens, you fall or
you see uh, I don't know, moresomething happens bad to you,
it's it's good to right away sayit's not doing well, then the
person knows that something is.
SPEAKER_00 (17:35):
You need some kind of help or something.
And then what if you're justkind of doing okay?
SPEAKER_03 (17:42):
I would say the best is to say pas terrible, it's not
not terrible.
SPEAKER_00 (17:46):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (17:47):
So again, French English, terrible.
Yeah, it's terrible, terrible.
You just terrible don't say theend.
Yeah.
Terrible.
Isn't that great?
So you say pas terrible, notterrible, not terrible.
SPEAKER_02 (18:01):
And if it is going terrible, just leave off the
pot.
Terrible, yeah.
That's really bad.
SPEAKER_03 (18:05):
If you say it in French, it's really bad.
It's really something bad hashappened, someone has died or
something.
SPEAKER_00 (18:12):
You can say horrible, too.
You can say terrible, horrible.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (18:15):
Oh, you'll be saying okay.
So, what are the things ifsomeone is visiting France and
they're trying to or aFrench-speaking country?
Yeah, a French-speaking country,trying to make their way around.
What are some helpful phrasesthey would like if they're lost?
SPEAKER_03 (18:28):
Yeah, I am lost is a good one to to know.
Um that it can be useful manytimes if we visit places.
I am lost, it's je is I, je suisperdu.
I am lost.
Je suis perdu.
Perdu is lost.
SPEAKER_02 (18:45):
Okay.
Yeah.
I say the perdu slowly for us,the syllables.
SPEAKER_03 (18:48):
Perdu.
SPEAKER_02 (18:49):
Okay.
Perdu.
SPEAKER_03 (18:51):
Okay.
Je suis perdu.
Je suis is good to know.
It's I am.
So if you want to someone isasking what's your name.
So what's your name is Okay, uhthere's the the the nice and the
I mean the polite way in thenon-polite way, so we can go
straight to the polite way.
Um comment vous appelez vous.
(19:12):
It's a hard one.
SPEAKER_01 (19:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (19:14):
Or maybe the easier is quel est ton prénom.
It's not even easier, but that'slike the first one is what are
you called?
It's the most classic that weuse.
And then what is your name?
Is Kel eston prenom.
This is like not super common.
It's more like if you go to theborder patrol and then ask
(19:34):
what's your name, yeah.
Then we say like, quel est tonprénom, like tell me your name.
But we would more say commentvous appelez-vous, uh, which can
sound pretty uh tricky, butusually you don't have to say it
yourself, so it's more someonewill say it to you.
So if you kind of remember that,and then you can say je suis
(19:54):
Paul.
I am Paul.
Okay.
Or je m'appelle Paul, I amcalled Paul.
SPEAKER_00 (20:02):
Yeah.
I call myself Paul.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (20:05):
Yeah, I call myself Paul.
SPEAKER_02 (20:06):
But it's great if they could use the je suis,
which is what they used a minuteago too.
SPEAKER_03 (20:10):
Yeah, you can use it like uh pretty much for a lot of
things, yeah.
Je suis Paul, and yeah, andthat's really good.
And then you can say and you,which you remember from earlier,
it's evu.
Okay, that's good to know.
Nice.
Yeah, yeah.
Uh then something like where is,for example, that's quite
useful.
So you can start with je suisperdu, I am lost.
(20:39):
Very simple two words.
Ou eh.
Sounds like you're singingsomething.
SPEAKER_02 (20:43):
Yeah, or like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Or the first thing I thought ofwas a monkey.
Yeah, in any case, we go, right?
SPEAKER_03 (20:49):
Exactly.
Yeah, so where is where is andthen it's very tricky uh the
following because in French alsowe have feminine and masculine
words.
So if it's for example, where isthe castle?
It's le chateau.
But if it's like, for example,uh what is where's the hotel?
(21:14):
L'hôtel is neutral.
For example, where is the TV?
That's the first thing.
Yeah, ou e la tele.
So you can have things with laand le is for masculine, so it's
very tricky.
But this is not a big mistake.
If you mistaken like le la un,which is like one in feminine,
masculine, it's not a big issue,we'll still understand you, but
(21:37):
it's good to know that there'sthose types of things.
Yeah, so ooh e, and then you canshow your things on the phone,
or you can just, if you know thething, the chateau or the menu.
SPEAKER_02 (21:48):
Yeah, or write the address and say ooh e and show
the menu.
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (21:52):
Yeah, menu is menu.
So ou e le menu.
SPEAKER_00 (21:56):
Okay.
And where is the restaurant?
SPEAKER_03 (21:59):
Ou e le restaurant, same word as English.
SPEAKER_00 (22:02):
Okay, can you slow that down?
SPEAKER_03 (22:04):
Ou e le restaurant.
So nice.
Where is the restaurant?
Restaurant.
Restaurant.
SPEAKER_00 (22:16):
All right, okay.
Where are the restrooms or thetoilet?
In the in the in Europe, peopleare using saying toilets more
than restrooms.
SPEAKER_03 (22:26):
So for plural, because it's the toilets, it's
ouson le toilet.
So whenever it's plural, youhave to switch.
SPEAKER_00 (22:37):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (22:37):
So o e is singular.
SPEAKER_00 (22:42):
Okay.
Because you're not gonna ask forwhere is the toilet, you're
going to be saying where are thetoilets?
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (22:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:49):
And so that therefore it makes it plural.
So we're gonna bring that in.
SPEAKER_02 (22:52):
Yeah, what if somebody messes up and like ou
le toilet?
SPEAKER_03 (22:56):
That's fine too.
Yeah.
They'll understand it.
They will understand it.
Yeah.
And I I think people, I mean,French people, we have the pride
of that you need to speakFrench, but if you try, they
will be very happy to kind ofwalk you through whatever you're
going, you know, you need helpwith.
SPEAKER_02 (23:09):
So yeah, they may answer in English because you
tried exactly French.
SPEAKER_03 (23:13):
As long as you try, it's yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:15):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (23:16):
Totally.
SPEAKER_00 (23:16):
Okay, and then I always need to know like where
is water?
Because I'm drinking water allthe time.
So, what's our word for water?
SPEAKER_03 (23:24):
Water is uh, just uh oh.
It's written E A U, but it'spronounced O.
unknown (23:30):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (23:31):
Same as my as my uh last name, actually.
Um my name is Le Pino, but it'swritten E A U.
Okay, it's O.
So uh E A U O is water, and thenuh it kind of you have to say
lope with an L like the water.
So if you want to say like uh doyou want to say like words?
SPEAKER_00 (23:52):
I would how about I would like, I would like to.
Yeah, yeah, like I'm thirsty alot.
SPEAKER_03 (23:56):
I would like is let's say the easiest way is je
voudrais, I would like jevoudrais.
SPEAKER_00 (24:03):
So the je is the I I would like voudrais de l'eau.
SPEAKER_03 (24:09):
I would like some de lo.
I would like some water.
So je voudrais de l'eau, s'ilvous plaît.
Ah, this is very good.
We haven't touched from the goodcard.
This is very good.
So uh, whenever French is, youhave to think of French as uh
you have to try to be as politeas possible.
Yes, uh, it's very tricky, andso you have to add like s'il
(24:32):
vous plaît in a lot of things.
Well, it's kind of like pleasein in English that you have to
add after sentences, and so youhave to say s'il vous plaît,
s'il vous plaît, s'il vousplaît.
It's like je peux pas avoir orje voudrais de l'eau, s'il vous
plaît.
Um, that's very important.
(24:52):
And then thank you, uh, merci.
Yeah, those are really importantones.
Merci beaucoup, thank you verymuch.
Merci beaucoup.
SPEAKER_00 (25:01):
All right, syllable those out, please.
SPEAKER_03 (25:03):
The merci beaucoup.
Uh you want the every letter oryeah, or mer.
SPEAKER_00 (25:13):
Okay, great.
There you go.
SPEAKER_02 (25:14):
And boku is something we've taken into
English.
We say, oh, boku.
Boku sometimes, and or whatever.
We it's a word that at leastwhere I'm from.
That's true.
SPEAKER_03 (25:23):
Yeah.
Use it a lot.
And I think it's the same word.
I and also a thing at therestaurant that I think is
pretty good to know is the bill.
Yes, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
Asking the guy, you raised yourhand, and then you say
l'addition.
SPEAKER_02 (25:38):
Now, it is related to a word that we will recognize
in English, addition.
SPEAKER_03 (25:43):
Addition.
It's the same in French.
It means the calculations, youknow, the you add up.
And I just used it for that.
So the addition, the addition ofwhat you you have eaten.
And then you add laddition, s'ilvous plaît.
unknown (25:56):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (25:56):
That's very important.
If you just say addition, it'sgonna take it as your very root
and uh you're taking him as uh,you know, yeah, bring it to
remember.
SPEAKER_00 (26:04):
And it's not just addition, right?
You put that L in front of it,you put the article in front of
it because you're pretty muchalways gonna have the la, the
la, the right common in front ofit.
SPEAKER_03 (26:15):
So it's okay.
And you of course if you mess upand you say le addition, it's
it's fine, it's still not gonnaunderstand.
But there's a little thingbefore.
SPEAKER_02 (26:25):
I often make use of this.
SPEAKER_00 (26:28):
Right.
The sign language.
They're not gonna hear that inthe everyday.
Or he's doing sign language.
SPEAKER_02 (26:34):
Listen closely, everyone.
I do this.
Got it.
Did you hear me in my hand?
Yeah, it's it's uh it's like umif I'm in a restaurant and I
need and I need the bill,whatever country I'm in, if I
don't speak the language, I'llit's like your signature.
Like you move your fingers likeyou're signing something in the
air, you get their attention andlike and look polite on your
face and like that's right,please, you know.
(26:56):
And they usually understand.
Yeah, usually and so if you'rein a sign language.
Oh, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (27:03):
Excusez-moi, and then sign.
SPEAKER_02 (27:05):
But if they don't like it, they might resort to
sign language too.
I'm just the less resort, yeah.
Yeah, they're excited too.
Yeah, yeah.
unknown (27:13):
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (27:14):
Okay, so we've learned where is um How are you?
SPEAKER_02 (27:18):
Hello.
SPEAKER_00 (27:19):
Now, okay, tell me the difference.
Let's let's because you you didtwo words that are quite
similar.
What's the difference betweenthe word where and the word
water?
Or just just repeat them for us.
SPEAKER_03 (27:33):
Yes, that's uh that's a small uh difference.
Uh where is ooh, ooh, and wateris ooh.
SPEAKER_00 (27:41):
Okay.
Okay.
So we got our ooh and our own.
SPEAKER_03 (27:43):
That's right.
Ooh, ooh, oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:47):
So where is the water?
SPEAKER_03 (27:49):
Ooh e-lo.
Ooh, ooh, or is the water?
I don't know when when you wouldsay that, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maybe if you're looking for aswimming pool.
SPEAKER_00 (28:01):
And then you'd use pool or whatever.
SPEAKER_03 (28:03):
Yeah, pool, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (28:04):
Okay.
Um, all right.
Anything else?
Yeah, what else?
Before we say go go.
SPEAKER_02 (28:10):
We can't say that yet.
We have to again, what elsemight be helpful to someone
because they're in France thatyou guys would think that'd be
really nice if they would havetried that or said that or
something of that nature.
Or do we need to know trainstation and airport or I don't
know, something.
SPEAKER_03 (28:26):
For example, maybe you would use the taxi quite
much.
SPEAKER_02 (28:29):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (28:30):
So the taxi driver is gonna ask you, or it depends
nowadays if you use Uber oranything like that.
But if he asks you, for example,where are you going?
So he's gonna ask the samething.
We learn who where ale vu.
Where going you very much, butAle is going.
So ale vu.
(28:51):
Uh, and then you have to answeruh nu it's alon we are going to
nu it's us, it's going to.
SPEAKER_00 (29:05):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (29:06):
Whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (29:06):
And then if we're solo traveling, then what would
we say?
SPEAKER_03 (29:10):
You're by yourself.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (29:16):
So I often when when I'm traveling, my brain is often
thinking about a hundred things.
So when I would get in a taxi, Iwould often write down where I'm
going.
Uh when I was in Russia, wewould do this, they would ask
us, and we would recognize oneword like ooh, and so we know,
oh, they're asking where,something about where.
And so then we would hand themwhere we're like the business
(29:39):
card from your hotel, yeah,yeah, and then follow up with
Bajovsta, please.
Oh, right.
So if you're in a if you can'tremember how to say some of
these things, and you hear themsay something and there's ooh in
there, and you're in a taxi oran Uber.
An Uber, you know, no, an Uber.
SPEAKER_03 (29:56):
Yeah, remember s'il vous plaît, s'il vous plaît, and
also you can.
Say here uh if you havesomething to point on the map,
okay easy uh easy, easy, it'seasy, uh easy, but with this,
yeah, yeah, easy, easy, and thenyou point it.
SPEAKER_02 (30:11):
Yeah, that's good.
And then follow up with theplease.
Yeah, simple please.
Yeah, easy, easy.
Okay, yeah, great.
Remember, the goal is to bereally, really polite when
you're in France.
Yes.
If if you're questioning, shouldI do this or not do this, just
think of the most polite way youcan pull it off, even if you
can't say it in French, that'sright, and you're gonna say it
(30:31):
in English, have the expressionon your face in your body
language, like uh that looks abit apologetic because you don't
say anything in French tosomeone when you first approach
them in their own country,right?
Yeah.
We know how it is if someoneapproaches us in America and
just starts going off in anotherlanguage when they're looking at
us, we're thinking, what makesyou think I speak anything other
(30:52):
than English?
Right?
I mean, uh, why are you speakingmy language?
It's really odd.
So it's the same when you're inwhen you're in France, except
they really want you to bepolite.
SPEAKER_01 (31:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (31:00):
I was in the train and I was headed to Paris.
I had to go to the airport, andI was traveling from somewhere
in southern France, and I knewhow to ask the guy in French,
which train do I take to get toChard de Gaulle, right?
I probably Charg de Gaulle.
I said that terribly anyway.
How do I get to this to theairport, right?
I knew how to say it.
(31:20):
And I got off the train and Iwalk up to the conductor and I
totally chickened out.
Oh, that's horrible.
I don't know why.
And so I said, How do I get?
I immediately, first of all, theconductor's doing a hundred
things.
He's got people all around him,he's trying to figure out, make
sure everything goes on you knowon time and happens as it's
supposed to.
So I walk up and immediatelylike English in his face.
(31:44):
I know he understood me becauseit was a main train station,
like a big one, and of course hespeaks English.
Hey, which train do I take toget to the airport?
And man, he laid it to me inFrench.
I mean, not a single word inEnglish, and he let me have it.
And I was like, uh, and he'she's telling me off at the same
time, pointing where I need togo.
(32:04):
And if I had just said anythingin French to start the
conversation, start thequestion, it would have made all
the difference in the world.
SPEAKER_00 (32:12):
Excuse-moi.
SPEAKER_02 (32:13):
I would feel the same way if somebody did this to
me, right?
So it's a big lesson learnedfrom me.
I chickened out, but even if I Iwould have said, excusez-moi,
yeah, yeah, and then jump intoEnglish after that.
SPEAKER_00 (32:24):
But at least you start with something.
SPEAKER_02 (32:26):
I don't speak French.
Even if you say it in English,you start with the excusez-moi.
Anything you can do to be aspolite.
SPEAKER_03 (32:33):
I think a good one is help me, please.
Yeah, that's good.
Uh so straightforward help me isI think it's the easiest rather
than can you help me?
Uh help me is aid moi.
The food.
SPEAKER_00 (32:51):
So it's just like English the word aid.
A I Dive me, give me aid.
Yes, so it's the verb is thesame.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (33:00):
And we learn moi.
Moi is me.
And uh another one that we'regonna do them all, but I don't
understand.
Yeah, so someone is like reallygoing at you ranting about it.
You say je comprends pas.
Je comprends pas.
I don't understand you.
And we learned pas a while ago,it's the negative.
(33:21):
Yeah, and je and pas, and thenin between you say comprend,
understand, je comprends pas.
SPEAKER_00 (33:28):
And you can remember that because we have the word
comprehend.
SPEAKER_03 (33:31):
Comprehend, exactly.
You'll see French is very closeto English.
SPEAKER_00 (33:35):
Super fun.
Now, you're gonna when you're inFrance, you're gonna need to eat
some bread.
I was almost said it.
SPEAKER_02 (33:45):
Uh-uh.
SPEAKER_00 (33:46):
You're gonna need some bread.
Of course, you're gonna bread'salso.
You're gonna need coffee and teaand things like that.
So, how do we ask, you know,like, may I have some or I would
like insert wonderful,delicious, delicacy?
SPEAKER_03 (34:00):
Have your choice, yes.
So, okay, which way to go aboutit?
The simplest way possible andpolite.
I think the the most the moststraightforward and easy to
remember is some bread, please.
We can learn that first.
(34:22):
Then if you want to really havespecial uh units like one bread
or uh one, you know, a piece ofbread or something, it's usually
called uh a baguette.
So you will say baguette s'ilvous plaît.
If you want many de baguette,then you have to learn the
numbers, what's that?
Yeah, yeah.
Um and if you want to be extrapolite and you want to learn
(34:43):
this one, is can I have somebread, please?
Is puis avoir du pain s'il vousplait.
That's a tough one.
That's a tough one.
I think it's better to say dupain s'il vous plaît.
S'il vous plaît, yes, or decroissant s'il vous plaît.
SPEAKER_01 (35:01):
Yeah, you gotta do it.
SPEAKER_03 (35:03):
Yes, but uh it's good to know the units also if
you want to order a specialamount, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (35:07):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:07):
Okay.
So give us one, two, three.
SPEAKER_03 (35:10):
Un deux trois.
So like uh Spanish, for example,uno dos tres, or Italian uh uno
something.
Sorry, Italians I don't know.
Yeah, but uh very close it.
So unde.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (35:29):
Alright, so we've had our baguettes and our
croissants.
You know, they have a fun thingthat I didn't know about till we
went to France and Belgium andall that.
You have this bread withchocolate inside of it.
SPEAKER_03 (35:40):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:42):
I mean, you're kind of combining a lot of luxuries
there in the city.
SPEAKER_03 (35:45):
That's really one of my favorites for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (35:47):
Yes, so what is that?
SPEAKER_03 (35:49):
So there's a big uh kind of controversy in France
about this.
SPEAKER_00 (35:53):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (35:53):
There's the whole northern kind of the country
split in two, and my team we saypain au chocolat.
SPEAKER_00 (36:01):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (36:01):
It's like bread with chocolate.
But the guys in the south, theywill say chocolatine.
It's like chocolatine, likechocolate thing.
What?
Uh yeah, it there's a big I'venever heard that.
Yes, yeah, neither have I.
It's a very internal thing.
It's a big beef, but I thinkwe're winning it really clearly.
SPEAKER_02 (36:19):
I would say internationally, you have
already won't be.
SPEAKER_00 (36:26):
Okay.
So let's go with the winningphrase.
How do we say this bread withchocolate?
It's a it's like a croissantwith chocolate inside.
SPEAKER_03 (36:33):
Yeah, with kind of a chocolate pastry with chocolate.
Yeah, it's all good.
Pan or chocolat.
Pan or chocolat.
We learned pan is also bread.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (36:42):
And chocolat is almost chocolate.
Yes.
Yes, chocolat.
Except there's the O in themiddle.
Yeah.
And no E at the end.
SPEAKER_03 (36:50):
And no E at the end.
Yeah, not chocolate chocolat.
Yeah, you don't say the T.
Of course it's written with a T,but typical French, you don't
say it.
So you're gonna know it, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (37:00):
Okay.
Um, and just for Grins, uh isspelled like we spell pain.
P-A-I.
P-A-I-N is how you spell bread.
So when you see pain, you'rejust you know unless you're
gluten intolerant, it's notpainful.
Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (37:15):
Unless you are, it's the opposite of pain in front.
Because the bread's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (37:18):
Yeah.
Okay, now coffee, tea, how do wesay those?
SPEAKER_03 (37:23):
Coffee is cafe.
So, like a coffee place, cafe.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (37:27):
So we're gonna use the same word for a cafe and a
coffee.
SPEAKER_03 (37:30):
So you will say un cafe, s'il vous plaît, a coffee,
please.
Or you can say je vais au cafe,I'm going to the coffee place.
And so you can use both.
SPEAKER_00 (37:40):
Or ooh le cafe.
SPEAKER_03 (37:46):
Uh usually you follow up like où est le cafe.
I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (37:50):
The name of the cafe.
SPEAKER_03 (37:50):
The name of the cafe, because there is plenty of
coffee, but uh coffee places.
But if someone says we're goingto this coffee place, then you
can say où est le cafe.
Où est le café?
Tea.
So very similar.
Du te.
SPEAKER_02 (38:04):
And again, you learn a while ago, like some.
SPEAKER_03 (38:06):
Some, yeah.
Yeah.
Du te, du pain, des croissants,if it's many.
SPEAKER_02 (38:12):
Yes, definitely.
Of course, that's the oneeveryone should remember because
they're gonna throw their one.
Yeah, many, of course.
You'll find if you eat one, thenyou'll want to learn what's the
plural.
That's all I need.
Yeah, always.
SPEAKER_00 (38:24):
Yeah.
And then pastries.
There's a lot of pastries aswell.
So is there a different word forjust a pastry?
SPEAKER_03 (38:32):
It's a good one.
Pastry, pastry.
What is the word for pastry?
SPEAKER_00 (38:36):
I don't know.
You know, I don't know.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (38:38):
Okay, here's a here's a better question.
If someone knows they want somebread, where do they go to find
fresh bread?
What's the place called?
SPEAKER_03 (38:46):
Actually, pastry is we have a word for it that just
now came to my mind isvienoiserie.
So it's you don't need to usethat, but that's if you want to
be fancy.
Okay.
Viennoiserie.
That is fancy, and that's theword for pastry.
That's for pastry, yeah.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (39:05):
Wow.
SPEAKER_03 (39:05):
Okay.
If you say je veux, je veux ispretty good.
This I want.
SPEAKER_00 (39:09):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (39:09):
Je veux des viennoiseries.
It's like I want pastry.
Like I want all of them.
SPEAKER_01 (39:14):
I want stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (39:16):
But I don't think it's really useful for like
beginners.
SPEAKER_01 (39:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (39:20):
And what was the other question?
So where would someone go tofind where would someone go?
SPEAKER_00 (39:23):
Yeah, because they're that's one thing that's
fun about the French culture.
SPEAKER_03 (39:27):
Oh, yeah.
That's you can see them allaround the every corner, every
street.
Yeah.
So they're called boulangerie.
Boulangerie.
It's uh the the bakery.
And the baker is boulanger.
So you just make it a little bitlonger.
It's the bakery.
Okay.
Boulanger boulangerie.
SPEAKER_00 (39:43):
And we can get at this boulangerie, we can get the
bread and the pastries, yeah?
SPEAKER_03 (39:47):
Yeah.
So basically in France, kind ofdistinct between like you don't
really go to the store to buy abaguette or to buy croissant or
chocolate.
Usually you go to thosebakeries, it's kind of still
traditional.
SPEAKER_01 (39:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (39:58):
Stay the same with the butchers, yeah.
But I think more and more, ofcourse, people are still buying
at the local shopping, likeshopping center or uh grocery
store.
But um there's a lot ofbutchery, and I would recommend
to go to those and the bakeries.
What are those called?
SPEAKER_00 (40:16):
What are the butcheries?
SPEAKER_03 (40:17):
Groceries, uh butcheries.
SPEAKER_00 (40:18):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (40:20):
So very close.
Very close.
SPEAKER_00 (40:21):
And you also have one for cheese.
Hello!
SPEAKER_03 (40:25):
Yeah, because cheese.
SPEAKER_00 (40:27):
What's that store called if you're gonna just go
to the cheese store?
SPEAKER_03 (40:30):
Yes, so cheese is fromage, and the cheese store is
fromagerie, same as boulangerie.
Same ending.
SPEAKER_00 (40:39):
And you can go in and taste different cheeses,
right?
You could go in and say, let metaste that.
SPEAKER_03 (40:43):
Yeah, they can use that.
SPEAKER_00 (40:45):
Silver play.
SPEAKER_03 (40:46):
If you don't say silver play, they're like, no,
we don't let you taste.
SPEAKER_00 (40:50):
It will spit on your cheese.
Yes, you can taste it.
All right, well, anything elsethat we need to learn before we
head out?
SPEAKER_02 (41:02):
Yes, before we say goodbye.
Is there anything else we needto learn before we say goodbye?
SPEAKER_03 (41:10):
I think that's a lot of homework already with
everything they have.
Yeah, they're pretty much setwith what they you can survive
in France with this.
SPEAKER_00 (41:18):
So, how how will we say goodbye?
SPEAKER_03 (41:20):
Yeah.
Oh, goodbye is au revoir, aurevoir, au revoir.
Nice, goodbye.
Okay, and if you want to say seeyou later or see you is à
bientôt.
A bientôt.
And if you want to say welcome,it's that's also good to know
it's bienvenue.
(41:41):
That's good.
So bienvenue.
Can someone say ciao or I saythat actually on the phone a lot
uh when I hang up?
Ciao, ciao.
Yeah, in France, it's quiteyeah, I don't know why, but uh,
it's not really typical Frenchthough.
It's yeah, you took it from theItalians, but yeah, sure.
Yeah, yeah.
But yeah, Albiento is the mostcommon.
SPEAKER_02 (42:03):
Uh in Belgium, they said a lot of uh ciao tschüss.
SPEAKER_03 (42:07):
Can you say this?
In the eastern part of France,yeah.
Okay, in Strasbourg they saychoose.
Yeah.
That's more like right on theborder, yeah.
Yeah, French.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (42:16):
Okay.
And so can you just slow downthe yeah?
SPEAKER_03 (42:21):
So goodbye is au revoir.
SPEAKER_00 (42:24):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (42:24):
Au revoir.
And see you is a bientôt.
A bientôt.
Actually, the translation ispretty funny.
It's uh to to like a good oh,it's hard to say see you again.
See you in a good early time.
Yeah, like see you in it's likegood bien toll is like early.
So good early.
(42:45):
Good early.
See you in good early in thegirl.
SPEAKER_00 (42:49):
But I think you can use tall as soon.
So like see you soon.
I think that's the implication.
At least that's how I rememberit when I Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (42:57):
You can use that.
The straight restation is early.
SPEAKER_00 (43:03):
Good early.
SPEAKER_03 (43:04):
Good early.
SPEAKER_00 (43:07):
Okay, good early.
SPEAKER_03 (43:12):
Next time.
SPEAKER_00 (43:16):
We hope we've inspired you this episode.
So join us next time.
Please subscribe to rate andshare our podcast with your
friends.
SPEAKER_02 (43:24):
Who member?
SPEAKER_00 (43:25):
And please like and follow us on Instagram, YouTube,
and Facebook.
SPEAKER_02 (43:27):
We're also on editing and on all social
platforms.
We are at the roomies.
That's T H E.
R-O-A-M.
I E S T.
And our main hub is our website.
SPEAKER_00 (43:39):
At www.theRoomies.com.
SPEAKER_02 (43:42):
That's right, that's T H E.
SPEAKER_00 (43:44):
R O A M.
I E S D We'll be there untilnext time.
Yeah, thanks for listening.
Bye.
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