chenséliser \ʃɑ̃zelize\ (verbe intransitif) : se balader à Paris comme touriste
@jean merci ! this is one of the jokes I'm most proud of—I first shared it on FB/Twitter years and years ago and decided it was time to bring it back on indie social media
@spgreenhalgh It took me a moment to let my brain hear the pronunciation.
Weirdly, I had a very vivid dream this morning complaining in French to the proprietor of a bistro where my iPad was stolen. I told him he should take my numéro téléphonique, which seems like old-fashioned French I might have learned in the 1980s. I can’t remember the last time I dreamed in French.
@jean This joke only exists b/c I had to take a phonetics class for my BA in French Teaching.
Also, I think most US students learn dated French—when I student taught in 2012, we used same textbook I'd used as HS student. Some copies still had prices in francs...
@spgreenhalgh When I took Rosetta Stone French a few years ago, preparing for Paris, I learned how dated my high school French was almost 55 years ago. Apparently, nobody ever asks Comment vous appelez vous to learn someone's name. Probably sounds Vichy or something.
@ReaderJohn Haha, well that's still what comes to mind! I think there's an inherent conservatism to language education in that it's generally preferable for a learner to sound dated than to mangle something more current.