There are hundreds of English loanwords in French, like in most languages. The Académie française tried to create new French words like courriel for email to keep the language pure from yet another Germanic invasions (forgetting that French was originally the language of the Franks and possess thousands of words of Germanic origin through them). But their efforts were essentially in vain and they were ultimately unable to prevent the adoption of new terms lacking native equivalents.
What the French education system didn't fail is to corrupt the pronunciation of these loanwords, often in the most ridiculous manner. Even though French is my mother tongue, it took me a while to understand why people on French TV often talked about sexe à pile, which translates as 'battery sex'. What is this battery sex they all mention? Then I learned that it was actually 'sex appeal' but they didn't bother to elongate the "ee" sound at the end, even tough all French speaker can pronounce it properly if they want to.
What is odd about the majority of French speakers is that they sometimes choose to pronounce English words properly, like football, gentleman, suspense, outsider or jeans, but seem to intentionally mispronounce other words in the most grotesque and comical manner. It's not because they lack the sounds to pronounce these words properly, like the poor Japanese who struggle for all their worth to pronounce their thousands of English loanwords right, and all seem to be taking lessons to correct their pronunciation out of shame. No, very few French people feel anything close to shame for blatantly butchering English words, seemingly on purpose, as if to defy the English speaking world. Well, maybe it was intentional on purpose, or among the elite, but nowadays almost everybody pronounces discount as 'discoont', which sounds downright boorish. In France (but rarely in French-speaking Belgium) most people gallicise 'bacon' as if it were a French word, rhyming with the Burgundian city of Macon. When I hear that I try to intentionally do the same with words all French people pronounce correctly to make fun of them, like saying fotbaal instead of football.
There are only a few English sounds that have no near equivalent in French, notably the 'h'. I am fine with that, and I don't criticise French speakers for their inability to pronounce the h in hockey, hobby or hot-dog. What annoys me is when they can pronounce it right but choose not to. Some people will go as far as to pronounce hamburger as something like ombürrrjay, making it sound as French as possible, but these are still a minority (and almost unheard in Belgium).
I find it sad that in an increasingly globalised world where English has become the uncontested lingua franca, so many French speakers do not try to go with the current and try to be understood by other people, but on the contrary do all they can to stand out like anti-socials and make it as hard as possible for other to understand them. Many tourists have learned the hard way that French people don't want to speak English even if they can. Really stubborn and childish.
What the French education system didn't fail is to corrupt the pronunciation of these loanwords, often in the most ridiculous manner. Even though French is my mother tongue, it took me a while to understand why people on French TV often talked about sexe à pile, which translates as 'battery sex'. What is this battery sex they all mention? Then I learned that it was actually 'sex appeal' but they didn't bother to elongate the "ee" sound at the end, even tough all French speaker can pronounce it properly if they want to.
What is odd about the majority of French speakers is that they sometimes choose to pronounce English words properly, like football, gentleman, suspense, outsider or jeans, but seem to intentionally mispronounce other words in the most grotesque and comical manner. It's not because they lack the sounds to pronounce these words properly, like the poor Japanese who struggle for all their worth to pronounce their thousands of English loanwords right, and all seem to be taking lessons to correct their pronunciation out of shame. No, very few French people feel anything close to shame for blatantly butchering English words, seemingly on purpose, as if to defy the English speaking world. Well, maybe it was intentional on purpose, or among the elite, but nowadays almost everybody pronounces discount as 'discoont', which sounds downright boorish. In France (but rarely in French-speaking Belgium) most people gallicise 'bacon' as if it were a French word, rhyming with the Burgundian city of Macon. When I hear that I try to intentionally do the same with words all French people pronounce correctly to make fun of them, like saying fotbaal instead of football.
There are only a few English sounds that have no near equivalent in French, notably the 'h'. I am fine with that, and I don't criticise French speakers for their inability to pronounce the h in hockey, hobby or hot-dog. What annoys me is when they can pronounce it right but choose not to. Some people will go as far as to pronounce hamburger as something like ombürrrjay, making it sound as French as possible, but these are still a minority (and almost unheard in Belgium).
I find it sad that in an increasingly globalised world where English has become the uncontested lingua franca, so many French speakers do not try to go with the current and try to be understood by other people, but on the contrary do all they can to stand out like anti-socials and make it as hard as possible for other to understand them. Many tourists have learned the hard way that French people don't want to speak English even if they can. Really stubborn and childish.
I chopped up even my given name because even my husband couldn't pronounce it correctly. That was a bit alienating, I must say.