Hi guys,Two points on language:When I started watching hockey in the early 90s, it was right around the time when Eastern Europe was opening up, and quite a few young hockey players who were never exposed to anything English were starting to come over. (And, of course, there's quite a few Francophone Canadians too.) I'll never forget Roman Hamrlik, when he was an 18-year-old just out of the Czech Republic, said he learned how to speak English when he came to America by watching movies and listening to Metallica (that great bastion of literary genius. lol). But that goes to what you were saying about turning the TV on. Oh, and it also was universal that swear words were usually the first few words their teammates teach them. lolThe other point was remebering a story my college French teacher told. She was an American who grew up in a Vermont border town with Quebec. They learned French as a function of being that close, but she never was 100 percent fluent. So she went to a French-speaking fancy dress party one day in her early 20s. Lobster was on the menu. And instead of saying (en Francais) "I love lobster" to someone at this party, she said (en Francais) "I love dead men." For some reason, those phrases are strikingly similar -- only a liaison difference, if I remember the context of the lecture. Vivi's story of her hubby's unknowing gaffe reminded me of that. I enjoy the podcast. Really weird hearing my sister being interviewed! :)A. (Vivi's sister)

Another good one girls! My husband and I speak English exclusively with one another. We do have an Italian channel which has helped me understand Italian better (though I still can't speak it worth a damn). but our attempts with "Italian Wednesdays" has not gone over well. As Vivi's husband speaks Southern English, my husband definitely speaks Texas English. He can throw those "ya'lls" around with the best of them. Over the past 6 years, his english has really improved but he still doesn't get alot of the humor and sarcasm is completely lost on him. where Stefano is a very eloquent speaker in Italian, I have really seen him struggle expressing himself completely in English. It certainly causes alot of frustration. but c'est la vie ;) Now it will be my turn trying to express myself in Italian and grasp contextual meanings. sigh its going to be a long road Im afraid =) However, its really nice to know others have the same struggles as we do!ciao ciao!

Hey guys! It's Rachelle from the frappr map. I'm a french obsessed high school student so when I found your podcast I was thrilled! Anyway, I have a story to share:I was born in America, but my parents were born in the Philippines. As I was growing up they spoke Tagalog around the house. Now I can understand 99% of the Tagalog spoken around me from relatives and television, but I can barely speak the language! My speaking skills are pretty basic and my reading skills are kindergarten level. Unfortunately, my writing skills are nonexistent. Just thought I'd share!

Hi Katia and Kyliemac, My name is Joy and I live in Montpellier with my French fiancŽ. I really enjoyed this episode and I wanted to chime in on the "what language do you speak in your bi- (or multi-!) cultural relationship" thing. My French is ok and it's getting better all the time, but I've been wanting to make a change 'chez nous' and try to make French the language we speak when we're alone together, instead of English. For some reason, this is proving to be really really difficult, and sometimes it seems impossible. I was wondering if you guys or your listeners have experienced something similar: once the language has been set in your relationship, it is so hard to change it. It was English between us in the beginning, because I didn't speak French. It's really become more of a Franglais at this point, but it's sort of stubbornly sticking that way, almost as if it has a will of its own. OR, (and I've no one to blambe but myself for this), he speaks French and I speak English. How is it that I can be so lazy or unmotivated about achieving something, when it's something that obsesses me, and something that I really want? I realized this afternoon when we met for lunch, that we carried on a whole conversation this way, much to the amusement of a girl seated nearby, Anyway, Vivi spoke today about being in a period where her French is progressing. It's been a few months since I felt that way, and I have just *got* to get it jumpstarted again.Know of any French language podcasts? Thanks for doing this podcast, by the way!(P.S.--I just went reading through my comment before submitting it, and I can see evidence of the erosion of my English, which is something else that has been happening. I said that speaking French was "something that obesses me"...as in, m'obs�de... instead of "something that I'm obsessed with"... does this happen to everyone? There are of course much worse examples than this, and they seem to come out when I'm giving English lessons! Ooups.)

Fab and I speak English together at home probably 90% of the time. Though there are a lot of random French words creep in, like gare, guichet, etc - words that just fit better than they do in English. When we're around other French speakers though, we'll usually speak French out of politeness, like you guys were saying.And I agree with Joy Suzanne - I think that once you start in one language, it can be really hard to switch over. When we met, I didn't speak any French, so we didn't really have the choice. But now that my level of French has surpassed Fab's level of English, we've talked about starting to speak French several times now, and it just never really works out. The funny thing is that he's the one that has the most problems with it - he says it's just too weird to speak to me in French. I guess English is just the "langage de notre couple".As for me, I go back and forth about us switching over to French - on one hand, I'd like to because I speak way too much English as it is and because I feel like my French is more business French than everyday French. But on the other hand, I'd really hate for him to lose his English. We've been here for four years now, and he's already lost so much of it. Just the other night, he was watching one of those CSI shows in English (thank you, TNT!!) and he said "I think I'm going to have to switch it back to French - I can't understand half of what they're saying!" and I was really bummed out. Plus, his accent has become a lot stronger too, and become really typically French. So even though he's a farmer and English really isn't that useful, I do think it'd be a shame if he lost it all.But my guess is that if things keep going this route, we'll eventually end up speaking in French, if only because Fab's English won't be good enough for us to continue in English.

My boyfriend is French, and we speak English more than 90% of the time. We struck a deal though, if I start speaking french, he will respond. Otherwise it's english. I wish I could find french movies with french subtitles, i think that would help me a lot.Fab is always trying to perfect his english, and we are constantly correcting each other in either language.

Okay, I feel like I should set the record straight. We were not French from day one because, uh, we would have basically been a mime couple at that point. We did make conscious decision to speak French between each other about one year after we met (so end of 2001?) because on most days, the only person I would see was him (and perhaps the baker for a minute, but yeah). So yeah.The end. Or something.