27 October, 2010

Wilkinson is not ready for an "essay", according to French

Some national radios broadcast presently an advertisement staring Jonny Wilkinson, one of the most famous rugby player in the world. This english sportsman promotes SFR, a french mobile phone operator which just launched a new fixed rate called "Illimythics" in favor of which Jonny Wilkinson explains his choice. In order to add humor to the "ad", the advertiser points out (friendly) the mistakes of the rugby player in french pronunciation when he spells the words "Illimythics", "professionnal" and "euro".

Its clear that for english locutors, some french words are difficult to pronounce because the same letters in english produce other voicing. For example the end "thycs" doesn' sound like "thé" in french, and so for "pro" and "euro". But would the french people (and almost rugby players of the South-West) be able to pronounce correctly usual words of Wilkinson's language?

French people are pround of their own language (and they are right) and this advertisment only reveals a latent feeling of superiority face to others. But they ought to improve their own abilities in english up to let Wilkinson express himself in his mother's tongue. It will be more helpful.

No comments:

Post a Comment