Ariel Helwani nails French interview on LIVE radio

[Hans Gercmiov]

read 'nails French interviewER live on air'

boo

Hahaha dude me too. Only reason I opened this thread.

 

[Metal_Daze]

As a frenchman myself, I couldn't disagree more. I can hardly understand French Quebec, even when I'm trying to focus on what the person is saying to me. It's almost two entirely different languages.

Here in France we think your accent sounds completely retarded, like it was some medieval peasant french with an english accent. Even the hot women you have (yeah you have some) are hardly fuckable once you've heard them speak. Quebec accent = biggest tue l'amour ever


Also the way Quebec is literary translating every American movie is so dumb, "Fiction Pulpeuse" for crying out loud

It all comes from our feeling of persecution. Like I said earlier, we're 8 million in a sea of hundreds of millions. Do you feel threatened by English at home? Of course not, you're near a hundred million yourselves and English are stuck on an Island. We have been persecuted for years. Hell, we've been conquered by the English!

That's the explanation for translating every movie, refusing English-only street signs or shops with English-only name. We have lived in a time (not so far away) where French was not allowed in politics here. Some of us were hanged for standing up to our English overlords. I live on a street named De Lorimier, a guy who fought the English until he was captured and hanged in front of the French population.

Don't go moking us if you don't know our history. It's a political statement for us to translate movie titles. You don't need that because, well you know the jokes about how French surrender easily...

WE ARE NOT FRENCH. We're Québécois and we will never surrender! Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

 

[aichokyu]

Just what I was saying in my previous post! You do realize it's the same for us: French people sound weird to us, it's like they speak from the Académie Française all the time. For us, pronouncing the "d" and "t" like French people is a sign of conformism, a thing you got to do if you want a job on national television. I don't know what's the opinion on the Académie Française in France but here in Québec, we think it's snob and self-righteous.

At least Dany Laferrière will shake the institution if they give him the chance!

yeah I can imagine it being seen that way from the other point of view. it may appear snobbish but i speak french french and english english, if you see what I mean

but why would you want laferrière shake things up? Nobody is asking the french canadians to change the way they speak (at least not in france) why would you want the french to change theirs?
and about danny (great writer btw) , the funny thing is that accents (unless it is volontarily used in such a way) don't appear in writing, it's also often the case when singing too, like garou ou celine dion, who have no accent when they sing, but when they speak..

 

[aichokyu]

I am French and actually people from Quebec preserve French language better. They translate every movie title : while in France "Scary Movie" stays "Scary Movie", in Quebec it is "Film de Peur".

So yeah i guess we make a little bit fun of them (but in a nice way) cause they use such an old vocabulary that only existed in ancient french. They also have a funny accent that, coming from a hot girl for instance, can be quite surprising.

We love them actually (plus girls seem to be way more upfront over there, which is quite nice. Maybe @Metal_Daze will confirm that)

man, you're the first french I hear that sees it that way (why not, after all, i'm just saying it's rare)
canadian girls are cool and more upfront indeed, but personnally their accent kills all desire in me, i'd rather pretend I don't speak french and speak english instead.

 

[aichokyu]

It all comes from our feeling of persecution. Like I said earlier, we're 8 million in a sea of hundreds of millions. Do you feel threatened by English at home? Of course not, you're near a hundred million yourselves and English are stuck on an Island. We have been persecuted for years. Hell, we've been conquered by the English!

That's the explanation for translating every movie, refusing English-only street signs or shops with English-only name. We have lived in a time (not so far away) where French was not allowed in politics here. Some of us were hanged for standing up to our English overlords. I live on a street named De Lorimier, a guy who fought the English until he was captured and hanged in front of the French population.

Don't go moking us if you don't know our history. It's a political statement for us to translate movie titles. You don't need that because, well you know the jokes about how French surrender easily...

WE ARE NOT FRENCH. We're Québécois and we will never surrender! Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I'm not french technically, altought I am of french culture and a french speaker, but your comment on the surrender thing was unneccessary. specially since the cases that created this image in the american collective mind are probably about french canadians that were concquered and dominated by english speakers (quebec is still part of the bigger english speaking canada isn't it?) sorry to be unpleasant but you didn't have to be so yourself

need I remind you that your queen is the queen of england ? (dans ta face chico )

 

[Metal_Daze]

We love them actually (plus girls seem to be way more upfront over there, which is quite nice. Maybe @Metal_Daze will confirm that)

Confirmed. I don't know if they're more upfront, but they do "things" other girls usually don't. Not to please the man but because they like it. I'm sure it has something to do with our religious anti-sexual period that lasted nearly a century before we finally broke free.

French-canadian girls are wild, that's the best term I can use to define them.

 

[ufcoddsmaker]

bonjour je non comprende le francais mon prefere le anglias jhabite en ecosse merci

 

[rjmbrd]

I've been to Montreal a good 4-5 times, and French is clearly ubiquitous.

TS I'm sure you have a more personalized experience being a resident, but I'm having trouble connecting how someone born and raised in Montreal surprised you ... by speaking French.

It seems pretty unlikely the holy spirit of Le Frog came over him for this interview, the more likely explanation is that - he literally grew up in Montreal. You know, where everyone speaks French.

 

[Mochan]

I thought Ariel nailed a French Lady Live. Ah well.

 

[Metal_Daze]

I'm not french technically, altought I am of french culture and a french speaker, but your comment on the surrender thing was unneccessary. specially since the cases that created this image in the american collective mind are probably about french canadians that were concquered and dominated by english speakers (quebec is still part of the bigger english speaking canada isn't it?) sorry to be unpleasant but you didn't have to be so yourself

need I remind you that your queen is the queen of england ? (dans ta face chico )

Not at all. It comes from their easy surrender to German troops. A month after the invasion was launched, the surrender happened. And the Germans only got into France a couple of days before the debacle. It's not like the German's were coming 10 on 1, they were just more prepared and flanked the French troops, who were as numerous (3.3M troops against 3.35M). Air superiority is a bitch too but still, giving up Paris after a couple of days of battle is strange to say the least... (sorry for the generalization, I don't want to dive into WW2 discussion)

Here in Québec, for every French colon, there were 100 English colons. Not only that, the English sent the army! We were leaded by French Generals (Montcalm) but the troops were not soldiers: they were farmers and hunters drafted to defend Québec from the English "armada".

As for the Queen, last time she came to Québec she was booed out and proceeded to her royal court, Ottawa.

 

[azerty]

i remember him asking questions in french to cheick kongo and he was good

 

[Metal_Daze]

I've been to Montreal a good 4-5 times, and French is clearly ubiquitous.

TS I'm sure you have a more personalized experience being a resident, but I'm having trouble connecting how someone born and raised in Montreal surprised you ... by speaking French.

It seems pretty unlikely the holy spirit of Le Frog came over him for this interview, the more likely explanation is that - he literally grew up in Montreal. You know, where everyone speaks French.

You don't understand Québec at all. Why try to make sense of something you don't understand? At least, take the time to educate yourself and come back, we can have a talk.

I understand there is no comparison in the US so it's hard to grasp. Let me just repeat myself again: it's not unusual, in fact, it is entirely normal for English speaking Montrealers to not speak a word of French. They can live their entire life without having to learn French. For example, living in the US without ever learning English would be very hard. The only example I can think of would be Mexicans: I know there are a lot of Spanish-speaking people in the US but I doubt you can find one who completely ignores English for his entire life.

It's frequent here in Québec.

 

[3lite]

Wtf is this? When does Ariel speak? You post a link without giving us timestamps? Some people really do have too much time on their hands.

 

[Uber_Noober]

We all know Ariel is from Montreal. Everybody assumes he should speak French but if you know anything about Montreal, you know it's easy to live here without ever speaking French. Ariel is not from a French-speaking family. He didn't go to French-speaking schools. I assume didn't have much French-speaking friends and doesn't speak French at home.

Yet, when he was asked to do a LIVE radio interview in French (on a obscure channel but still), he took the challenge. It was one of the first time I ever heard him speak more than 2-3 French words in a row. Let me tell you, he was great! In fact, he rarely used English expressions and never resorted to English to make his point. He did babble a little and had to use some English words here and there but he never quit: even when he knew he was slipping, he just rephrased his thoughts, always in French.

Hats off to Mr. Helwani for doing it: it's obvious he doesn't get paid for it and it will not impact his popularity in Québec. He will not start a French edition of The MMA Hour and he's not trying to "go get some fans". In fact, he's fairly unknown here in Montreal and he's purposefully ignored by French-speaking media because he usually doesn't speak French.

He's just stepping up his game and giving back to his homeland, the place that made his dream of becoming THE GUY possible. It was always his goal to be THE MMA GUY and now that the goal is achieved, he's not afraid to take risks.

The Interview was on 91.9 Sport, a French-speaking station. I don't know when it will be available, I listened LIVE moments ago. Here's the link if you want to dig deeper:

http://tunein.com/radio/919-Sport-s47769/

Here's Ariel's reaction, posted a minute after the LIVE interview:



In case you're wondering, YES, I am Anonymous_MMA.

 

[Metal_Daze]

Wtf is this? When does Ariel speak? You post a link without giving us timestamps? Some people really do have too much time on their hands.

It was a LIVE interview and there is no link for the re-run yet. I thought I made it clear in the OP: as soon as the link pops-up, I'll post it.

 

[Kwic]

I clicked on it and listened for it for 3 minutes but didn't hear a word about Helwani so I stopped.

-1 like.

 

[touchedbyjab]

You can speak another language....congrats Shillwani, now quit making threads about yourself.

 

[rjmbrd]

You don't understand Québec at all. Why try to make sense of something you don't understand? At least, take the time to educate yourself and come back, we can have a talk.

I understand there is no comparison in the US so it's hard to grasp. Let me just repeat myself again: it's not unusual, in fact, it is entirely normal for English speaking Montrealers to not speak a word of French. They can live their entire life without having to learn French. For example, living in the US without ever learning English would be very hard. The only example I can think of would be Mexicans: I know there are a lot of Spanish-speaking people in the US but I doubt you can find one who completely ignores English for his entire life.

It's frequent here in Québec.

Did you read my post? I literally opened by saying 1) I've visited Montreal 5 times and 2) you may have a different perspective as a resident.

In my experience, French was ubiquitous. Literally all of your public signs on roads and highways are in French first.

But lets look at some rubber-meets-the-road statistics:

- 67.9% of the population speaks French at home (read: primary language)
- 16.5% of the population speaks English at home
- 56% are able to speak both

source is from the census


So frankly, you are full of baloney.

 

[Gabicho]

What's so great about speaking some french in a french-speaking city/province?
Millions of people speak two languages, even when not living in a city that speaks their second language.
I know it's not the norm in the USA, where a lot of people barely speak english... But come on, stupid thread is stupid.

 

[Metal_Daze]

Did you read my post? I literally opened by saying 1) I've visited Montreal 5 times and 2) you may have a different perspective as a resident.

In my experience, French was ubiquitous. Literally all of your public signs on roads and highways are in French first.

But lets look at some rubber-meets-the-road statistics:

- 67.9% of the population speaks French at home (read: primary language)
- 16.5% of the population speaks English at home
- 56% are able to speak both

source is from the census
So frankly, you are full of baloney.

Aaah, census numbers. Modern day gospel. I wish there was another number in there: if 56% can speak both, then 44% cannot, right?

Question: in this 44%, which percentage do you think only speaks French? Which percentage only speaks English? I can't find those numbers but that's the point I made:

Even here in Montreal, the second largest French-speaking city in the World (after Paris), it is easy to completely ignore French. That would be impossible in France, unless you're there for work and going away right after. In Montreal, there are entire neighborhoods where French is absent. Every street sign is in French first but English is there too! Are you telling me Arrêt / Stop is preventing you to live a full English life in Montreal?

That's my point: it's not easy but it's entirely possible to ignore French in Montreal and be fully functional.