Tod MaffinCanadian Commentator, From Far and Wide · Emotional Support Canadian

Canadian French, for Americans - part 3! #canada #french #quebec

1 Mar 2025 · 1 min

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In this third installment of the "Canadian French for Americans" series, the solo presenter delivers a humorous, instructional lesson focused on Québécois profanity and slang. He introduces three emblematic phrases—"J'aime les poneys," "J'ai le goût des fraises," and "Je crois en fille"—explaining their rough English equivalents (e.g., "up yours," "that's bullshit") and suggesting situational contexts such as confronting a customs line. The speaker emphasizes the importance of accompanying gestures and exaggerated facial expressions, noting that over‑expressive body language is a hallmark of Canadian French communication. He advises learners to shake hands, scrunch their face, and add a growl to convey the intended tone, thereby blending linguistic content with cultural performance cues.

Chapters

Welcome to part 3 of the series where I teach Americans how to speak French. This time, profanity edition. There's not a direct English translation for this. I guess it would be closest to "up yours" or something like that, and it is "J'aime les poneys." "J'aime les poneys." Alright, this one you might say if you're stuck in a line behind someone at customs when you're coming over or something like that. It's sort of like a "see you in hell" sort of a thing. "J'ai le goût des fraises." "J'ai le goût des fraises." And really shake your hand when you're saying that too. Show them who's boss. This one is sort of like, "That's bullshit." Je crois en fille. Je crois en fille. One other thing you should know is that if you're familiar with sign language, you know how part of the language is the facial expressions and kind of the really overexpressive sort of things. That is part of the culture here as well with Québécois, with Canadian French. So when you're saying these things, like, just really scrunch up your face and go, "Grrr!" Like that will get the point across a lot better. I got you.