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    The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed
    The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed
    The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed

    Written by Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau

    Narrated by Teri Schnaubelt

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow spent a decade traveling back and forth to Paris as well as living there. Yet one important lesson never seemed to sink in: how to communicate comfortably with the French, even when you speak their language. In The Bonjour Effect Jean-Benoît and Julie chronicle the lessons they learned after they returned to France to live, for a year, with their twin daughters. They offer up all the lessons they learned and explain, in a book as fizzy as a bottle of the finest French champagne, the most important aspect of all: the French don't communicate, they converse.

    To understand and speak French well, one must understand that French conversation runs on a set of rules that go to the heart of French culture. Why do the French like talking about "the decline of France"? Why does broaching a subject like money end all discussion? Why do the French become so aroused debating the merits and qualities of their own language?

    Through encounters with school principals, city hall civil servants, gas company employees, old friends, and business acquaintances, Julie and Jean-Benoît explain why, culturally and historically, conversation with the French is not about communicating or being nice. It's about being interesting.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 29, 2017
    ISBN9781541481800
    The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed
    Author

    Julie Barlow

    Canadian journalist-author JULIE BARLOW is a regular contributor to Montreal public affairs magazine L’actualité. Her writing has appeared in magazines and newspapers in the U.S. Canada and Europe, including the New York Times, USA Today, Toronto Star, and the International Herald Tribune. In 2003, Barlow published an international bestseller Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong with her husband and co-author Jean-Benoît Nadeau. In 2006 the couple published the critical success The Story of French. They've also released The Story of Spanish.

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    Reviews for The Bonjour Effect

    3.5/5

    31 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is a fascinating read. The authors, from Quebec, lived in France for two periods in recent years, the nearest time with their school-age children. They were able to witness not only how France changed over time, but how their children acclimated to their new home as well. Their insights and stories are not sneering or judgmental, but come from a place of curiosity.The book begins with the necessary starting point for anyone even considering a trip to France: the importance of "bonjour," and why. From there, it goes into more nitty-gritty nuances of communication, discussing what French culture embraces in conversation, what they avoid, and how to get by. The back of the book condenses the major points down to quick lists.
    • 3/5
      A bit of a day trip from the much richer 60 Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, but there are some interesting and entertaining passages here.
    • 4/5
      This is not the first time Barlow and Nadeau team up to explain France to North Americans, their first effort being 60 Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong. Anything they could add? Plenty! This time, instead on focusing on the habitual social, political and historical aspects of the French, the couple choose conversational codes as a means to describe cultural mores and behaviours. Easy and fun to read with plenty of examples and real-life misunderstandings, this book will be an eye-opener to readers or travelers who want to learn more about the French. From the frowns to the ebullient gestures, French-speak is aptly and concisely uncovered: this should prevent North Americans a faux-pas or heart-ache or two. I recommend it strongly!