What is a boy saying?
Dec 03rd 2009 13:13
Today's question is about French, not English. (^.^)
I like toddlers very much. A lot of parents put the photos and videos of their kids on their blog. I really love seeing them and there are several toddlers' sites in my bookmarks.
One of them is written in French and I use Google translate when I read it. So I can understand the articles, but unfortunately I have no idea what they are saying in the video. It's can't be helped.
Please take a look at the following video.
A boy takes out his stuffed pony named Paco (but he says Aco) from mother's bag, then put it on the table and tell it something. What is he saying? I guess he is often told by his parents the same thing, for example "be quiet" or something like that.
Actually I'm not sure he is speaking French. His father speaks French, his mother is probably a native English speaker, and he lives in Spain. I've heard he spoke Spanish in another video. So if it isn't French, I'm sorry.
I like toddlers very much. A lot of parents put the photos and videos of their kids on their blog. I really love seeing them and there are several toddlers' sites in my bookmarks.
One of them is written in French and I use Google translate when I read it. So I can understand the articles, but unfortunately I have no idea what they are saying in the video. It's can't be helped.
Please take a look at the following video.
A boy takes out his stuffed pony named Paco (but he says Aco) from mother's bag, then put it on the table and tell it something. What is he saying? I guess he is often told by his parents the same thing, for example "be quiet" or something like that.
Actually I'm not sure he is speaking French. His father speaks French, his mother is probably a native English speaker, and he lives in Spain. I've heard he spoke Spanish in another video. So if it isn't French, I'm sorry.
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Anyways, for the majority of the video the kid is just saying random babyish stuff and not really saying anything in particular.
At one point the kid says "I touch you!" or "Touche tu! " and his parents respond with ' Oui, Touche tu!" "Yes you touched him" or I might be hearing it wrong but that'd make sense to me seeing the context.
The only other non-gibberish thing the kid says is "Aco" which is the doll's name.
As far as the parents telling their kids to "Be Quiet", most of the time American's as well as French let their children babble on and on incessantly in public and sometimes it draws attention from other people otherwise called "Making a scene". The reason the parents don't tell them to be quiet is because it'll make them look bad in the eye of the public.
I'm curious though what do parents do in Asian Cultures? I mean from the way you said that sentence it makes it sound like my paragraph above might be an exact contrast of what Asian parents do...
Lol He's very chatty, isn't he. I'll take Derrick's word for it that he's just babbling and not saying anything coherent since I only know 3 or 4 words in French. Both people that have corrected your entry so far have give some great corrections and suggestions. The ones that have a 1(1) below them are corrections/suggestions that sounded really natural to me so I voted for them. Wasn't aware there was such a voting system but I think its great!
> Shin,
Oh---!! "I've heard he spoke ---" implies that I heard it from someone. I see. It's good to know! Hmm... languages are really difficult.
Thank you for your corrections!
> デレック,
He says "Touche tu!" which means "I touch you"!! Oh, he doesn't point at Paco, he touches it with his finger. I see! I really wanted what he said. Thank you!
Japanese parents often scold their kids with saying "Be quiet!" in public. It's considered as a thoughtless behavior to let their kids be very noisy. These days, there are a lot of such thoughtless parents though.(^.^)
I'm surprised that you know French and Spanish too!
Thank you for your corrections and comment!
> mixmasterJ,
I also click "native nod" when I see good and natural corrections while I'm correcting someone's entries. I think it a great system too!
Thank you for your comment!
They say that in most language's a baby's first attempts at words sound like "da da".
Of course this is the sound of "daddy" in many European languages. How do the Japanese think a baby's first syllables sound?
jameserb,
In Japan, when it comes to baby's talk, it's 「ばぶばぶ」 or 「ばぶう」. For example, in manga or anime, babies always say it, or when people pretend to be a baby, they say it. haha.
I think what baby say for the first time which sounds a real word is 「まんま」. It sounds "mama", and it actually means "food" in baby words too.
Thank you for your corrections and comment!
My best guess is that he is saying "attention", which means "be careful" or "listen carefully". That matches the gesture he is making. When the mother replies, she says something that sounds like "attention". As for the rest, it's babble. I know you said the mother is probably a native English speaker, but she does sound French, even when she says "Paco".
"Touche tu" doesn't make any sense in French. Not only that, but I don't hear that at all.
I just watched their other videos and there is no doubt: the mother, the son and the father are all speaking native European French.
arekusu,
You are kind enough to check other videos? Thank you!
I see, they speak French.
Thank you for your comment!