Fair enough. Guess there’s really nothing that is truly universally liked.

Most people know who Pogacar is in France, because anyone who has cable likely watches the Tour de France. It’s kinda like the Super Bowl, even people who don’t care about cycling tend to have it on at least in the background.

This is super common on the west coast of Canada (and I assume the United States as well.) Most of my friends from there say it constantly.

Filler words are normal, and every language has them.

France: If English is the second most common language, then as soon as you leave Paris or a really touristy spot, you’re fucked.

“Prolly” is how I pronounce it in speech, especially in the middle of a sentence.

I feel like one of the hardest things to master for non-native speakers, especially those who speak Romance languages, is the pronunciation of consonants that occur in the middle of phrases. It’s not a hard and fast rule, and depends on the speaker, but those said middle consonants are often very understated, especially in fast speech. I can always tell a Spanish or French native speaker because they would pronounce it: pro-Ba-BLEE, with the clear, distinct, staccato-like intonation of their mother tongues.

How are you trying to pronounce it? At least in my accent, the “ch” is just pronounced like a “k”…

KEM-ist-tree

No predators? Guess you haven’t seen the video of an orca literally exploding one with a headbutt so that it’s calf could eat it…

I’m not Turkish, or trans, but I am a Canadian who left the country and will likely never move back. All of your concerns regarding my country are unfortunately valid, life is oppressively expensive there.

But your English is excellent, “fuck me sideways” made me chuckle as that’s a very natural expression in colloquial Canadian. Don’t give up, you’re young and the world is your oyster. If you have a Canadian passport, maybe look into some of the youth mobility visas that are available for Canadians under 30. Most commonwealth countries, and many European nations, take part in the program.

Guilty as charged. I knew Lt.Dan was likely a bot, but his (it’s?) questions were interesting and engagement seemed high so I said fuck it and responded anyway.

Baguette and Saint Marcellin, or Mont d’Or, or even Tomme de Brebis.

KFC is terrible in France. Then again, so is McDonalds, and both are waaay too expensive for what you get.

I actually prefer Burger King here, which is something cause in the states it’s… not great.

Native English speaker who learned French to a high (B2-C1) level as an adult here: not even a little bit, and any parts that you think you got the gist of are likely misunderstood.

English, with custom key bindings for accents etc. Mostly because I hate AZERTY with a passion.

I’m almost there, except every once in a blue moon I come across a website or service (usually gov’t related) that refuses to take my proton.me address.

Plumber of 12 years here, mostly in North America but also did a year in western Europe. Caulk or no caulk is situational.

In residential situations (houses or apartments) I prefer to do the no caulk method. When homeowners see water, they generally realise there is a problem and they call a plumber before the floor rots out; if the toilet is caulked, the standing water can do a shit ton of damage before it gets noticed. Also, silicone / caulk gets nasty looking very quickly without regular cleaning. I only ever installed wall-hung toilets in Europe, and we caulked the bowls but they generally never leak so it’s less of an issue.

In commercial situations, like public bathrooms, I’ll caulk the bowl, leaving a small gap at the very back so that a leak can potentially be detected. These types of installations are almost always on some type of concrete and tile floor, so damage to the floor is much less likely to occur. Also, those toilets take muuuch more abuse than one in a residential home, so the layer of caulk helps secure the toilet from displacement. Additionally, most public bathrooms are cleaned on a (hopefully) regular basis, so the caulking tends to stay a little less nasty looking.

Try being Canadian, it’s even more insulting!

Although to be fair, this never happens outside of Paris.

Imo, it’s a combination of that, and really outdated teaching methods.

La Francophonie is large enough that people never need another language to access additional information. They even have their own pronunciations for Anglophone celebrities, which is bizarre at first.

I once had a conversation in a bar where people were talking about a famous musician named ‘Kenny West.’ My friends were astonished that I had never heard of him. It took me like 5 minutes to realise that they were talking about Kanye West…

Like I mean come on, he says his own name constantly in his own songs…

For sure. Being a native English speaker, it’s worth paying a little extra to go to the cinema in Switzerland for me.

The French don’t do subtitles, they dub everything.

It’s horrible.

I still say ‘biffed it’ sometimes.

Ex: “You fucking biffed it hard on that last jump there, bud.”