France Nine - Text
Subject is male, born and raised in Normandy, France, 1980. Ph.D. Student. His longest time away from France was a one month stay in London. He was taught British English in school. His father and sister are English teachers. The subject talks about his reasons for coming to study in America and his brother's hearing disorder. The subject does not speak with the uvular fricative "r", but makes a clear effort to pronounce the alveolar approximant. Recorded by Rebekah Maggor, August 2005. Running time: 00:05:48.
TRANSCRIPTION
I was born in Evreux in France in Normandy, ah, which is a very beautiful region near Paris. And, ah, it’s where I grew up actually. And then I studied in Paris and then in Vion, which is 500 kilometers away from Paris. Um, My father and my sister are English teachers, so…and I have family in America, so that’s why I have been exposed to English.
That’s, um, ah…I have also studied English at school. Ah, I went to England for…and I stayed there for one month, ah, 6, 7 years ago. And, um, now, ah, I study history, um, at, ah, at Paris at the Sorbonne. And I…I have actually studied, ah, the French Revolution and, ah, the reception of the French Revolution in Europe and in America. So that’s why I’m in America now. I want to study French Revolution to, um, continue my research and, um, I, I’m going to teach French to undergraduate students. So, um…and I want to, to travel in America. I want to visit and I want to…to go to libraries, ah, to read most, ah, books—the most books that I can.
Um, my brother, my brother has problem with his, ah, ears because, um, he used to, to listen to, ah, hard rock and heavy metal music and, ah, used to go to concerts and, ah, was a, a member of a band. Ah, he, he sang and, ah, that he didn’t know that it could hurt him. And, ah, after…when he was, ah, something like 20, 21, ah, he had a…all the high sounds hurt him. Noises hurt him and, ah, there is always a, a kind of ring, a bit, in his ears. So it’s, it’s a bit, it’s a big injury. It’s a big problem for him. Because he can not go to weddings parties. He cannot go to, ah, places…cannot stay in places where, ah, there’s, there are a lot of people, ah, where it, when it’s too crowded.
Transcribed by Mitchell Kelly, January 15, 2008