If the mention of toile fabrics conjures up bucolic scenes of cows, roosters, and Marie Antoinette at L’Hameau, think again. How else, for the price of a yard of fabric, can you enjoy subjects as rich as “The Vampires,” “The Monuments of Paris,” “Robinson Crusoe,” and “Don Quixote”?
In French, the word toile means “canvas or linen.” However, it’s almost synonymous with the fabric originally printed in the village of Jouy, southwest of Paris, near Versailles. In 1760, Christopher-Philippe Oberkampf established a cotton print factory in Jouy. Being an artist and a keen entrepreneur, he capitalized on the rapidly growing middle class interest in home furnishings. Historically, the French fabric industry was subsidized by the court, and its products were used for courtly interiors. Fine silks being cost prohibitive to the middle class, a cheaper alternative was needed. Oberkampf inspired by the cotton prints imported from India, eventually made the fabric a purely French invention.
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PREPARE. Try to set aside your mother tongue’s accent and be prepared to make some adjustments. If you find it difficult, don’t worry and don’t be disheartened. You can’t do this with just a snap of a finger, so make it gradual. Adapt to the French accent little by little.
LISTEN. To get a good grasp on how French words are spoken, you must listen carefully. Listening is your key. Listen and pay attention on how the words are pronounced. Then, listen and repeat. Repeat the words properly the way they are mentioned. You can do this until you get attuned to the French sound — like it is the only accent you know and nothing else. You can begin by listening to French audio CDs or tapes, movies and TV programs. Like music, you need to be able to dance to its rhythm and learn it by heart.
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French language is one of the official languages of the United Nations. It is spoken by more than 100 million people world wide. It belongs to the romance sub class of the Indo European language family. It is one of the most sweet, polite and musical language of the world. It is primarily spoken in France but sizeable speakers are present in Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Canada. In Canada it is the second official language along with English.
The French language has a unique pronunciation system which makes certain alphabets silent in such a way as to produce musical sounds when speaking. To give you an example the last consonant of any French word is only pronounced if it is followed by a vowel otherwise it is kept silent. The second thing is that J is pronounced as Y in French and i as ee. Moreover the CH is always pronounced as SH in French. So the name Jacques Chirac is pronounced Yak Sheerac. For similar reasons the world famous city Paris is pronounced as Paghee- the sound of r is quite different in French and not easily pronounced by English speakers.
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