Has anyone here learned to speak French?

[CleverCowboy]

Originally Posted by Elise

Oh, perhaps we are talking about different things here. I took the first comment that advised learning Corsican to mean the Corsican language, which is a separate language in itself. It is not mutually intelligible with French and is much closer to Italian (native Italian speakers would understand it). As for the version of French spoken in Corsica, I thought it is just an accent. Like if you think about differences between the English spoken by a Londoner or a Scot, the words are the same but pronounced with different accents. So if words are different in Corsican French that is news to me.

You are absolutely correct and my mistake and I should have known better. Corsu goes way back long before the French took Corsica as a territory. In fact, if I was visiting Corsica and implied to the native that their language was Corsican French, I probably would have to run for my life.

Just FYI - I remember reading an article on trip planning to Corsica as a foreigner some time ago. They did not recommend trying to communicate with them in Corsican... unless you are Corsican. French is the best choice, but Italian and Spanish are passable.