Why didn't they just make Picard British when they cast Patrick?

[at Quark's]

Some English words can be really hard to pronounce for a French person.

I have some tongue twisters in my native language that you could spend a lifetime trying to pronounce and you'd still be spotted as a foreigner when you did. I've read an interesting theory about something like two hundred phonemes that if they were taught to a child before the age of five would allow them to speak any language without an accent. The thing is, by the time most people learn a second language it's already too late.

Sure, it can be hard to pronounce names from another language, but that wasn't my point. My point was that most people never even tried. Usually they would look confused, ask me to spell it or write it down, and then simply decided that the French way to pronounce that string of characters was the way to go. So that's what I've learned to expect (- and also why I really don't care when I hear a foreign name mispronounced in an American show). Although I didn't really care, after a while, I decided it was easier to just ditch my first name and start using my middle name when in France (since that one is closer to French names).

As for how hard it is for a person from language A to pronounce language B, that depends on many factors, besides the languages themselves. I've known Anglophone speakers that learned to speak my native language only after adulthood, and speak it so well you'd have to listen very carefully to hear they're not actually native, and I've known Anglophone people that have lived here for over 20 years, speak it well, but with a thick English or American accent- so obviously things like personal ability, immersion, background and such matter a great deal.

 

[dupersuper]

To be fair, we (and McFadden) only found out she came from Planet Scotch 7 years into the show.

Well, she wasn't from there: it's just where her grandmother lived.

What I find funny is the Terminator, I mean he can speak perfectly imitating not only the voices but also the speech patterns of the cop whose car he stole after hearing him say a couple of words and Sarah's mother after I guess hearing her say a few words too but when he speaks as himself it's in this thick German accent!

Well, Austrian...

 

[Orphalesion]

Two things;

"Shaw" sounds different from the French "Jean", it sounds like "chant" which in French means song as in "Le Chant Du Cygne".

There is no possible way to say "Jean" by using English phonetics and the approximations sound like someone with a lisp.. at best. The vowels also are all wrong. The French vowels don't have an equivalent in English, and vice versa I must add.

The way the English say "Picard" even if they keep the "d" silent is quite different from the way the French do.

the "ar" in Picard is particularly hard to master. If you want to make it seem French you have a lot to learn.

English people who kinda sound like they're French but not quite are those who learned the tongue before seven or eight at most, after that, they are too far gone. That's also true of French people trying to speak English.

I know those things, I speak English, German and French, and even after years of living abroad I never managed to kill my accents in English or French.
But if you had actually read my post, you might have noticed I was talking about an "acceptable approximation" not a perfect pronunciation. The German dub didn't have a perfect pronunciation either, but at least it was better than John-Look Picarte.

Edit: I looked it up, and, I apparently had a different idea on how Shaw would be pronounced (I actually thought it was similar to French Jean/chant and thought you were just nitpicking about the exact minutiae of the sounds).
Sorry, that's what happens if you speak different languages, I'm sure you can relate

 

[Ragitsu]

There are folks - nowadays - that sport accents and/or interests radically dissimilar to that of their ethnic/cultural roots; I can easily imagine people like Picard becoming increasingly probable in the future.

 

[Brobdingnag]

There are folks - nowadays - that sport accents and/or interests radically dissimilar to that of their ethnic/cultural roots; I can easily imagine people like Picard becoming increasingly probable in the future.

Except that Picard was described as someone overly patriotic and attached to traditions. In fact, he even sings some folkloric French songs at times (with a thick British accent of course), e.g "Frére Jaques", "Le Pont D'Avignon"... That are so traditional that most people don't know them anymore.

 

[jackoverfull]

Except that Picard was described as someone overly patriotic and attached to traditions.

he was also described as a hothead that wanted to break with traditions. He probably is a man with many contradictions.

 

[Brobdingnag]

he was also described as a hothead that wanted to break with traditions. He probably is a man with many contradictions.

They make him speak French in Picard, although with a terrible accent. It's as if it was done against the actor's will.

 

[Ragitsu]

he was also described as a hothead that wanted to break with traditions. He probably is a man with many contradictions.

He ardently strives to protect the Prime Directive, yet he is willing to ask for information in an act that would break what he believes is a Temporal Prime Directive (A Matter of Time).

 

[jackoverfull]

They make him speak French in Picard, although with a terrible accent. It's as if it was done against the actor's will.

honestly, if an ancient Roman heard me speaking Latin would probably think I had a terrible accent as well. Still, I don’t think much goes on in Picard against Patrick’s will.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

Now him in Picard doing the cartoon undercover French accent, I bet that was his idea in the first place.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Actually, when you say "Picard" in French, the "D" is silent. Nobody on the show says it correctly, least of all, Picard himself.

My French pronunciation is horrible, so I had to look it up for how to say it properly:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Brobdingnag]

My French pronunciation is horrible, so I had to look it up for how to say it properly:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Indeed! It's amazing what we can find on the net, nowadays.