{"id":873,"date":"2010-09-20T10:17:56","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T10:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/?p=873"},"modified":"2010-10-01T18:24:11","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T18:24:11","slug":"talk-to-the-snail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/20\/talk-to-the-snail\/","title":{"rendered":"Talk to the Snail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Talk-to-the-Snail.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Talk-to-the-Snail.jpeg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Talk to the Snail\" width=\"179\" height=\"282\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-874\" \/><\/a>Continuing my occasional series of reviewing language books, here\u2019s a slightly less serious one than before \u2013 <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephenclarkewriter.com\/book-stephen-clarke.php?id=00009\">Talk to the Snail<\/a><\/em> by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephenclarkewriter.com\/index.php\">Stephen Clarke<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Clarke\u2019s witty book doesn\u2019t deal with subjects as weighty as dying languages; instead he tackles (as the book\u2019s subtitle says) Ten Commandments for Understanding the French. Through themed chapters such as \u2018Thou Shalt Be Wrong\u2019 and \u2018Thou Shalt Not Be Served\u2019, readers are guided through how to get what they want from the French. <\/p>\n<p>Helpfully each chapter ends with a list of phrases (including phonetic spellings) for visitors to France to use to get their way. Clarke clearly adores the French, for all their idiosyncratic ways, and gently mocks the national character throughout the book whilst providing handy tips on say, how to get served in a restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>Definitely aimed at the British \u2013 a number of stereotypes are used) \u2013 the book is a good read, and perhaps a good accompaniment, to any trip across the Channel. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Continuing my occasional series of reviewing language books, here\u2019s a slightly less serious one than before \u2013 Talk to the Snail by Stephen Clarke. Clarke\u2019s witty book doesn\u2019t deal with subjects as weighty as dying languages; instead he tackles (as the book\u2019s subtitle says) Ten Commandments for Understanding the French. Through themed chapters such as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,4,27],"tags":[852,4,850,851,849],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-french","category-hints-and-tips","tag-book-review","tag-french","tag-french-book","tag-french-phrases","tag-talk-to-the-snail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions\/876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}