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Flirting in the summer:one of the motivations of the French to learn a foreign language

My darling, this article is for you.

Did you frown when you saw me talking a little too much with Roberto, the handsome Spaniard with bulging muscles, with the Brazilian Pedro, living god of Salsa, and James, the little British with ocean eyes? My little candy duck, know that all of this I only did to add strings to my CV, by improving my practice of their languages…I mean…to learn to speak better Spanish, English, and even Brazilian ( no but what are you thinking? Rhô!).

You see, a poll from the Babbel language course site said so*. According to him, 21% of respondents have already flirted with someone of another nationality in order to...learn another language! Don't laugh, it's far from silly! On the one hand, many education specialists claim that games are an excellent educational tool (ludo-education, it's called). On the other hand, it is well known that to learn a language, you have to practice it! No ? The flirting game is therefore L'I-DÉ-AL.

According to Babbel, 44% of respondents have found themselves flirting with a stranger. At the start, 75% of them spoke only a few words in the language concerned. And then, after a few "You're so beautiful" and "que guapo estas" ("you're so beautiful"), 89% of flirts have considerably enriched their vocabulary! Besides (you'll be proud of me) I learned for example to say:"How long have you been doing surfing to get such an amazing body? **, "Tiene hermosos ojos"*** or "estou louca pro ti"****.

But why these men? Well because according to this survey, Italian and its Grrrr accent is chosen by 47% of respondents. Next comes Spanish (35% - the reason why I lingered with Roberto), English (33%), then far behind Russian (9%) and German (4%).

If I make fun of you? Not at all, I'm telling you it was a new way to learn... But darling, come back!

* This study was conducted with 1000 respondents between July 6 and July 9, 2014.
** "How long have you been surfing to have a perfect head body? (English)
*** "You have beautiful eyes" (Spanish)
**** "I'm crazy about you" (Portuguese)