I really enjoyed Safe House and hate to be picky BUT Early on Reynolds says to his girl "Je vous aime". He is described as a language expert. Shouldn't that be "Je t'aime"?
shareHe was learning French. The formal "vous" is usually taught first, then the informal later. Although the fact that a linguist expert didn't know French already is another question.
shareThe OP is right, but just because the character is a language expert doesn't mean the people who wrote the script are.
http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/
And, more apt, is that for the last 35 years, it has become exponentially necessary to learn Eastern languages (Chinese, Arabic, Farsi) before learning the more traditional ones (French, German, Latin)--the only exception being Spanish.
shareA recent study tells a different story regarding the value of Spanish vs. German or French. The bottom line is that knowledge of a well-known language doesn't pay off financially as much as of a lesser spoken yet important language (important in terms of economic importance).
They calculated the premium in job pay for foreign language skills, here are the results:
Spanish: 1.5% ($51,000)
French: 2.3% ($77,000)
German: 3.8% ($128,000)
Here's the link to the article in 'The Economist':
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2014/03/language-study
A recent study tells a different story regarding the value of Spanish vs. German or French. The bottom line is that knowledge of a well-known language doesn't pay off financially as much as of a lesser spoken yet important language (important in terms of economic importance).
They calculated the premium in job pay for foreign language skills, here are the results:
Spanish: 1.5% ($51,000)
French: 2.3% ($77,000)
German: 3.8% ($128,000)
Here's the link to the article in 'The Economist':
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2014/03/language-study
Right!? Lol, what could he speak 5 different Spanish dialects. Ha
shareA linguistics expert isn't necessarily an expert in all known languages. The implication is that they have a facility for languages, not that they know them all.
Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!
You use it when you want to show respect, and you don't know the person on a first name basis, or you do but it's still a rather professional relationship.
Oh what a day. What a lovely day!
Whether or not he was a linguist is irrelevant. He was talking to a French woman played by a French actress. Surely the character would have corrected him or the actress would have said during the scene "ehhh guys this is really bad French you're making Ryan speak".
Je vous aime means "I love you (as in more than more person)" or "I love you, (person who's superior or unknown to me)" which you just wouldn't say and you especially wouldn't say it to your girlfriend because it indicates lack of intimacy.
If revenge is a dish best served cold, but revenge is sweet then is revenge ice-cream?
Whether or not he was a linguist is irrelevant. He was talking to a French woman played by a French actress. Surely the character would have corrected him or the actress would have said during the scene "ehhh guys this is really bad French you're making Ryan speak".
He didn't know French yet, and I don't recall him being described as a linguistic expert - I seem to remember him being described as having tested well in language aptitude (which would explain why his Afrikaans was effective enough to direct the stadium cops away from Frost so that he could catch Frost himself). When he was sitting on the floor bouncing a tennis ball off the opposite wall, wasn't he using one of those listen-and-repeat French programs?
And even if I'm wrong about the way he was described, "linguistic expert" doesn't mean you know every language (in Burn Notice, for the first half of the series and more Michael was pretty much the only person in Miami who didn't speak Spanish, it was a running joke) - although I will grant you that the mistake you describe is a pretty basic one.