Parlez-vous français?
Even people who don’t are chiming in on some of Jase Ernest’s latest TikTok videos.
The 26-year-old aspiring musician from Airdrie had previously been using the social media platform as a way to promote his country music.
But one day, he decided to show his followers how far he’s come learning a second language.
“I didn’t realize that people would find my accent that funny,” said Ernest, in an interview with Global News.
The unusual and heavy French accent has drawn the attention of thousands of TikTok users.
He’s since made multiple videos in December. One of them has more than 1.5 million views — far more than any of his songs to date.
“Comments were all over the board,” said Ernest.
“I’ve gotten a lot of comments from people who say I sound like The Sims.”
The Sims is a multi-platform video game in which the characters speak a gibberish language known as Simlish.
“I still think you’re putting on this Albertan French accent. There’s no way you speak it like this,” said one comment on a Dec 11 video.
“French is my first language and I had to really focus,” said another commenter.
“I’m putting it on a little bit,” Ernest admitted, “I can do a little bit better.
“It’s mostly me making fun of myself.”
Ernest says he’s certainly not making fun of the French language. On the contrary, he’s passionate about trying to speak it more fluently.
It started about five years ago on the Duolingo app. Once he mastered those lessons, he turned to YouTube videos. Now he uses a pen pal language exchange app called Tandem to help him improve.
“I struggle with a quite a bit of vocabulary, particularly listening,” said Ernest, who learned basic French in school.
“The only thing I remember from elementary school French is the alphabet.”
As he’s began to make more videos, Ernest realized how far he’s come with a second language in a short time period. He’s also taught himself to sing some French cover songs.
“Believe it or not I have some French country fans as well, so I’ll be making some music for them.”
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