Warning: This article contains spoilers for “Emily in Paris” season four.
Emily Cooper’s French faux pas in the most recent season of “Emily in Paris” are “much less frequent,” but she’s still a long way from mastering the language, according to a language expert.
Following the release of the final episodes of season four on Netflix, a French language teacher has tracked Emily’s French comprehension and communication all the way from the pilot to the recent season finale.
It will not come as a surprise that Emily (Lily Collins) may have fared better in the city had she graduated beyond beginner French lessons and taken more time to practice.
“Her avoidance of learning the language has prevented her from fully integrating with other Parisians,” Babbel Live French Teacher Malcolm Massey told Business Insider.
As audiences see by the end of season four, her poor grasp of the language also becomes a key issue in her relationship with her neighbor Gabriel (Lucas Bravo).
In season one, Emily avoided using even basic French.
When Emily first arrived in Paris, she avoided using even basic French greetings.
“So many things are going wrong here,” Massey said of Emily’s first encounter with Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) and Julien (Samuel Arnold) at the marketing agency Savoir.
“Emily’s unprepared to interact in French on the most basic level. She greets in English, doesn’t even ask if he speaks English, and pulls out a translator app,” he said.
To Massey, this is a major no-no.
He said that memorizing a simple line such as “Bonjour, je m’appelle Emily. Vous parlez anglais?” would have shown that she had a least made an effort.
In season two, Emily writes a letter full of grammatical errors.
When Camille (Camille Razat) discovers that Emily has slept with her boyfriend, Emily attempts to make amends by explaining herself in a letter. But unfortunately, the end product is riddled with mistakes.
“Kudos for sticking with only French, but there are plenty of errors made in this letter,” Massey said, adding: “She’s come a long way, but there’s still lots of room for improvement.”
More specifically, he suggested that instead of writing “je suis triste que je suis coquin” (“I’m sad that I’m naughty”), Emily should have realized that “coquin” holds quite playful connotations and opted for a less suggestive word.
“Je suis triste de t’avoir trahi” (“I am sad to have betrayed you”) would’ve worked better, Massey said.
In season three, Emily continues to make obvious mistakes that show she is unwilling to ‘assimilate to the culture.’
In the third season, Emily takes up a temporary position as a server at Gabriel’s restaurant after losing her marketing job.
Unfortunately, her French isn’t up to scratch, and she makes a serious mistake when she fails to recognize the distinction between champignons (mushrooms) and Champagne (Champagne), which leads to one of the customers having a serious allergic reaction.
Instead of apologizing, Emily complains that the two words sound similar to her, proving that she’s “simply not ready” to be in a role where communication is key, Massey said.
“She has been living and working in Paris for nine months at this point in the show, so I would expect for her pronunciation and comprehension to be a bit better, especially with something as simple as champignon/champagne,” Massey said.
Later in this season, Emily meets a man named Théodule. Unable to pronounce his name, she ends up giving him the nickname Ted instead.
Massey said it was “another example of her choosing something that is easier for her rather than trying to assimilate to the culture, which can often be seen as rude.”
By season four, Emily’s French faux pas are a ‘lot less frequent’ — but it may be too little too late.
Emily is far from being fluent by the time season four rolls around, although her “faux pas are much less frequent,” Massey said.
But audiences still don’t hear her speaking a whole lot of French.
Perhaps put off by her earlier blunders, Emily communicates mostly in English, although she seems happy to follow the odd conversation in French.
This doesn’t necessarily help her improve her language skills, as evidenced when she mistakenly identifies the word “bordel” as referring to a brothel when speaking to Julien and Luc (Bruno Gouery).
Massey said: “The word also has a more idiomatic meaning as ‘a big mess.’ These types of confusing double-meanings can be quite difficult for non-native speakers to understand, but Emily is at least putting herself in the right position — making friends with native Parisians — to expand her vocabulary and understanding.”
Nevertheless, it’s not until after Emily’s on-and-off love interest calls her out for only wanting to communicate in English that she finally doubles down and starts improving her French.
In the season finale, Emily leaves Gabriel a voicemail spoken entirely in French.
Describing Emily’s language skills as finally “satisfactory” in this episode, Massey said that “while short, this message shows that she is working to learn more French and to understand Gabriel more fully.”
“While it’s not particularly fluid, and her pronunciation is still a bit off, she gets her point across and uses the right words and tenses,” he added.
However, Emily’s decision to improve her language skills may have come a little too late, as she is asked to head up Agence Grateau’s new office in Rome.