I was just going to say that I would take Justin over Jonathan any day. That man was vile.
Is it me or is this one of the worst casts in AR history? There just aren't a lot of teams to get behind this time around. At this point I'm really only rooting for the reporters and the cheerleaders. Texas is ok too but....meh. HATE the paparazzi. This leg was odd, too. It seems the tasks (especially road blocks) have been too simple this year. I feel like Amazing Race Canada gets it right more often with the difficulty of tasks. But on TAR it's: Jump off here. Sit in this plane and look here. There hasn't been one of those truly brutal hours long torture sessions in a while. Unless I'm just forgetting about something.
In regards to the French business, I speak French and have an undergraduate history degree and I didn't know (or didn't remember) the motto. It's probably something that most people hear at least once in their lives but it's not exactly vital information that needs to be stored forever. Also, to be fair to racers on the mispronunciation of those words, there didn't seem to be an "accent aigu" on the letter e at the end of the words. I can only say this as a French speaker, but I think if people would have seen "Égalité" instead of "Egalite" it might have prompted them to think "Oh yeah, that thingy makes the letters sounds differently." And as for the rap, I noticed that some of them seemed to be applying what I think are Spanish pronunciation rules to the words. Specifically the RRs, pronouncing them like a Y. Also, the girl teaching Alabama didn't seem to be as helpful as some of the others. The Reporters really lucked out though, that guy was really breaking it down for them in a way they could relate to.