Maîtres mots

  • Il y a longtemps que notre pays est beau mais rude.

       --Newspaper editor Olivier Séguret, 25 January 2012

    The USA are entirely the creation of the accursed race, the French.

       --Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), writing to Nancy Mitford, 22 May 1957

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French Freedom of Speech

Today the cheminots are:


  • "À nous de vous faire préférer le train!"
    "Voyager autrement"
    "Avec le SNCF, tout est possible"
      --Former ad slogans of the SNCF (French national trains), each in turn quickly dropped

Fun French words

  • ouistiti

    (literally: marmoset)
    Etymology: onomatopoeia from the sound a marmoset makes. Actual meaning: this is what you say in France when you want people to smile for the camera.

    Selon une étude réalisée par le fabricant d’appareils photo Nikon, le « ouistiti » utilisé en France au moment de se faire prendre en photo est le petit mot le plus efficace pour s’assurer un joli sourire.

Who's en colère today?

  • Private sector

    First strike in 43 years at an aeronautics company in Toulouse, Latécoère


    Public sector

    The SNCF (toujours eux), regional train employees in the Lyons area guaranteeing unpleasant travel from the 17th-21st December
    Also yet another strike by Sud-Rail, a particularly truculent SNCF union in the south of France, this time five days in January: 6,7, 21, 22 and 23. "We have no choice." Right.

    Marseilles trams on strike until February

L'histoire de Rude

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Our bilingual life (bis)

Making a doctor's appointment.

Receptionist: Bon, j'ai une place mercredi 24 à 14h.

Me: C'est parfait. (I give my name and phone number.) Donc, mercredi 24 à 14h.

Receptionist: Yess.




11 May 2006 in France, On Being an Expatriate |

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Comments

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Oh it drives me crazy when French people respond to me in English when I am speaking acceptable French! I know they are not trying to be irritating but it does bug me.

Posted by: laurie | 11 May 2006 at 18:20

Funny!! I hear a lot of French people saying "yes" now.

Posted by: Pat | 11 May 2006 at 19:14

Hmm. I'm not so sure! First of all, a lot of French people say "Yess" to each other! It's just fun, like girls saying "J'aime tes shoes." I took it like that. Then again, maybe sometimes a person you speak French to is actually American and can tell you are too by your accent-- sometimes I answer in English when tourists ask me for directions in French-- and some become furious that I don't answer in French!

Posted by: Sedulia | 11 May 2006 at 19:26

Good grief, does it not become obvious when you speak English that you're a native English speaker? That's just silly.

From Sedulia: Maybe I have a weird accent! Sometimes in the States when I say I live in Paris, people say, "You speak English very well!"

Posted by: Vivi | 11 May 2006 at 21:59

When people ask me their way in Paris, whatever their nationality is, generally the first question they ask is "do you speak English?".
In general, French are not good at speaking foreign languages. Few decades ago, there even used to be a kind of snobism in France in not knowing how to to speak English. Many (old) french intellectuals know a lot of things, but just can't speak English.
But now it is changing little by little...

Posted by: Haxo | 13 May 2006 at 07:00

When anglophones ask for directions in French, though, they can get mad when you answer in English, even when it's me!

As Haxo says, I think a lot of older French intellectuals feel betrayed that they are expected to speak English now, when it wasn't considered important when they grew up (except for "notre cher Shakespeare" au lycée). I think that explains the nasty words about American English you see so often in the media-- the writers really just resent modern English, which they didn't learn--but they don't realize that, because their English isn't good enough! Young people all seem to speak English, so it's not a real problem for them.

I wonder if the same thing isn't going to happen to Americans of my generation....

Posted by: Sedulia | 13 May 2006 at 11:01

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Today's quotation

  • In Paris, the purest virtue is the object of the filthiest slander.

      –Honoré Balzac (1799-1850), in Scènes de la vie privée

    À Paris, la vertu la plus pure est l'objet des plus sales calomnies.

Le petit aperçu d'Ailleurs

  • Annual Geminids meteor shower (shooting stars!) coming this weekend, if it's not too cloudy out at night.

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