tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77419806873049030902024-03-13T14:18:30.288-07:00An A to Z of life in FranceDoreenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11279235939050009998noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741980687304903090.post-91488302682038801472011-10-15T08:42:00.000-07:002011-10-15T09:31:04.260-07:00Mind your language<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>334</o:Words> <o:Characters>1906</o:Characters> <o:Company>Doreen Porter</o:Company> <o:Lines>15</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>3</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>2340</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The Académie Francaise is the ferocious guardian of the French language.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> <div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">Created in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII, </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 6.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">it has 40 members, who are known as “immortals” because they hold office for life. The Académie is the chief authority on the French language and publishes an official dictionary.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">In the past it has asked French speakers to replace the word “Walkman” with “baladeur”, “software” with “logiciel” and “email” with “courriel”. Not sure it’s been that successful there.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">Now, with the threat of the language becoming even further diluted (the immortals must know we’re all here), it has taken the radical step of starting to list, on a special section of its website, English words it wants banned. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">Under the title “Dire, ne pas dire” [say, don’t say], the website so far lists a grand total of two Anglicisms.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">These are, bizarrely, best-of (complete with hyphen) and “impacter”, two words we, of course, use regularly. They suggest replacing “impacter” with “affecter”, and best-of with the word “florilege” or the phrase “le meilleur de”. They also suggest that les Anglais sometimes spell “best-of” as “best-off”; they are obviously au fait with the declining standards of literacy in the UK. In the spirit of true investigative journalism, I looked up “florilege” and it came up as “anthology”. I’m sure I’ll work it out sooner or later. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">But it’s not only us English speakers who have fallen foul of the Académie. It also wants to ban les Francais saying “pas de souci” for “no problem”. Instead, the obedient speaker should say “cela ne pose pas de difficulté” [that does not present a problem], or even <i>“</i></span><em><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal;">Ne vous inquiétez pas,</span></em><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></i><em><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal;">Rassurez-vous”.</span></em><i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;"> </span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">Pas de souci there then, mes chers immortals! Why use three words when six will do.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">French legislators have taken up the challenge of protecting the language in the past, most notably with the Toubon Law in 1994.The law, named after Jacques Toubon, the minister of culture who introduced it, mandated the use of French in official government publications, all advertising, workplaces and contracts.</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 6.5pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">A related law also imposed quotas on broadcast music, stipulating that at least 40 per cent of music played on TV and radio is in French.</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 6.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 6.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">http://www.academie-francaise.fr/langue/dire_nepasdire/dire1.html<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><!--EndFragment--></span>Doreenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11279235939050009998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741980687304903090.post-46337562232807341582011-09-19T00:46:00.000-07:002011-09-19T00:54:04.427-07:00Age is but a number<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US">Age is but a number</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Talk to a senior citizen in the UK and,
sooner or later, they will say something along the lines of “I’ll be 82 next
birthday, you know…” In France, they are not quite so fixated on age and its
perceived limitations. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Older women tend to fall into one of two camps:
those who don a flowered pinny and sensible shoes the day after their 65<sup>th</sup>
birthday, and those who continue to be as chic and stylish as they were in
their 30’s. Men merely buy a new beret to celebrate their retirement (although
the more flamboyant among them may cultivate a more luxuriant moustache). They
continue to drive their 2CVs, vintage Renault 5s and tractors with as much
carelessness as they ever did. Those who proceed a little slower undoubtedly do
so because (a) the speedometer has broken; or (b) they can’t see where they’re
going. Unlike in the UK, there is no mandatory visit to the doctor’s on your 70<sup>th</sup>
birthday to verify your fitness to remain behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.
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<span lang="EN-US">We have a pair of hyperactive pensioners as
neighbours. They own a field the size of a couple of football pitches and have
dug and planted it themselves with more vegetables than they could ever hope to
eat. He is regularly spotted swaying at the top of a ladder inspecting his
roof, often wearing a surprised expression as if he doesn’t quite know how he
got there in the first place. He recently crafted a weathervane in the shape of
two cats, which he fixed to his chimney while it was quite windy (well, at
least he could be certain it worked). I don’t think everything goes to plan,
though, as we regularly hear anguished cries of “Merde!” echoing from the other
side of the hedge.</span></div>
</span>Doreenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11279235939050009998noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741980687304903090.post-69755156928651149992011-09-17T09:30:00.000-07:002011-09-17T09:30:27.535-07:00Just took the plunge and published my A to Z as an ebook. Not sure I will sell any, but it's a good feeling to have done it!<br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/doreenporter">http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/doreenporter</a></span></div>
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