Do Italians Talk With Their Hands?
I only have a few words of Italian, but at least I can pronounce celiachai, which is Italian for coeliac well enough to get served gluten-free food.
On the other hand, I find Italians easy to understand, as they seem to use their hands more for emplasis, than other nationalities.
I must learn some more Italian!
At least I know most of the words for food, although at lunchtime one day in Carluccio’s I wasn’t sure what rapa was. But then there was a translation.
Are People Generally That Dim?
I was surprised that this poster for the film Le Weekend has a translation of that into English.
Are People Generally That Dim?
I do wonder how many wouldn’t have realised it was a French film about a weekend. I hope not very many.
Checking on Wikipedia, it’s actually a British fim, written by Hanif Kureishi
Multi-Lingual Signs At The NRM
The Keep Off signs were in three languages.
Multi-Lingual Signs At The NRM
But then there seemed to be a lot of foreign visitors. I was talking to a couple of Germans by the two paintings in this post.
A guide told me, that some visitors had come all the way from New Zealand
A Multi-Currency Toilet
On my trip this morning I needed a pit-stop and as I had to surface at Green Park station to find of the maps, I used the excellent toilets there.
A Multi-Currency Toilet
Note how the entrance gate sensibly accepts both pounds and euros. They’ve even put the instructions in a selection of languages.
A Multi-LingualToilet
We need to do more things like this, to make London as tourism-friendly as possible.
The French Get Touchy About Language
The French can get very touchy, when English encroaches on territory, they think is reserved for French.
But this row, reported here on the BBC is totally of their own making, Here’s the introduction.
The French parliament is debating a new road map for French universities, which includes the proposal of allowing courses to be taught in English. For some, this amounts to a betrayal of the national language and, more specifically, of a particular way at looking at the world – for others it’s just accepting the inevitable.
The English-speaking world has nothing to do with it.
My French is such, that I can get by as a tourist. I also successfully used the language, when I was at ICI, as it was quicker to read scientific reports from the Belgian company, Solvay, in French, rather than wait for a translation.
On the other hand, when I was in Montreal, a few years ago, I was totally baffled, as Canadian French, is more different to French, than American is to English.
When we developed Artemis, we sold in quite a few European countries, but didn’t bother with French, as we thought they would be touchy, wanting everything in their own language.
In the late 1970s, Metier had installed an Artemis system, at Chrysler in Coventry. For various reasons, it hadn’t been upgraded, as much as it should. Soon after Peugeot-Citroen took over Chrysler in 1979, someone in Peugeot-Citroen decided to do a company wide survey of the various project management systems in use in the group. on one visit they went to Coventry and because they were impressed with what they saw, they came straight down the M1 to see us in our offices in Hayes.
Peugeot-Citroen then decided to buy a system for Paris. We told them it was only in English, but they said not to matter, as all their engineers knew the language. They did ask us to get some proper sales flyers in French.
The rest as they say is history, in that Peugeot-Citroen introduced Artemis to a lot of their friends.
Another story I remember, which illustrates the French and their language, happened a few years later. In the 1980s, I owned a company that made hand-tools. One tool, was exported to France and the United States. Our American agent asked if we could produce an English/French version for Canada. But a straight combination of what we already had was unacceptable and we had to get a special French Canadian translation at great expense. Eventually, the Canadians excepted it.
A couple of years afterwards, we had an urgent order from France, but unfortunately we were out of French leaflets. So we faxed over the French Canadian one to ask if that would be acceptable. The response was, that it will do, but that the French would have a bit of a laugh about the language.
Make of that, what you will!
I should say, that I once travelled to the States with a secretary from the New Zealand embassy in Ottawa. She told me, that some Canadians got very upset, if she sent them a letter with some American English spelling.
Not Very Correct French
French Railways or SNCF has just introduced a budget low-cost TGV service . They’ve called it Ouigo, which I assumed is pronounced “we go”.
I thought the French had laws against the language of the dreaded rosbifs!
But it is a concept that might just have enough to succeed.
Would I use it?
Probably not, as it seems to be tied into French mobile phones and post codes. But I had read that the web site was only in French, but it’s now also in English. So I suspect that in a few months, it’ll be as easy to use as easyJet or Ryanair.
I shall certainly try it on one of my trips back from somewhere in Southern Europe.
The Language Rules In Quebec
There is a big row going on in Quebec about the use of the proper language in an Italian restaurant. It’s here in the Guardian. This paragraph shows the pedantic nature of the language police.
After a five-month investigation into an anonymous complaint, Massimo Lecas received a letter from the board telling him that his establishment, Buonanotte, had broken the law by including the words “pasta” on the menu and “bottiglia”, the Italian word for bottle, instead of the French word bouteille.
It sounds like several Italian restaurants, I have been to in the UK, the Netherlands or France.
I have only been to Quebec once and wouldn’t go again.
I don’t speak French well, but I can read it pretty well, as I’ve spent a couple of summers in the South of France and have also read some of the James Bond books in French.
But I found the French in Montreal very difficult and I never worked out how to use the public transport, as there is no English translation. It was almost like going to Wales and finding everything in Welsh. Even Paris, which last time I looked at the map was in France, is a city, where instructions for public transport are in multiple languages and in that respect it is much better than London.
But the main reason, I won’t go, is that I found on that trip it was difficult to stay gluten-free. In fact, I got glutened for the only time in recent years. It was mainly because the good restaurant I ate in, had probably used oven-chips, which are coated in wheat to make them crisp.
Some years ago, I used to own a hand tool company. We sold in numerous countries including the United States and France, and then had an enquiry from a distributor in Canada. They would take the product, but the product leaflet would have to be in perfect Canadian French. French just wouldn’t do! So at some expense we got a French Canadian translation and the product was duly launched in Canada.
Some time later, we had an urgent order from France and sadly we were out of French leaflets, so we told them, we did have the French Canadian version in stock. So we faxed one to France and the French said that the leaflet was rather quaint and a good laugh, but that it would do to fulfil the urgent order.
There’s no doubt that French Canadians are much more bothered about their language than the French.
Perhaps though some Canadians are also a bit touchy about English spelling. I once flew to the States sitting next to a secretary at the New Zealand High Commission in Toronto. She had to be very careful she didn’t use American spelling, when writing to some English-speaking Canadians, as otherwise they’d return it with corrections.
Is This The Wrong Name For A Train?
The Dutch and the Belgians have given the new high speed train linking Brussels and Amsterdam the name Fyra. Here’e what Wikipedia says about the origin of the name.
The name Fyra represents pride, and is derived from the Dutch and French words fier/fière, both meaning proud.
Pride or proud is not a name that would be high on an Englishman’s choice, as pride comes before a fall. I think it’s from the bible!
Saying that various ferries across the Channel have been named Pride of Dover, Calais etc.
I do suppose the Dutch and the Belgians had a problem here, with their various languages. But then in the UK, some of our fastest trains; Class 390 Pendolinos, keep their Italian names.
Someone has just told me that the Dutch have another name for the train. This is the first paragraph from the story.
The Fyra is actually a high speed of Aldi. If you have a cheapest possible train orders, you get those too.
I wonder what Aldi thought of the free publicity.
Speaking English
Ed Milliband is reported as going to be making a speech saying that every Briton should speak English. It’s reported here in the Guardian
I think Milliband is being rather hypocritical. I assume, that when his parents arrived in the UK, their English skills were not a hundred percent.
Certainly, when my ancestors arrived in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, I suspect they’d have had difficulty taking to each other. Just as I do now, talking to some with English, Scottish and Northern Irish regional accents.
I think the episode shows that Milliband will pull any cheap trick to get votes.
We Need A Radish
According to The Times today, this is the French way of saying they don’t have a bean.
It was shown as a placard on a French tractor as “On a un radis” and the paper translated.
The Anonymous Widower 