The Queen Meets President Hollande Today
according to The Times, the Queen will meet President Hollande today for thirty minutes. They will meet without interpreters and it is expected that they will talk in French. Has there ever been a French queen, who spoke fluent English?
Later President Hollande will have a working lunch with David Cameron.
Note that Hollande’s name is always flagged up by the default spell check.
Hodgson Speaks Italian at a Press Conference
The BBC seems very surprised that he did this, but he did manage a top club in the country. If they read his Wikipedia entry, it says he speaks eight languages, five of which fluently.
I haven’t seen or heard what he said, but perhaps he threw the Italian into the press conference to make sure that the Italians knew he would understand what they shouted from the touchline. I suspect too, he reads the Italian papers’ comments on the match. That must be a great help, as newspapers are always trying to be better than the managers. And usually failing!
Why Do The French Like the Queen So Much?
According to this article on the BBC web site, the Diamond Jubilee has gone down well with the French.
So why is this? Could it be that she’s probably the only English-speaking leader, who speaks reasonable French in public?
Only In The United States Could Speaking French be a Disadvantage
According to this account on the BBC’s web site, Mitt Romney is being denounced for being able to speak French and actually doing it in public.
I think we have a rather different attitude in Europe, as although we argue with the French many of our politicians have used French when talking publicly in France. Although, we do make a joke of it between us. As two old friends would. Apparently, the French version of Allo Allo deliberately used bad French as a joke, even more than the English version did with Officer Crabtree being a deliberate parody of Edward Heath.
Remember too, the Queen speaks reasonable French, as this article attests.
We now live in a world, where many more people are bilingual, as their parents were immigrants. So the US has a large proportion of Spanish speakers and we have quite a lot of speakers of many other languages.
But go back to 1900 and has anything changed. Yiddish and German would have been heard in many places in London and New York for a start.
But now, only in America would the ability to speak a foreign language be considered to be a handicap for a politician!
Barcelona Comes To London
I took these pictures in Trafalgar Square before the match.
Everything was very good-natured. It also seemed to be more about photography, singing and hsving a good time than excessive consumption of alcohol.
It was very busy in Charing Cross station, but where were the signs in Spanish/Catalan. There seemed to be a degree of crowding as fans tried to work out how to get tickets to Wembley.
London should get this right before the Olympics. But then we don’t need to, as all foreigners speak English. Don’t they?
New Scrabble Words
It has been announced that there are now a lot of new words allowed in Scrabble like innit and thang.
Well not in my house, as I play with a proper set that has wooden tiles.
Bilingual Signs
I’ve said before that I don’t like bilingual place names. Mainly with concern to Belgium, where they suddenly change language of the signs to the place you are going. In one case it led to a detour of about fifty kilometres.
Take this sign in Cardiff station.
Cardiff or Caerdydd
Surely, it should be in English or Welsh but not both! If the inhabitants of the city want Welsh to be the name, then so be it! An interesting example is London, where although there is a French name for the city, most French of my acquaintance, have used the English form, when speaking to me.
Obviously, where there can be confusion, like this informational sign both common languages are needed.
Bilingual Information Sign
In a few years time incidentally, this sign will be unneccessary as new regulations will mean that toilets will not be able to flush directly onto the track.
The Geordie Accent
At times walking round Newcastle city centre, I thought I was hearing some foreign language.
It wasn’t!
It was just the version of English that Geordies talk to each other.
Strange Translations
France is very good these days in putting up notices in various languages. This is unlike Montreal, which seems to avoid putting up anything in English at all. But then as they speak good English, it doesn’t matter to the Canadians. But it does to visitors like me with limited language skills. Especially as the Canadian French is not like I learned at school.
But look at this notice in the unisex toilet of the Picasso Museum in Antibes.
Strange Translations
Here’s the English.
Thank you to respect the cleanliness of these places. By measurement of hygiene, female protections must imperatively be thrown in the container reserved for this purpose.
You can understand it, but it does have a certain sense of the surreal about it.
I’m pretty certain that it was translated by BabelFish or some other computerised translators. Or at least when I type it into that site, I get this.
Merci respecter la propreté de ces endroits. Par la mesure de l’hygiène, des protections femelles doivent impérativement être jetées dans le récipient réservé à cette fin.
Which is not too far from the original French in the notice. Note that I can’t type that in directly, as it has too many accents.
Surely though, wouldn’t it be sensible if before the notices are printed, that they knock the translation into something that is better. Then they wouldn’t get pedants like me commenting on the quaint words.
I also feel that in the UK, we should perhaps put more notices up in other languages, but failing that we should all make sure that if there is a word that is the same in most languages then that should be used. For instance, on my trip I saw some French/English notices, where the French was completely understandable to any English speaker. So why put the English up as well?
How to Attract Business
I really don’t care what language people use in private, but are new powers for the Welsh Assembly to force companies and organisations to provide services in Welsh a good idea?
If I was thinking about relocating a company to Wales, I would think again, as if at some future date, I’d have to go to the expense of providing everything in Welsh as well as English. I would go to part of the UK, where things were less strict. In these days, where business efficiency is the key, then imposing rules like this doesn’t make sense for the vast majority of companies and organisations.
The Anonymous Widower 