Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 13:47:43 +0200 From: Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be> To: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@online.fr>, Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/alpha/alpha clock.c Message-ID: <p05111705b90fe1afee46@[10.0.1.4]> In-Reply-To: <20020521133026.L71209@lpt.ens.fr> References: <200205162121.g4GLLGQ43405@freefall.freebsd.org> <20020516220511.A9DBE380A@overcee.wemm.org> <20020517114010.A57127@regency.nsu.ru> <20020519100324.GK44562@daemon.ninth-circle.org> <20020519134348.I67779@blossom.cjclark.org> <p05111722b90de01cc974@[10.9.8.215]> <20020520195703.A79046@dragon.nuxi.com> <p05111701b90fb2744154@[10.9.8.215]> <20020521103710.C71209@lpt.ens.fr> <p05111703b90fc048bd8f@[10.0.1.4]> <20020521133026.L71209@lpt.ens.fr>
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At 1:30 PM +0200 2002/05/21, Rahul Siddharthan wrote:
> You'll be surprised at the number of foreign words in common use in
> French. From English, there's "weekend", "stop" (in road signs),
> "ok", and other examples I can't recall offhand; and among technical
> terms, "CD" (in French it should have been "DC" but isn't -- with
> "DVD" there's no problem), internet, web, login, etc. There are also
> coinages you won't find in English, like "footing" (soccer), "fooding"
> (roughly, the art of eating) and so on. Admittedly the French often
> do mutilate foreign words when they import them, but that's the
> people, not the academie.
> I've noticed French people who can
> pronounce "Hubbard" quite nicely when speaking English, will say
> something like "oobaarh" when speaking French.
That's because the pronunciation of the same word is different in
the two languages.
My wife and I have kept our names, because both of us are
professionals and we have certain affiliations and reputations that
we've built up over the years with those names. In the US, it didn't
matter so much whether we used her name ("Geyer") or mine, because
most people could pronounce and spell them roughly equally well.
Moreover, they could deal with the concept of two people being
married and living at the same address, but not having the same last
name.
However, over here, we tend to use her name a lot more. Instead
of saying the proper "Guy-ur", they say something more like
"Zhie-air", but it's close enough. But the way they mangle "Knowles"
is just unbelievable. They can't spell it, either. In addition,
unless you want to go into a thirty minute expose as to how two
people could be married, living together, and yet not have the same
last name, you just don't really bother even trying to correct them
when they call you "Monsieur Zhie-air", even though she complains
every time that you respond positively to this usage that you are not
her father, and therefore you do not have the right to use that name
that way.
So incredibly bloody fscked up.
French-speaking people are so damn snooty sometimes.
Occasionally you will run into one that doesn't speak English but
will still be friendly and as helpful as possible, but if you don't
speak French it seems that most often you will run into people who
take a "But you must speak French in order to exist!" type attitude.
Every time I run into this, I am reminded yet once again why I am
now working for a Dutch company, and I will be learning Dutch
although they insist that this is not necessary and that everyone in
the company speaks, read, writes, and understands English
sufficiently well -- indeed, some of them seem to be better at it
than certain "native" speakers I've met.
I just can't wait for my lessons to begin, so that the next time
I meet one of these assholes, I can tell them, in proper Dutch,
something like "For my employer, I am learning Dutch". Let them
choke on that, and then maybe they'll remember that they do actually
happen to speak & understand English!
--
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles@skynet.be>
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.
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