From owner-freebsd-chat Tue May 21 4:48:27 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from durendal.skynet.be (durendal.skynet.be [195.238.3.91]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 390A237B408 for ; Tue, 21 May 2002 04:48:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [10.0.1.4] (ip-27.shub-internet.org [194.78.144.27] (may be forged)) by durendal.skynet.be (8.11.6/8.11.6/Skynet-OUT-2.19) with ESMTP id g4LBm4U24830; Tue, 21 May 2002 13:48:04 +0200 (MET DST) (envelope-from ) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: bs663385@pop.skynet.be Message-Id: 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> <20020520195703.A79046@dragon.nuxi.com> <20020521103710.C71209@lpt.ens.fr> <20020521133026.L71209@lpt.ens.fr> X-Grok: +++ath X-WebTV-Stationery: Standard; BGColor=black; TextColor=black Reply-By: Wed, 1 Jan 1984 12:34:56 +0100 X-Message-Flag: Your copy of Outlook will expire in 3 days. Please contact Microsoft about purchasing a new license. Remember: software piracy is a felony! Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 13:47:43 +0200 To: Rahul Siddharthan , Brad Knowles From: Brad Knowles Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/alpha/alpha clock.c Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org 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, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message