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What makes France such an endearing and infuriating country at the same time?

Why are the French a people that you love one day and hate the next?

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Archive for 'Language'

Happy Easter?

Lesson #1 for webmasters who run multilingual sites: don't forget to update the English version from time to time (click pic to visit site)

Posted: Sun 21-Sep-08 under Language, Oops

Drunk in Translation

The French government wants young people to drink less, and uses ads like these to create awareness:

An English translation of the ad was submitted to Ads of the World. Since this campaign was created by one of the largest advertising agencies in France I'm wondering why they didn't hire a qualified translator? (Click pic for […]

Posted: Fri 19-Sep-08 under Language, Created in France

Franglais resurgent

Nice cartoon in the Economist:

The article is also worth reading: The French relax their prickly hostility to the English language

Posted: Sat 13-Sep-08 under Language

"I could never write a song in French"

Just by singing in English, precocious French duo the Do (pronounced "doe") have sparked a cultural shift in their homeland. Their playful, genre-hopping debut album A Mouthful topped French charts in January, as did their first single On My Shoulders (see video below). But unlike most hit bands in French history, their entire album, bar […]

Posted: Fri 12-Sep-08 under Language, Video & Audio, Oops

noo voo dree yohn oon tah bluh dahn lah nahn few mure

Roy Evan Burstiner is a 55-year old abstract artist who grew up in NY, lived in California for 10 years, & is currently living in Hawaii. He's also a future traveler to Paris (he hopes), and probably the most qualified person to teach you some French, phrase by phrase. He does it on his Let's […]

Posted: Sun 07-Sep-08 under Country & Travel, Language

French Lesson #5

From an unknown source, via Reddit

Posted: Sat 16-Aug-08 under Language, Oops

World Languages: French comes in at 10th place

The French like to claim that their language is one of the world's most spoken, but the numbers don't add up.

According to this map (click for bigger), French barely makes it to the top-10, with 129 million speakers worldwide. Among the European languages, English scores 508 million, Spanish 392 million, Russian 277 million, and […]

Posted: Fri 15-Aug-08 under Language, Statistics

Machine translation gone wrong

On Morocco Travel Information (translated from Arabic): Shame of France! French Magazine posted Naked Moroccan star's photos
French Magazine "Public" published naked pictures of Melissa Fiori the French television Star of channel M6, and his wife Jamal Dboz ( Moroccan sexy girl ), Jamal Dboz is original Moroccan Comedian star.
The magazine offered a tabloid […]

Posted: Thu 14-Aug-08 under People, Language

Roommate Tips

If you're looking for a flatshare in Paris, you may want to check out newroommate.co.uk.
They even give you useful translations, such as Do you smoke? Est-ce que vous fumez?, and a list of "What you should know about the French Roommates", including this one:
"The French do not speak very well English, even the […]

Posted: Fri 08-Aug-08 under Country & Travel, Language

Obama Embarrassed Americans Cannot Speak French

Barack Obama gives a lesson on language and offensive American behavior. He's embarrassed that Americans cannot speak French when they go on their trips to France.

He needn't worry — poor language skills (among other qualities) have just put the French at the top of the list of obnoxious European tourists.

Posted: Thu 10-Jul-08 under Country & Travel, Language

Who says the French don't know English?

Some journalists are full of it! (Thanks, Jen!)

Posted: Tue 08-Jul-08 under Language

The Beautiful Word

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Scrabble word game, Mattel commissioned this campaign in France. Advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather in Paris is behind the beautifully crafted ads. Here's one (click for bigger):

The other ones are here, here, here, here, and here.
Via Ads of the World

Posted: Thu 03-Jul-08 under Language, History, Created in France

How to Learn a Foreign Language in Two Elections

(Spotted by Rue98)

Posted: Sat 28-Jun-08 under Language, Sarkozy & Co

French With a Liverpudlian Accent

It happened in Paris in 1965. This little known band from Liverpool made an effort to woo their audience by introducing a song in French. Nice try, but it didn't get them anywhere.
Via Clarkspicks.com

Posted: Fri 23-May-08 under Language, History

The wrong reasons to learn French

Click for bigger picture.
German language school Sprachcaffe wants you to learn French, and displays a French flag built from girl's names to give you the right reasons. But Carnation, Jacquenetta, Vignette, Charlisa, Cheyenne, Comforte and a few hundred more are not French names at all.
With a little homework they could have done it right. […]

Posted: Wed 30-Apr-08 under Language, Oops

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