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robotnik2004
"Professor, what's another name for pirate treasure?"
"Well, I think it's booty... booty... booty... That's what it is!"
My Ontario high school French held up tolerably well in France. I was able to ask for directions, order in restaurants, and politely inform one stupid American woman in the airport that "19.08" was not the price of the sandwich she wanted to buy ("Nineteen DOLLARS for a SANDWICH? Is that REAL dollars or FRENCH dollars?") but the day's date. (The real price was clearly marked in LARGE BLOCK LETTERS.) Oh, and when Pitou ruined the picnic by stealing Mama's poulet, I was all set.
I was thrown a curve, however, by our little Lonely Planet phrase book. Like any English to French phrase book, it listed words and phrases in English, in French, and then in a phonetic approximation of the French pronunciation. Simple enough, right? But any time we used the book we were met with uncomprehending stares.
It was bouteille, the French word for "bottle," that finally tipped us off. I
[Edit: Note
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wordwolf schooling me on French pronunciation below. Grumble grumble big shot Manitobans think they're so great...]What I'd forgotten when I bought the book was that Lonely Planet is an Australian company. The phonetics were written for Aussie accents. "Boo-tay," rhymes with "g'day," actually is a pretty good approximation of bouteille. Once we'd cracked that Rosetta Stone (and when I say "we", I mean "Lisa"), we could see that the whole phrasebook was like that: 'ay' for 'aye' and 'r's on the end of everything except the few places they belonged: "ler" for le, "der" for de, "zher per" for je peux. So the book wasn't worthless to us, but we did have to channel Crocodile Dundee while reading it, a tricky bit of cognitive processing that led me to walk into more than a few lamp posts and open manholes.
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that picture... the horror
Date: 2004-09-02 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-02 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-02 07:57 pm (UTC)I can still remember the bloody "Read All About It" theme song
Date: 2004-09-02 08:00 pm (UTC)And then there was the "Tomorrow People" on Nickelodeon back in, oh, '82? '83? Cheesy special effects and weird sci-fi stories: I think these shows made me the man I am today.
Re: I can still remember the bloody "Read All About It" theme song
Date: 2004-09-02 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-03 06:03 am (UTC)Okay, who do I need to talk to in order to get the rights to do a Tomorrow People d20 Modern book?
no subject
Date: 2004-09-03 06:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-03 08:00 am (UTC)Colors. (not Ice-T)
Date: 2004-09-03 09:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-02 07:54 pm (UTC)I Will Not Buy This Record-- it is Scratched
Date: 2004-09-02 10:48 pm (UTC)I must raise ze quizzical eyebrow (a French feat I can only perform in print). For though your Aussified theory may be correct, "bouteille" in Parisian French is most certainly pronounced "boo-tay", unless you are speaking in some (mon Dieu) Quebec accent.
eil/eille = ay like day, e.g. conseille, recueil, réveille, vieille, accueille; but
ail/aille = ai like die, e.g. ail, travail, bataille
By zees I see zat le Manitoba c'est plus près de Paris que l'Ontario. . .
. . . vant to come back to my place, Bouncy Bouncy?
Re: I Will Not Buy This Record-- it is Scratched
Date: 2004-09-03 03:01 am (UTC)Why deed you tole me dat? I do da best ting dat I try!
Date: 2004-09-03 06:29 am (UTC):)
no subject
Date: 2004-09-03 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-03 06:34 am (UTC)So why in the third picture, when it explains who's playing Sol, is Sol spelled with all capital letters?
In my South of the Border culturally backward ways, I totally misread it as "is S.O.L."
Marc Favreau is Shit Out of Luck.
Date: 2004-09-03 07:15 am (UTC)Re: Marc Favreau is Shit Out of Luck.
Date: 2004-09-03 07:18 am (UTC)I need to see that episode. I bet a lot of French phrases from that one could come in handy.
What's French for Shit Out of Luck? Idiomatically, naturally.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-03 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-05 11:08 am (UTC)"are filled" - present tense? Is Sol still out there doing his thing in the 21st Century? Please supply info!
I got that impression (all the puns and linguistic contortions) when I was Googling to find that picture of Sol/Favreau. Of course, I could hardly appreciate the French wordplay when I watched the show as an anglophone kid - which actually makes him a weird choice to teach kids how to speak French, come to think of it.
p.s. Hi! Thanks for commenting! Who are you?
no subject
Date: 2004-09-06 02:49 am (UTC)And, yes, Marc Favreau is still alive, and does shows from time to time. I'm a french speaking québecois and I can say that his puns can be hard to follow, VERY hard to follow. I would like to give you some exemples, but :
1- As you said, puns are rarely understandable in an other language
2- All of his puns are in context. Everything he say in his shows have meaning in the context of the monologues. That mean he dosen't pun to get a quick laugh, but because the whole thing must make sense. Strangly, it works !
Some, if not all, of Favreau/Sol shows are on CD, since the shows are rather basic : a garbage can is usually the only thing on the scene, beside Sol. The puns do the rest :-)
As for the the french courses, I can really comment about them, but I know Marc Favreau did a TV comedy duo in the 1970's were Sol was teamed with an other clown, but I don't know the number of puns per minutes in this show.
I hope this is helpful.
Oops !
Date: 2004-09-06 01:46 pm (UTC)"As for the the french courses, I can't really comment about them..."
Re: Oops !
Date: 2004-09-06 04:53 pm (UTC)What I am curious about, though, is how you happened upon my LiveJournal post in the first place. Were you Googling for Marc Favreau?
Re: Oops !
Date: 2004-09-07 07:15 am (UTC)How did I saw your LJ account ? Simple : I read the LiveJournal posts of Kenneth Hite from time to time, and I stumbled upon your post and Favreau's picture in his Friends section. It was a nice suprise to see this picture.
"Who are you ?"
Date: 2004-09-06 06:52 am (UTC)Just got my LiveJournal account. It got some very basic info on me, but it will be uptaded in the next few days...
Re: "Who are you ?"
Date: 2004-09-06 12:11 pm (UTC)(S'il y a des problèmes avec mon Français, blâment Sol... :) )
Quel Bruit!
Date: 2004-09-07 10:47 pm (UTC)Maman : Jean, Paul, vous regardez la tele, vous deux?
Jean et Paul : Non Maman,nous etudions le francais.
Maman :Alors, qui Regardes la tele?
Jean et Paul : C'est Marie.
Marie : Qui, Maman, mais j'etudie les maths aussi.