Franglais - it creeps up on you
On reading my last post I realise that I have become a person I swore I would never be. A person so smug and annoying that they deserve to be put in a Mairie where all the staff are going through messy divorces, and shunted between counters in a process known as the 'death spiral'.
In place of the word 'storage room' I used 'cave'. Not a mossy cave where bears live, but the French for 'storage room'. It's true that 'storage room' doesn't have the same pithy ring as 'cave'. It doesn't matter that I had to have a long hard think before I came up with it and that even now I'm sure there must be a better translation (no, not a cellar, because my storage room is above ground, damn it). There is no excuse for franglais. No excuse for dropping in a casual reference to the fact that I am the real deal - a seasoned expat. It is way too irritating.
I was confused the first time someone asked me for my 'coordinates'. Then I realised that otherwise sane English people asked for each other's coordinates all the time, as if we were all engaged in a gigantic game of battleships. It has become an accepted Franglais expression. Except the poor things have been here so long they are probably not aware that they sound as if they are trying to blow someone up, not find out their address.
Even worse is when people adopt French speech inflections. Yes-ah. No-ah. Beeeh...
Excuse me, I'm going to get a drink. It's been a long day.
In place of the word 'storage room' I used 'cave'. Not a mossy cave where bears live, but the French for 'storage room'. It's true that 'storage room' doesn't have the same pithy ring as 'cave'. It doesn't matter that I had to have a long hard think before I came up with it and that even now I'm sure there must be a better translation (no, not a cellar, because my storage room is above ground, damn it). There is no excuse for franglais. No excuse for dropping in a casual reference to the fact that I am the real deal - a seasoned expat. It is way too irritating.
I was confused the first time someone asked me for my 'coordinates'. Then I realised that otherwise sane English people asked for each other's coordinates all the time, as if we were all engaged in a gigantic game of battleships. It has become an accepted Franglais expression. Except the poor things have been here so long they are probably not aware that they sound as if they are trying to blow someone up, not find out their address.
Even worse is when people adopt French speech inflections. Yes-ah. No-ah. Beeeh...
Excuse me, I'm going to get a drink. It's been a long day.
posted by francesca tereshkova | 4:48 AM
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