401 closed

[la_rainette]

They closed off the 401 highway this morning: there has been an accident involving a truck.

A truck full of beer.

There is a BEER FLOOD on the 401 this morning, and I can't stop laughing. *g*

In other news, I am Very Amused by commercial callers.

See, before I was born, my parents argued on possible names. If I turned out to be a girl, my mum wanted to call me "Françoise": a very French, slightly outdated, impossibly nasal first name. My father just laughed and demonstrated a few of the unfortunate pronounciations and nicknames I would have to deal with if we ever went to visit my grandma in Germany, and she gave up on the idea, and they picked a nicely international name for me. It worked out nicely, so Husband and I did the same for our girls: the names we picked both work in several languages.

Unfortunately, Husband's parents were otherwise inclined. Since they couldn't make up their minds on how to call Husband anyways, they decided they would pick whichever Saint was feted in France that day. When Husband was born on the day of the St-Médard, they realized that this just wouldn't work out. A Saint he may be, but Médard is not used much as a first name, maybe because of the sad reputation the St-Médard has in France (it is said that if it rains on the St-Médard, there will be 40 days of continuuous rain. Ahahahaha). So they picked another name. A Very French Name.

Now, commercial callers have no idea who they are calling. I don't know how it works, but their system hangs up automatically if a machine picks up the call, and forwards the call to an actual Commercial Person if anyone picks up. I guess this is when the name of the callee shows up on their screen. And then? whichever name it is, they have to deal with it.

Commercial person: Hello, my name is Annoying Dinnertime Caller of the Week, how are you tonight?
rainette *non-commital grunt*
Commercial person: Good, good. May I talk to Mr. ...
rainette *waits*
Commercial person *takes deep breath*
rainette *waits*
Commercial person *sputters*
rainette *grins*
Commercial person *utters some sort of vague approximation of Husbands name*
rainette *giggles unabashedly* Hold on, I'll get Perfect-French-Pronounciation-for-Husband's-Name for you.

I mean, OK, so the first name is French; still, this is CANADA. A Very Famous Quebec politician has the same first name as Husband; the last name, though French, is pretty manageable. It's not like they're climbing the Everest. We're talking two syllable names here. So now I am left wondering what they do when they call people from Poland (hello, Mr. Szczubial, how are you today?) or from Madagascar (hello, Ms. Randriamampionona, how are you today?) And yes, those names are actual names.

This is why I will never be a commercial caller. I mean, come on. Not only do I hate the phone in general, but extricate people from their bathtubs to sell them new double-glazed windows or life insurances, AND THEN NOT EVEN BE ABLE TO SAY THEIR NAMES PROPERLY? Several times a day, every day? That is something I hope I never have to do in my life. It probably takes more guts -- or desperation -- than I have.

Comments

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

Although, I have to ask S how to pronounce it just about every time I go to say it. For lo, I am distinctly Not With The French.

*hugs you guys anyway*

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*hugs back* Oh, but that's fine! Cos if it's you calling and pulling me out of the bathtub -- I know you really want to talk to me, and I'll be glad to her you.

It's the being chosen at random for that kind of torture, by someone who has NO REASON TO CALL ME OF ALL PEOPLE that drives me nuts.

Especially when I'm in the bathtub. *g*

[seshat1.livejournal.com]

Boy tells me on a regular basis that my French accent is appalling - I am happy to believe this, as I haven't been to France since I started University. So I have no hope.

I think it's the pause that's the most annoying - decide how you're going to say *then* call! Or even if you don't get much time, figure it out quickly! Then just push you way through. That's what everyone does with my surname - annoying, but at least they don't take ages trying to figure it out most of the time. And then, when they are (invariably) wrong, I get to correct them, and that makes me happy! =D

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*laughs* yes, it's that pause. Cos that's when you realize, hey, they don't even know who they're calling.

Husband's name starts with a "g", pronounced "j" and not "g" as in rogue, see. Whoever doesn't know that obviously doesn't know him, and therefore has no business calling in thhe middle of dinner. If you know that, but still don't sound French -- Hey, I don't mind. I have an accent, too. ;) *g*

[seshat1.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yay for accents. I love a french accent ;)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_skye_/]

Too bad you can't manage a pretzel truck accident right there also, because then I bet you'd make international news.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

ROFL Probably. Although I thought Bono Vox giving out Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin's private phone number on national radio would make international news, too. Alas, I don't think it did.

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

BEER FLOOD! Pass the nuts please! Sounds like a party to me...

I can't pronounce the tiny bit of French I know very well, but where I really run into problems is trying to spell it. I learned it by hearing it, and when I even think about spelling it I get headaches.

You've got all these letters that you don't use, for one thing, and then the letters that you do use, you use differently than we do, and then you've got sounds that WE HAVE NO LETTERS FOR.

I used to love watching "Forever Knight", which was set in Toronto, and I never did learn how to say LaCroix's name correctly. Nick said it one way, and LaCroix said it another way, and Jeannette, who was seriously French, said it like she was trying to hack up a hairball.

Oy veh.

Yay for diversity!

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*laughs* You should see Tadpole's face! (I've been saying LaCroix aloud to myself to see if it sounds like hacking up a hairball when pronounced by an Authentic Frenchwoman. Erm. I think it does. :D )

What are the letters we don't use? I agree with you, though: French spelling is quite complicated, especially once you thrown in the dreaded accords.

It's quite interesting to see that the type of dictionaries and grammar books and stuff available for a language varies with the language: the French have numerous grammar books that explain French verbs and conjugation and accords in painstaking details. But the English have their very own phonetics dictionary (by that, I mean a dictionary that is not just meant for foreigners, but also for English speaking people), because seeing a word printed out in English gives you no indication on the way it is pronounced (and that is actually not the case in French: French speaking people are able to properly pronounce any French word they encounter, regardless of whether they are familiar with that word or not.)

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

Word on the English spelling having nothing to do with pronunciation. I'll try to look up a poem I used to know on the many different ways to pronounce "ough"--it will amuse you.

Way into my twenties, I thought the word "misled" was pronounced "Mi-zld" (Long I). I knew exactly what it meant, and had heard people use the word, but I thought that the word they were using was spelled "mislead" (which is actually pronounced differently). The day it dawned on me, I felt extremely stupid.

My brother had a similar problem with the word "menus"--he thought for years that it was pronounced "mee-nus". Like Venus.

The letters you don't use--no specific letters, just that there seem to be a lot at the end of words that don't get pronounced. Much like the English Worcestershire (which I also can't pronounce. "Gimme some o' that there steak sauce!") Really, we English-speaking people have no right to complain about other languages' spelling. :D

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, that's true, but the rule is quite simple: if there is no "e" after the last consonant, it doesn't get pronounced; if there is an "e", you pronounce the consonant, but not the "e" (we call that mute e, "e muet"). There are a few exceptions, but really, that's it.

Er. Sort of. :D

[indy-go.livejournal.com]

The other day, 465 was closed for a mile because a truck of CHEESE spilled it all over the road. Serious case of the giggles. :D

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*cracks up*

There is no way you can stay serious with this kind of accident. Everyone in France still remembers the day that TV news anchor was reporting a flood in Poland, and the river was called la Prout (and prout, in French, is kiddie-slang for fart), and he got to the name of the river, and he started to giggle, and the more he tried to keep it in, the redder he became, and the more he needed to laugh...

They still show it sometimes. You know, in the Funniest TV Moments kind of shows. *g*

[indy-go.livejournal.com]

That is priceless. XD

[dramawench.livejournal.com]

Trust me - there is absolutely no worse hell than telemarketing. I did it for about 3 weeks when i was absolutely desperate and i can honestly say that i would now rather shove hot spikes up my fingernails than ever do it again.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Oh, I trust you! I mean, gah! I don't like the phone in general, so phoning perfect strangers to sell them something they do not need/want sounds like my idea of hell!

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

ROTFL.

What a great way to discourage telemarketers.

I live in fear of butchering people's names. Especially Chinese names, which have four different intonations and unfathomable tongue-twistings. That's why most Chinese people "adopt" English names in the States.

I have a Hindi last name, although I'm not Indian ~_~
Thinking that everyone in the States will butcher my last name, I was pleasantly surprised to find that more than 50% pronounce my last name correctly.

What's hilarious is people keep on misspelling my first name, which is a common English name (with the conventional spelling). Because of my accent, I pronounce my first name differently than how English-speakers pronounce it. Plus, due to my ethnicity, people expect me to have an exotic name and therefore spell my name in the most exotic way imaginable. A memorable one is "Liliya." Maybe I should name a fictional character that *g*

(My RL name is not Lilian Cho, although my RL first name does start with an "L.")

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

:D Nobody ever butchers my first name, but my mum goes through a lot, and so does Husband.

You have an accent? Just wondering, what is your mother tongue? How many languages do you speak?

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

I was born and raised in Indonesia, then moved to the States for college. I'm staying here for good :-)

I speak Indonesian, English and (v. v. rusty) Mandarin. I also know random Japanese phrases from Japanese comics and cartoons *g* (I'm thinking of taking intensive first-year Japanese this summer).

[klikittyklak.livejournal.com]

I was just randomly reading your LJ when I saw this entry, and I felt compelled to comment.

My parents are French as well, and they picked a quite conventional name for me. They wanted to name me "Mireille" but figured that anyone but the French would butcher it. Our last name often scares away telemarketers in the U.S., even though it is probably the most simple French name ever (sounds like Rousseau).

However, I am moving to Canada in the fall, and had rather hoped it would be better there. Hope springs ever eternal, I suppose :).

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

It all depends where you're moving too. Toronto is rather strongly Anglophone (even if there are a few francophone pockets), and the commercial people I have talked to so far weren't very good at pronouncing our name. But in Quebec or Ottawa or New-Brunswick I guess, you shouldn't have any problems.

[klikittyklak.livejournal.com]

I'll be attending UBC in Vancouver. I've heard that there's a Le Centre Culturel Francophone that's very active, so hopefully it'll be ok.