(no subject)

[la_rainette]

Friend:...and then all of a sudden my daughter asks me (loudly and in a public place), "mom, what's con fuck yous?"
rainette *cracks up*
Frienc: and I ask, how do you spell it? Turns out she meants Confucius...
rainette: OMG, I had a friend who told me that he'd only ever seen awry written in books, and he'd never used the word, so the first time he said it aloud, he pronounced is AW-REE and everyone laughed at him...
Friend: but it's pronounced aw-ree?
rainette: ... no, it's pronounced a-rye.
Friend: hang on *fishes out Blackberry, starts frantically typing* ... shit you're right. SHIT. SHIT! I can't believe you just corrected me.
rainette *feels uncomfortably French all of a sudden* : so, ahahahaha, what are your plans for the weekend?
Friend: hang on, I am tweeting.
rainette: ...okay....
Friend: How do you spell "embarrassing"?

Ladies and gentlemen, my evening at the arena.

*bows*

Comments

[plantmom.livejournal.com]

Years ago, my brother, who spoke German at the time, recounted meeting someone who claimed to love reading things by "this Go-EEE-Theeee guy". I'm sure you are guessing it was Goethe.
Then there's the time I took one of my photos in to a craft store, where they also do framing. The clerk took one look at a particular piece and exclaimed, "You're better than that Ansel guy!"
Yikes.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Go-EEE-Theee ... *dies* I am not sure I would understand that! I DID NOT GUESS! Thank you for traslating! :D

[plantmom.livejournal.com]

I think << les faux amies>> in any language are funny, or perhaps I should say intentional malaprops. Ray and I are very fond of the singer Dar Williams. Once I came home from work and realized one of her discs was playing in the stereo. I think I pointed at the stereo; I know I simply said, "Dar!". My husband's response was to point at the <> over the sink and exclaim, "Winder!".
We're BAD around here!

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

I think it was language maven William Safire who recounted a similar story, ages ago. A non-native English speaker was confused by a particular idiom, so he asked a United Statesian friend what "having sex" meant.

Gently, the American explained what happens when the mommy and the daddy love each other very much, but eventually, he or she asked the foreigner what context this particular phrase had come up in, polite-company-wise.

Turned out, a long-lost acquaintance had run into him at some function, and greeted him affectionately with the words, "Oh, for having sex it's good to see you again!"

["For heavens sake," he translates for any non-consignientiGermans or French who may be in the room....]

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHAHA I can just imagine the poor confused German's face as the American guy gave him the birds-and-bees talk. He must have been desperately trying to string all the confusing information together into something that made sense SOMEHOW. :D

GERMANS. THEY TAKE THINGS SERIOUSLY. No, really. I am half German myself, I know what I am talking about.

[seshat1.livejournal.com]

I genuinely thought epitome was different to the said word epitomy but meant the same thing for a while. I'm not sure why I thought no-one ever said epi-tome and I never say epitomy written down, but there you go...

I was most embarrassed when I found out! :D Trouble is, I learnt all my interesting words from seeing them written down, so even if you hear people say them, you don't always put two and two together! Sadface :D

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

I KNOW! Well, English is the only language I know that has a pronounciation dictionary FOR NATIVE SPEAKERS. I have a theory that every language has the type of dictionary it deserves. English has a pronounciation dictionary; French has A MILLION CONJUGATION REFERENCE BOOKS.

Yeah. :D

[seshat1.livejournal.com]

Huh, really? Bad English! I always kind of liked French conjugations. Only to AS Level, so maybe that doesn't count, but it always kind of made sense to my brain. It's like Maths! *huge giant dork*

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Oops *giggle* thats the problem with learning good words from reading, and ones that don't get used in conversation much, took me a while to be convinced that "stifled" wasn't stIFFled and that "gibber" begins with J..

I'm used to being the walking dictionary for the household, my brain holds onto that kind of stuff happily (along with trivia and numerous other bits and bobs)

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

See, I have a theory that every language has the kind of dictionary it deserves. English is the only language I know (though I am sure there must be others) that has a PRONOUNCIATION DICTIONARY for native speakers. The day my friend told me his story of woe about the word awry, many others chimed in with their own horror story of words they didn't pronounce correctly.

French has CONJUGATION REFERENCE BOOKS and fabulous grammar books. My personal favourite is the Grévisse (800 pages of PURE GRAMMATICAL FUN).

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Hee.. there's a lovely scene in tbe book Zazi where the action stops long enough for someone to go and look it up in a book, I think I missed a couple of cultural wotsits there but it made me giggle nonetheless

I actaully enjoy reading grammar books for other languages *blush*

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Don't blush, I like that too. :D I think the structure of a language says a lot about the way you process verbal thoughts, you know? It's an integral part of the culture that shapes you.

Languages are fascinating!

[plantmom.livejournal.com]

OMG, when I started to THINK in French! Amazing time.

[plantmom.livejournal.com]

That's fascinating, Rainette. Sometimes when I'm really, really tired I'll tell someone, "I'm so tired I don't think I could conjugate a verb right now". I never thought, until I read what you just wrote, about how different English and French are. After so many years of speaking and reading French, I guess it comes more naturally to me to think that way. No wonder I often get odd looks, and at least one person simply stated, "I don't even know what that is!"

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

The first time a University Professor said to us, "English has two tenses: present and past" (which is currently the "Official Position" among University Professors in France, it appears), we young Frenchlings had a moment of sheer panic. What, no conjugation? Where are going to find the grammar then? :D

I didn't know you spoke French! I should post in French sometimes.

[plantmom.livejournal.com]

That would be great. I offered to write to you in French a while back, and you kindly offered to respond, and then I got cold feet. I'm so rusty, I'm sure. It might help to read your posts first. Emily has gone so much farther. But one must start somewhere, yes?