Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Interesting Uses of English in France

One thing I've discovered since coming to a country where I have only a slight grip on the language is that many people don't like to go outside of bounds of their linguistic competence. You see this reflected in the types of vacations that are advertised by travel agents in Strasbourg -- to L'ile de Réunion, Algérie, Tunisie, Senegal, Québec, etc. What these places all have in common is that people speak French there. I can understand wanting to travel to a place where the language isn't a barrier, though -- it's a big investment, and most people want to feel comfortable on their vacation.

Within the country, the French also try to keep a tight grip on their language, not often allowing foreign words in. Sometimes, however, words sneak in and become part of the language, whether they're welcome or not. Thus you have people wishing you "Bon Weekend!" on Friday, or you might go "faire le shopping" to buy your groceries or some new clothes (although it can still be called "faire les courses"). At some boulangeries (bakeries) you can buy a "sandwich americaine", conveniently stuffed with greasy pommes frites (French fries, to us.) At the patisserie (pastry shop) you can buy "les brownies", a dessert that must have made it into France so fast that they didn't have time to change the name to something more French.

What always makes me smile, though, is when the words in the other language don't quite make sense in the given context. Occasionally, proprietors will throw a word or two of another language into their shop names, possibly wanting to seem forward-thinking, hip or adventurous. Of course I can't really comment on the use of German or any other language, but the English ones usually catch my attention. Here are a few examples:


We came across this sign in Nice, where there are so many British tourists that the residents actually do speak more English than a lot of other places in France. With this store, however, I got the feeling that they just brainstormed a bunch of words that evoke a warm seaside vacation and threw them in a hat. Then they picked as many as they could and jammed them onto their sign.


I can understand why this business didn't make it (it's been closed since we moved here). I think this is an instance of people trying to be creative with a foreign language even though they may not understand all of the meanings of a word. I don't think this means that you can get actual rabbit pizza here -- although it wouldn't surprise me, since you can buy whole rabbit (lapin) at the grocery store. I'm sure they just meant that they make the pizzas fast, but as an anglophone and a person who doesn't make it a habit to consume rabbit regularly, the two concepts just don't belong together.


The word "sexy" is always guaranteed to catch people's attention. But a price? I don't really get it. (I know, I know, I fell for it. It caught my attention.)


They don't really mean that it's free, do they? I'll bet they're just teasing to get us monolingual English speakers in the door so they can make their sales pitch! (In French, of course!)


This one they got wrong, and right, in a punny sort of way. It's not the sort of general store we know from North American history, where you could buy everything from candy to farm implements. Instead this store sells military-looking clothing and accessories.



There are an extraordinary number of businesses in Strasbourg that offer to help you find work; we have at least three on our block alone. Many of them have English-sounding names, including the now politically incorrect (in North America, anyway) Manpower. In France, where every noun has a gender, the idea of neutering the language to avoid giving a name a masculine or feminine slant would be laughable.


And finally, I'm not sure that I would buy a package tour from a company that sells "norest" voyages. I think these are the ones with the lumpy beds, flashing neon lights outside your curtainless window, and the band in the bar below your room belting out endless renditions of La Bamba.


Email us! christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Check out the kids' blog: http://www.viewegkids.blogspot.com/

Sneak a peek at our pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

2 comments:

Jim Martin said...

Hi Christina,
I enjoyed your observations about English in France. I think Denglish (Deutsch and English) is even more mixed up (and don't even get me started on the Asians!). I hope you are enjoying your trip. It was nice meeting you in Freiburg.
Jim

ChristinaT said...

Hi Jim
Thanks for your comment -- we enjoyed speaking with you as well! It's always interesting to talk to people who have made a permanent move from North America to Europe. Perhaps we'll meet again in another playground somewhere! : )
Christina