Tuesday 30 August 2005

Glossary of terms which I attempted to persuade Marianne, who speaks much better French than I, were colloquial expressions she hadn't come across.

Quelque Chose.
- What a shame.

Comment t'appelles tu!
- Hurry up, slowcoach!

Jambon!
- Onwards!

Ou est la mouton de la nuit?
- What is the meaning of life?

Cordon Bleu!
- Unrepeatable expletive

Confit du canard.
- Scornful term for foreigner who thinks she knows a language, but is in fact ignorant of many of its basic idioms.

19 comments:

James Casey said...

John Sullivan would be proud.

...er, were you his son, or something...

John Finnemore said...

Eh? Was I John Sullivan's son? No, I was not. I was David Finnemore's son. Whose son were you?

James Casey said...

I'm really hating the way new blogs are getting spammed so easily. Oh, might as well delete this post when you delete the others.

James Casey said...

Of course sharp minds will make much of the fact that a lot of those spammers really like the phrase, 'pretty much'.

John Finnemore said...

So often people ask: 'Where does the time go?' or 'Why is there never enough time?' Well, now those questions can be answered. James Casey has the time. He has it on his hands, and he has too much of it.

I also notice with alarm that amongst a sea of anonymouses, the gentleman known as 'Circlejerker' has his own account. An old alter ego of yours, James...?

James Casey said...

It does make typing difficult.

I think a trick that a lot of spammers are doing right now is to start up blogs - or at least register the name, there's rarely content on them - and then leave comments on real blogs, because that then contains a link back to theirs. This bumps up the profile of their site, and then eventually they use that site to link to whatever they're spamming for (gambling, porn, pharmaceuticals, etc) and because of the way Google works, the link from other blogs to theirs raises the Google quotient of their blog, and therefore the profile of what their blog links to.

James Casey said...

Note, for instance, that there is nothing on Circlejerker's account.

James Casey said...

And no, that's not because it's my blog and I've just deleted it.

James Casey said...

Right, I'm going now. Bye.

James Casey said...

Oh, wait, forgot my hat.

James Casey said...

Really going now.

John Finnemore said...

Wait, I'm confused. Are you saying they WEREN'T all you after all, then? Or am I just falling for another piece of shady Casey trickery?

James Casey said...

Ah, your 'too much time' spiel makes more sense now. They're genuinely, NONE of them, by me. They're all spam.

The bilingual Frog said...

Those "colloquial french expressions" remind me an english one taught by my father as I was a little child. We were every day late to go to school and as he opened the door of the car and helped me to come in, he always said - I mean every single school day for years and years - that magic english formula "gogowentogun", which means - as everybody knows and I very quikly guessed it - "hurry up, we're late".

Then that was a terrible surprise for me to learn at secundary school (very late because I had learnt German first and started to learn English when I was 13/14) that it was actually just bits and pieces of a conjugation lesson : to go... go : went, gone.

A strong revelation... and after that unforgettable moment I started to have serious doubts about my dad's english skills.. (I really should let you listen to him !)

Anonymous said...

My husband speaks Swedish so when newlyweds he taught me a greeting to give when we went to my first Midsummer's Crayfish feast phonetically it sounded like:
"Spotte inter per golvit"
It got me many cheerful responses.

Later I learned it meant, "Don't spit on the floor."

Another time while walking he stooped and picked a tiny flower, which he handed me, saying tenderly, "Alle vorvorna sisat po"

--which means,
"All the little doggies have peed on it."

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