TOG@toil, chateau.murray@btinternet.com,

genuine_froggie@zeouane.org wrote:
> porl <porl@btinternet.com> wrote:
>
<snip>

> I actually wrote a rant to the RATP, the Parisian transport
authority. I
> showed it to a friend, who replied, 'you write French better than
practically
> every "real French" person I know !'
>

So even you friends don't consider you to be French, then? I count that
as a telling remark.

*Sigh*

The problem with Google is I don't think it offers a k/f facility, to I
see everything that isn't no-archived. So I'll lob my two-pennorth in
at last.

You aren't French. You will never be able to pass for French under
anything other than the most cursory interrogation simply because
you've missed out on the cultural side in your youth. You can't talk
about the old TV shows you used to watch; the sweets you used to eat;
the fashions and music of childhood and early youth. And these are the
most vital ingredients in building up a national identity.

In short, you can't walk Memory Lane. You'd have to invent a childhood
spent elsewhere.

Oh, and yes, seeing as I've now read this thread - I got the puns in
Joe Bar Team. I got the jokes. Possibly not all of them, but loads of
them Tell you what - Philippe, who commissioned me to do the job, hangs
out on the Ducati Sporting Club site. You can ask him.

My French is getting rusty. I haven't spoken it continually, while
immersed in the place, for 25 years. It doesn't matter. Like several
members of my family, I absorb language like a sponge - Pa spoke seven
tongues, I think. Give me a few days anywhere and I start making
stumbling, and then rapid, progress.

But that doesn't matter, especially not with JBT translation work. I
was hired as much for my ability to dream up wince-making puns and
jokes in *English* as for anything else. Jokes don't translate well,
you see. And you can't do direct translations of much stuff because the
similes don't work either. You have to invent new ones for the
different readership.

And as you once said, this is what I *do*. Use language. Quite
successfully, actually. It's paid for the bills, bikes, buildings,
booze and babies for the last 20+ years. So rather more successfully
than your efforts.

TOG@toil, chateau.murray@btinternet.com, <chateau.murray@btinternet.com> wrote:
> genuine_froggie@zeouane.org wrote:
> > porl <porl@btinternet.com> wrote:

> > I actually wrote a rant to the RATP, the Parisian transport
> authority. I
> > showed it to a friend, who replied, 'you write French better than
> practically
> > every "real French" person I know !'

> So even you friends don't consider you to be French, then? I count that
> as a telling remark.

Are you too stupid to see quotation marks ? You know, the '"' around
'real' and 'French' ?

The point being is that of course they know that I wasn't born here, as
I told them, and they've known me long enough that I still had the
'Brit' accent.

> The problem with Google is I don't think it offers a k/f facility, to I
> see everything that isn't no-archived. So I'll lob my two-pennorth in
> at last.

You haven't killfiled me, TOG, so drop the pretence, eh ?

> You aren't French. You will never be able to pass for French under
> anything other than the most cursory interrogation simply because
> you've missed out on the cultural side in your youth. You can't talk
> about the old TV shows you used to watch; the sweets you used to eat;
> the fashions and music of childhood and early youth. And these are the
> most vital ingredients in building up a national identity.

The fly in the above rant, is that you appear to be buying into Cab's
belief that I arrived here a year before he did. Let's just say that
you're wrong (see below).

> In short, you can't walk Memory Lane. You'd have to invent a childhood
> spent elsewhere.

No, for that childhood was spent between three places, and France has
occupied a large part of the 'memory building', since the age of four
or five.

> Oh, and yes, seeing as I've now read this thread - I got the puns in
> Joe Bar Team. I got the jokes. Possibly not all of them, but loads of
> them Tell you what - Philippe, who commissioned me to do the job, hangs
> out on the Ducati Sporting Club site. You can ask him.

I've seen your written French. I've heard you speak French. I have
difficulty in believing the above but when it all comes down to it,
it's up to you.

{ snip }

> And as you once said, this is what I *do*. Use language. Quite
> successfully, actually. It's paid for the bills, bikes, buildings,
> booze and babies for the last 20+ years. So rather more successfully
> than your efforts.

In that respect, you have the advantage of age, so I can't disagree. So
far, I'm doing OK in paying bills, booze and bikes ... and the rest will
be along at some point, I daresay.

--
genuine_froggie@zeouane.org