The French Journey

« La réalité est que vivre aujourd’hui dans nos quartiers, c’est avoir plus de chances de vivre des situations d’abandon économique, de fragilisation psychologique, de discrimination à l’embauche et d’humiliations policières régulières »

(2002, Hamé, aka Mohamed Bourokba from La Rumeur)

(The reality is that living in our ghettos today increases chances of experiencing situations of economic abandon, psychological fragility, employment discrimination and regular police humiliation)

Following an eight-year-long trial, Hamé has finally had charges dropped on the grounds of freedom of expression. In 2002, he wrote a text decrying the French police’s brutality and expressed his concern over the allegedly heavy-handed  ”Sarkozyist” policies.

« Les rapports du ministère de l’Intérieur ne feront jamais état des centaines de nos frères abattus par les forces de police sans qu’aucun des assassins n’ait été inquiété. »

(Reports from the Ministry of the Interior never mention the hundreds of our brothers beaten by police forces, without any of the assassins ever having been questioned)

And that concludes our peek of an insight into a spokesperson for the French underprivileged population, his views on Police brutality and life in general, and how the French establishment responded.

As much as I despise the use of the el-oh-el acronym, which seems to act as punctuation in some conversations I have with certain people, it is very much a part of everyday internet/mobile vocabulary. The French, being French, have unsurprisingly come up with their own alternative for this (highlight here: painfully ubiquitous throwaway pseudo-punctuation ) cheeky little word, and some other equivalents too.

- MDR is the LOL equivalent in French, meaning “mort de rire”, or dying with laughter, roughly translated.
- PTDR is a little stronger, akin to ROFL: “pété de rire”, or farting with laughter, roughly translated.
- KCDR is the strongest,  from “cassé de rire”, meaning broken with laughter – KC = Kah-say = cassé.

French “internautes” (internet users) also use LOL and WTF in their online/mobile dialogue, such is the international reach of English, but it can also be good to know a few French equivalents.

- TG is the vulgar way to tell somebody to stop talking (ta gueule – shut your mouth/gob/trap) (cf. STFU)
- OSEF is the less vulgar way of saying the same thing – who cares, or “on s’en fout”.

Hi Luke,

Can I just check some French with you?

ne t’en fais pas – Does it mean “don’t worry”?

I noticed the similarity to: ça (ne) fait rien – it doesn’t matter, in the use of the verb faire

All the best,
James

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James,

You got it, you’re spot on! I’m impressed. The only thing to bear in mind is that the “ne” is often dropped in both sayings:

- [ne] t’en fais pas (don’t worry [yourself])
- ça [ne] fait rien (it’s nothing/don’t worry)

Thanks for another great question,

Luke

Just a quick, rough translation of an “article” from a French law to give you a taste of what legal French looks and reads like.

Code du travail
Labour/labor/work code

L1221-8 :
Le candidat à un emploi est expressément informé, préalablement à leur mise en oeuvre, des méthodes et techniques d’aide au recrutement utilisées à son égard.
The candidate for a job is expressly informed, prior to its implementation, of recruitment assistance methods and techniques used with respect to the candidate.

Les méthodes et techniques d’aide au recrutement ou d’évaluation des candidats à un emploi doivent être pertinentes au regard de la finalité poursuivie.
The candidate recruitment or evaluation assistance methods and techniques for a job must be relevant with respect to the purpose sought.

Basically, candidates must be told if they are going to have astrology or handwriting evaluations performed upon them during the course of the employee selection process. Any techniques used must also be relevant to the job role offered.

Something I’ve noticed throughout my language learning journey has been that there is a general difference in how clearly I understand speakers of foreign languages, be it in French, Swedish or even English.

When straining to listen to pick up every word a foreign language speaker is saying, so as not to misunderstand, I can’t help but notice that it is much easier to clearly hear a female voice than it is a male one. In addition, I’ve also found that the older a male voice gets, the harder it becomes to understand.

I’m sharing this because I saw an article on the BBC News site claiming that voice recognition struggles more with male voices, here: Computers find male voices ‘harder to recognise’ and think that it could be potentially useful information to prepare yourself with in your language learning.

The article mentions the Edinburgh and Stanford University researchers finding that men make “umm” and “ah” sounds more frequently. But it’s not only this, in my experience; it’s also the lower tone blends words together in a way that if you don’t previously know the sound pattern of what is being said, it can be very hard to interpret it in a “dialogue” situation.

So, when next speaking to a male French speaker, consider standing on his toes while you speak – it might make his French a little bit clearer. For you, at least.

This French blague is awful, but fortunately even the worst joke can help you to remember a word or two.

- Chef, chef ! Il y a eu un vol cette nuit au supermarché ! On a volé 2000 cartouches de cigarettes et 1500 laitues !
- Bien, et vous avez des soupçons ?
- Ben ouais, on recherche un lapin qui tousse !

- Boss, boss! There was a theft last night in the supermarket! They stole 2000 cigarette packets and 1500 lettuces!
- Well, do you have any suspicions?
- Well yeah, they’re looking for a coughing rabbit!

Vocab and grammar

Il y a eu – there was (il y a = there is, eelya) as a fixed expression
un vol – a theft
cette nuit – this night means last night
on a volé – one has stolen, ie. they stole
bien – well, sometimes pronounced (and written) ben
soupçons – from soupçonner, to suspect
ouais – a very informal way to say oui
on recherche – one is looking for, ie. they are looking for – present tense
un lapin qui tousse – a rabbit who coughs (or is coughing)

En grande distribution, qu’est devenu le budget consacré aux sacs plastique autrefois donnés gratuitement ?

Source: Anonyme Courageux (with kind permission)

In mass retail, what has become of the budget for plastic bags that were once given out for free?
[Leclerc/Wall-Mart/Tesco/Sainsbury's Castle]
[No idea...]

Language tip:
- Donnés (given) is masculin and plural to show that it refers to the bag (le sac, les sacs).

Last night there was a riot (émeute) in the Belleville area of Paris, home to a large population of Chinese immigrants and descendants. What was planned to be a peaceful demonstration (manifestation) to speak out (dénoncer) the quarter’s increasing danger for Chinese residents degenerated into a riot that saw cars overturned and riot police on the streets.

The following text explains the origin of the trouble. I have highlighted useful terms:

“Bonjour, je préviens pour ceux qui ne sont pas au courant et qui veulent participer.
“Hello, a heads up for those who don’t know and who would like to participate.

Depuis des décennies déjà, les chinois sont victimes de vols et de racket de la part des noirs et des arabes dans les quartiers chinois de Paris (13ème arrondissement, Belleville …).

For decades now the Chinese people have been victims of thefts and racketing on behalf of black and arab [an example of the less "PC" manner the French use ethnic origins in speech] residents in the Chinese quarters of Paris (13th Arrondissement, Belleville…).

Le 1er juin 2010 vers minuit dans un resto chinois, à Belleville, il y a eu un vol collectif : les voleurs rackettaient et volaient l’argent, le sac à main et tout ce qui avait de la valeur, à tous les chinois qui sortaient du resto.

On the 1st of June 2010, at around midnight in a Chinese restaurant, in Belleville, there was a group theft: muggers racketed and stole money, handbags and anything of value from all Chinese people leaving the restaurant.

Cette nuit là il y avait un militaire qui a fait fuir les voleurs en blessant l’un d’entre eux et il en a enfin parlé à la police de ces rackets et vols à répétition (car aucun chinois n’osait porté plainte avant).

That night, a military person chased away the muggers by injuring one of them. He finally talked to the Police about these rackets and repeat thefts (as no Chinese person had dared to make a statement previously).

Les chinois n’ont plus de vie en France, ils se font cambrioler, voler, racketter dés qu’ils sortent. Ils ne peuvent même pas aller manger au resto le soir sans tomber sur ces voleurs qui leur veulent le fric. Ils ne peuvent plus vivre en paix.
The Chinese no longer have a life in France. They are burgled, mugged and racketed the moment they step out. They can’t even go to eat at a restaurant in the evening without running into these muggers who want their cash. They can no longer live in peace.

C’est non seulement inhumain de la part de ces arabes et noirs d’empêcher les chinois de vivre en paix mais aussi très raciste d’agir particulièrement contre les chinois car ce sont les principales victimes, malheureusement trop discrètes pour se faire entendre, jusqu’à cette nuit-là.

It’s not only inhuman of these Arabs and Blacks [again, apologies for the literal nature of this translation] to stop the Chinese from living in peace, but also very racist to act in particular against the Chinese, who are the principle victims who have unfortunately been too discreet to be heard, until this night.

Il y a donc une manifestation dimanche 20 juin en partant des quartiers chinois, pour protester contre ces vols. Je conseille à tous les chinois au moins d’y participer.”

And so there will be a demonstration on Sunday the 20th of June starting in the Chinese quarters, to protest against these muggings. I advise at least all Chinese people to participate.”

[Source: www.chinenouvelle.com and rue89.com]

Hi TFJ,

I heard the expression “a tout a fait” but I’m not sure what it means in context?  I thought “a tout” was used in the context of see you later short for a ”a tout alor”?

How is “a tout a fait” used? If you don’t mind doing a bit of free translation for me that is ^_^

All the best,

James

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James,

Great question. It’s never “a tout a fait”, it’s “tout à fait”, which means “absolutely, indeed, exactly”, or literally “all is fact”, with “fait” meaning “fact” in this instance, as in “fait accompli”. Example: “Tu es anglais ?”, “Oui, tout à fait.”

Citation / Quote
Source: La nouvel observateur

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Apple a vendu plus de 300.000 iPad pour son lancement

(Reuters) – Apple annonce avoir vendu plus de 300.000 iPad samedi, au premier jour de la commercialisation de sa nouvelle machine, à mi-chemin entre un ordinateur portable et un smartphone.

Ce chiffre comprend les ventes en magasins, y compris les tablettes qui avaient déjà été commandées par internet.

Certains analystes de Wall Street estiment à cinq millions d’unités le nombre d’iPad qui seront vendus par Apple la première année du lancement.

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(Reuters) – Apple have announced the sale of over 300,000 iPads on Saturday, the first day its new machine went on sale, half-way between a laptop and a smartphone.

This figure includes store sales, and the tablets that had already been ordered online.

Some Wall Street analysts estimate that 5m iPad units will be sold by Apple in the first year of its launch.

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1. Fact: French texts generally contain 10% more words than English texts, when comparing translations.

2. annonce avoir vendu = lit. annouce to have sold. Annonce is in the present tense. Avoir is the infinitive (to have) and vendu is in the perfect (ie. past – action is perfectly complete) tense. The translation was reworded to sound natural in English.

3. entre un ordi portable et un smartphone – between a and b. A very versatile phrase.

4. ce chiffre = this figure. Les chiffres are very important to business. Chiffres d’affaires means turnover, often abbreviated as CA in business documentation. Les ventes are just as important, meaning sales.

5 qui avaient (déjà) été commandées – which had (already) been ordered. Note that in French avaient and commandées both have endings which reflect the subject – les tablettes is feminine and plural, so avoir gets the imperfect 3rd person plural ending (they had – avaient) and commandées gets the perfect tense fem. pl. ending – extra e, extra s.

6. Certains = some people/certain people

6. Unités… seront vendus = units… will be sold. Seront is the future tense (3rd person plural) ending of être, to be. Vendus is in the perfect tense, has an extra s to show it’s talking about a plural subject. Will be sold.

Any questions, just ask below. Thanks for reading.