great translation booboos

[odile]

daughter was about 15 when she designed a great Easter card - a seal juggling with an Easte egg - with the faction 'phoque oeuf'

sometimes being bilingual is not such a good idea

[odile]

not sure about the nude person! Pneu without the 'p' sounds like 'noeud' (knot) - or, sorry to be graphic here, 'balls'-

Refer back to difference between sound of 'cou' and 'cul'. Keep practising...

[Dick Smith]

I pronounced it [noo].

Like 'nu'.

[odile]

nu    or   nous (noo) - not easy, hey! Been living in the UK for 35 years, and still get 'f' or 'v' instead of 'th' from time to time, so I do understand!

Practise in the shower or in 'les c..ottes!   nu   nous   cul   cou    and repeat 3x!

[Phil & Pat]

Is it just me or do the three stars make it a little difficult for others to work out what is going on?

[Clair]

Filtre à gros mots...

[Phil & Pat]

Some people obviously don't rise to the challenge (can I say that?) [:D]

I'm a grown-up so phoque oeuf didn't shock me too much, but I'm not sure about booboos, they sound rude to me.

Come on now, find a way of e x p- r_ e ss ing your thoughts, don't let the * * *  censor beat you!

[odile]

I'm afraid most language misunderstandings leading to a good laugh are due to 'rudeness'- so there is no use pretending. It is was all very polite, it wouldn't raise an eyebrow or a laugh (never mind anything else)... and they are all genuine!

A French kid on exchange in the UK couldn't understand why the local grocer seemed cross- then burst out laughing. Poor kid needed some new batteries for his camera, so he asked the grocer 'have you got any piles', making a big effort to give the word the best English pronunciation he could master!

[Will]

So presumably that means you can't write the English term for an 'impasse' or no-through-road, i.e. cul-de-sac?

[odile]

do you mean  c    u    l    de sac?

[odile]

thanks Phil + Pat, it worked..

[Phil & Pat]

And there's me thinking the censor only knew of words offensive to American sensibilities, never for the moment thinking that it knew that cul was a rude word in French.

EDIT

底部

EDIT again

Wow, that one got through.  I never thought that at my age I would be enjoying looking through dictionaries for rude words. [6]

[odile]

and another REAL story... one of my French assistante was living with the family of one of our students. After a couple of weeks, the host asked her if she could cook something typically french for sunday lunch. Not a great cook, she decided that 'coq au vin' would be a perfect choice. At the local traditional butcher, there is always a queue on Saturday - when her turn came she asked the butcher is he had a big .... chicken, using the French word which she thought was the correct word for the food rather than the animal. Great hilarity of course ... but the poor girl was hugely embarrassed!

[YCCMB]

My friend's partner (his French is dodgy at best....one day I'll tell you about the time he got arrested - mistakenly -for shoplifting in Mr Bricolage and couldn't tell them his address......) was asked if he was OK, as he looked a bit worn out. He agreed, and advised the assembled group:

"Je suis un petit pois fatigué"

[odile]

irrelevant to the subject - but tell me about the 'beaver free' bit?

[cooperlola]

Reminds me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ve37gVwxw

(WARNING for those who've never seen this; it's a bit rude!)

[odile]

absolutely fabulous ... never seen this sketch before - will play it again + again! can't wait to have a few minutes to watch the others-

Merci.

For my sins, I taught French + German in English schools for 20+ years. I asked by Lower 6th students to write a short essay on differences between France/Uk -   He wrote ' les francais baisent partout, toujours 2 ou 3 fois, meme dans la rue'. Not easy explaining the difference between the noun and the verb- and yet we had just spent several lessons looking at ways to avoid dictionary pitfalls, and (yes, oh boring, but so essential at A'level and beyond) sentence analysis (subject, verb, direct object, etc, etc!). I still meet him from time to time, and he always kisses me 3 times and buys me a drink- talking about the old days we learnt to snowboard together (was 49 at the time)...

[Pierre ZFP]

I worked in an office where it was the 'tradition' to buy cakes if it was your birthday. Nothing unusual in that but one day it was the turn of a German chap who, while being a pleasent fellow, had some lapses in his English and announced to the office -

'As today is my birthday, I am becoming a tart'

It took  a long time for him to live that one down.

[Benjamin]

O K I'll admit to my booboo some years ago.

It was the middle of summer and I needed a saw and asked old Jacques if he had une scie.

There then followed a comic interlude of him doing an impression of a downhill skier and me furiously using an imaginary saw. I think he drank on that little story for quite some time.  [:D]

[odile]

one of my students asked me once why I pointed to my eye when I said 'my foot!) (after, I didn't do my homework, 'cause my gran's cat was run over, or aliens hijacked me, or whatever) - I had never realised that I had correctly translated the French expression 'mon oeil' for 'my foot' - but had kept the original French gesture!

In the dinner queue with my French exchange colleague. I asked him how is son was getting on at Uni 'alors, comment ca va a la fac de Rouen', he went on to explain his son loved la fac - conversation went on about my daughter's uni - so a lot of 'fac' words were part of our exchange. Little Jonny at pm registration quietly came to see me and said 'Miss you were so rude with that French teacher'. It took me a few seconds to realise what our conversation must have sounded like - little Jonny was so relieved when I explained that French people never say 'universite' but nearly always use 'la fac' - Thank goodness he talked to me about it rather than go home and tell his parents!

[Christine Animal]

Loved the Monty Python, reminded me of this

Dealing with those French Poodles     [:P]

 

[Frenchie]

Et moi j'ose pas dire ce que j ai commandé dans un pub à Londres ; quand j y suis allée pour la première fois ..........

J avais 20 ans, et je voulais juste a coke..................................................

[:-))][blink][+o(][blink][:$][:$][:-))]

 

[odile]

just written to Jo, our first au Pair. she came over to help when I was doing my Degree in 1980, to help with our 2 daughters. She is still a great friend. First week-end she was helping with dinner and prepared a carrot salad. Told husband ' I have raped all the carrots, waht would you like me to do now '. His reply was 'didn't now you'd been brought up in a Convent!' and of course burst out laughing. We always have a carrot salad when we get together (not very often as she works for Indiana uni) and have a good laugh!

[YCCMB]

[quote user="odile"]irrelevant to the subject - but tell me about the 'beaver free' bit?

[/quote]

It's old news. I think Chrispp was asking about people's locations in relation to beavers, or something. I haven't updated my profile on here for ages. My profile is very low.

BTW, I know someone else has said something similar, but if I live till I die I will always blush when I remember interpreting at a conference in Algeria and telling a room full of about 300 Algerian chemists that they could stop the deterioration of pre-prepared stock solutions of colorants by sticking a condom in them. In my defence, I was so tired at the time that I didn't know I'd said it. I would still be blissfully unaware I'd said it, if someone hadn't enlightened me over dinner, some 9 hours after the event. [:$]

[odile]

I do wonder to some extent translators/interpreters in a political/war/business context make deliberate mistakes to influence the outcome, or even worked as spies. The worst mistake I ever heard was at the time of the Masstricht treaty. Jacques Delors explained that the treaty was essential because 'l'union fait la force'  = we are stronger if we stand together. The interpreter translated to Mrs Thatcher ' thus the Unions will have more power'! I often wonder if the 100% distortion was a mistake or not - certainly a red rag to a bull!