French Women are Easy

[Missy]

[quote]Bah, j' déconnais, Le Pied c'est bonnard et Montpar ça a pas pris une ride, quand j' déambule par la-bas j'vais souvent écluser un gorgeon chez mon vieux compagnon de déroute Djamel qui tient un bistr...[/quote]

Vraititi!

Vous !? Un vieux bouc?!!? Jamais!.... alors tant qu'on y est... je suis une vieille chèvre !!

L'une des guinguettes de cette soirée là était Amnésia... Ce qui récapitule le thème entier de cette nuit... Je ne me souviens plus.... Il faisait bon quand même le long de la Seine

Le Frog and Rosbif pour les occasions spéciales et excuses primordiales comme les 6 Nations au Rugby! France-Pays de Galles ou France-Angleterre! 'Allez les Bleus!!' Mille excuses mais je ne suis pas très acharnée sur le foot. Mais je peux être éduquer en la matière si l'occasion se présentait....ainsi que pour la découverte en d'autres endroits de Panam

Alors si ça n'est pas vous compter fleurettes!!

 

[Missy]

[quote]"WE are just being friendly. A smile and a happy face cost nothing and pleases the person looking at it even if just a glance!"You're all heart! OK, so you (French women) aren't eyeing us up, you're ...[/quote]

You're all heart!

 

I aim to please!

[Missy]

[quote]Is this how you get around the auto censor???![/quote]

Debra!

Just thinking that some lessons in parigot would not go amiss on a Franglais forum!!                 Too bad if the censors can't pige le truc!!

 

[Christine Animal]

Mais, le Pied de Cochon n'est pas aux Halles ?

[Debra]

[quote]Debra! Just thinking that some lessons in parigot would not go amiss on a Franglais forum!! Too bad if the censors can't pige le truc!![/quote]

well that last bit translated as 'measuring rod the trick'.  Did you see what the other lot translated as??!! Not sure if I would have described myself as that post seemed to (using babel fish, anyway!)!!  Whatever, it certainly sounded rude and if it had been posted in English would certainly have been censored by this forum!

[Debra]

[quote]Mais, le Pied de Cochon n'est pas aux Halles ?[/quote]

and that translates as 'But, the Foot of Pig is not with the Markets' so anybody's guess goes!  (Really, really, need to study the language!!!!!)

[Christine Animal]

Les Halles, Debra, is right in the middle of Paris where the restaurant le Pied de Cochon is, or so I thought, as our friend Vraititi seems to mention it as being at Montparnasse (another area of Paris).

[Teamedup]

French women are easy............. because they give a smile.

 

Now how would any man ever know what thoughts go on behind a woman's smile

 

 

And I thought that the Pied de Cochon was aux Halles too. There you go. Can't say it is my favourite bit of the pig really, but they do make lovely jelly to go in home made pork pies though.

[JohnM]

No, I'm not convinced that they are easy either, the younger woman in the bakers that I like usually hides in the back when I go in, perhaps I need a change of tack, for the next visit I shall make up a sign to hang round my neck saying "Je suis libre" (I hope that there isn't a french equivalent of "Mr Humphreys" around ) 

Mind you, around my way they are not true french, they wanted to join Switzerland but had to choose between France and Italy!

[Missy]

Le restaurant 'Au Pied de Cochon' which mostly sells and is very famous for its pig trotters dishes! Don't say ''Yuk!' until you've tried it! you would not know the difference between that and spare ribs from your local chinky take away. Yum!yummy!!

That restaurant is in the area of Les Halles (the central market area as was pre-1960ish of Paris)  Now much defiled by a Forum which very soon if the power that be have their ways will be under reconstruction (again!) Still!...there is the timeless lovely church of Saint Eustache and that is worth the visit especially when the organs are being played! and that lovely sculpture of a huge thinking head resting on a hand just outside. I love sitting there and admiring that sculpture...

Montparnasse is on the other side of the river to the south and not that far away unless you are shy about walking...

Oh!  I am getting homesick for giving you a tour of my favorite city in the world!!

As to the translation! What does that babelfish thingy give as 'the' translation for Vraititi's and my 'baragouinage'! I bet you it won't translate this word!!

Pige le truc?  .....

[Missy]

[quote]well that last bit translated as 'measuring rod the trick'. Did you see what the other lot translated as??!! Not sure if I would have described myself as that post seemed to (using babel fish, anyway...[/quote]

Debra

Pige le truc is not rude.

Le truc = thingamyjig thingy. Also : le bidule, le machin, le zigouillon. Notice how it's all of the masculin gender as it denotes an object of utter uselessness    Girls do you pige?.....

Pige = Understood?

Kids in school are for ever ending explanations with 'Tu piges?'  (tu comprends?)

Piger is slang for comprendre = to understand

So I think Babelfish can go back and learn some more linguo because it really doesn't pige at all!!

Baragouinage, in case it comes up with some gobbledygook! means just that. To speak without being properly understood. Come from the late18th/early 19th century, when hordes of poor soldiers were sent over Pembrokshire by Napoleon to invade Engoland!! Can't think Napy was good in geography! but still ... it was not Corsica!! . The soldiers on arriving near Fishgard where starvingo and all they wanted was a piece of bread to chomp on... They stormed into houses and in them days, before the 'Mother's Pride' plastic wrapped cotton wool variety came about, the home made bread, getting stale, was just there on the table. But being polite these soldiers would stop and gesture if they could help themselves to it. The puzzled Welsh farmhousewife would say : Bara gwin! (white bread!) The soldier would gesture to eat some, and she would repeat Bara gwin! and on and on.....

Hence baragouinage! or baragouiner. Usage of the verb is same as parler.

Na!  And French women are easy......

 

 

[Christine Animal]

Oui j'ai pigé Missy.  And you are quite right it's "Au Pied de Cochon".  It's a shame that the Poissonnerie, rue Pierre Lescot closed, maybe that Babelfishy thing could have taken her pied de cochon there!

It makes me a little "homesick" as, as I have already mentioned, Les Halles was our area many years ago, even before the forum (not this one) des Halles.  When it was "les pavillons" des Halles and I never understood why they never kept any of them there.  We saw the "trou des Halles" when lorries looked like matchboxes down in it.

My husband would never go to the Pied de Cochon saying it was for the tourists.  There were so many other famous restaurants and brasseries there back in those days, le steak au poivre chez Benjamin (demolished), les grands like, Chez Pharamond, Le Grand Comptoir, La Grille, rue Montorgeuil, l'Escargot également rue Montorgeuil and there was a marvellous old restaurant in a street off rue Montorgeuil, I can't remember the official name, but it was known to all as "La Mère Langouste".  She used to be there at the comptoir chopping up her langouste in front of everyone, it was really the good old days in Paris when you think back...

Did ou go there then Missy?

[Debra]

Baragouinage translates as 'gibbering' and Pige le truc  is the one that translates as 'Measuring rod the trick'!

No - it was the whole thing that sounded really funny when I translated it!  Here is the babelled translation:

Did Bah, I talk cock, the Foot it is bonnard and Montpar that did not take a wrinkle, when I saunter by over there I often will lock a gorgeon in my old companion of Djamel rout which holds a bistroquet in the corner, then which dance hall you would advise with an old carcass of goat like me?

[Vraititi<P>PSG till I die -fluctuat nec mergitur.<P>]

Ben ouais mes cocottes, Chez Vraititi on est pas chez Pivot, on fait pas dans le soigné et le sur-mesure, plutôt dans le jargot et le métaplasme. Chez Vraititi ça cause cru, bien saignant et si t'es pas bégueule ça dépote au quart de tour et quand on tient l' crachoir, ça s'exclaffe mais ça s'gausse pas. Allez, venez tailler une bavette chez Vraititi, y'a pas d'censure et de chichis, te casse pas si t'es à sec, si t'as pas d'artiche pour pitancher ou casser la graine on t'arrangera ça. Allez Santé, mais pas des pieds.

Could you Babelfish that Debra ? Ta

[Debra]

Why?  Did you already do it and know it comes out as gibberish?  Are there any translators that actually work?

Ben ouais my casseroles, At Vraititi one is not at Pivot, one does not make in the neat one and the overmeasure, rather in the jargot and the métaplasme. At Vraititi that causes believed, well bleeding and if are not to you prude that discharges with the quarter of turn and when the spittoon is held, that exclaffe but that gausse not. , come cut a flap at Vraititi, y' does not have censure and fuss, does not break you if are dry for you, if do not have you artiche for pitancher or to break seed you are arranged that. Go Santé, but not of the feet.

Nope - can't even guess at it!  Are you going to give me a clue??

[Debra]

Ah well - if anyone wants to insult me, please do it in French so I haven't got a clue and therefore won't get upset!! 

[Vraititi<P>PSG till I die -fluctuat nec mergitur.<P>]

You cracked me up with yr Babelfishing, I really had a good laugh with the last rendition; well Debra, you asked what it was about, well it was a quick aperçu of the fictitious Vraititi Bar and the louche activities that go on in there with shocking impunity, the banter and generous portions served to the financially-challenged, all for the price of a smile, and all in a mixture of Parisian and French slang. But tell me, are you into plain French/colloquial French/slang ? What's yr poison ? You know, this free translation site lark, it's only useful occasionally to get the gist of a simple text, such as ''Noddy aime acheter des bonbons avec son argent de poche'', it cannot translate as such and even the best ones do not store any colloquial terms. They only enable people to have a basic understanding of a text, but are jolly good fun to play with, don't you think ?

[Debra]

Slang?  On no - I have no chance!  So once one has done the standard French courses, where do you go to have slang classes??

Got a degree course to finish and a final exam in October, then after that hubby and I are planning to concentrate on learning French every evening, trying to keep a step ahead of the kids so we can try and teach them it during the day.  I had already appreciated we would have difficulties with different accents, but the thought of slang sends me into deep despair!!

[Missy]

[quote]Slang? On no - I have no chance! So once one has done the standard French courses, where do you go to have slang classes?? Got a degree course to finish and a final exam in October, then after that...[/quote]

Debra

Don't despair! Sorry you are having such thoughts... I'm going to tell you of my experiences with English. Maybe you can put your French experience in perspective.

Some 25+ years ago (mid 1970's) I arrived in UK and could not make myself understood to a Brit. That despite having had 8 years of English classes in school!... Most of the teaching was reams and reams of Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Dickens  and endless stream of American students taking the conversational classes. The Marx Brothers, Hershey bars, The Supremes and Motown, Bugs Bunny and Poppeye have no mysteries left for me!....

I arrived at Victoria Station, fresh from the Calais/Dover ferry boite, on that gloomy October Sunday afternoon... I needed to go to Paddington Station to catch a train to Banbury. Having had a glance at the tube map I PANICKED!! I thought to take a taxi at the same time see some of London... My knowledge of English accents was in the realm of Jane Austen's/Groucho Marx impersonations!! Little did I envisage that my first British person to speak to was a COCKNEY taxi driver addressing me as : 'Where do you go LUV!' I very categorically WAS NOT HIS LOVE!!That bit I understood the word! Little did I know of the language barrier ...Couldn't for the life of me get myself understood, so I wrote my destination down on the back of my hand for him to get me there! Of course COCKNEY taxi driver is cussing 'Bleedin' foreigners and Gowd save us and Queenie from the Common Market!'... etc.... I was certainly in at the deep end....

Arrived in Banbury and the accent is somewhat different some 2 hours away (Old British Rails style...) and working in this particular hotel was to say the least difficult! The housekeeper was from deep Glasgow! the chef a real Black Country thick accent and the Manager the proverbial plum in the mouth ! ! If you ever can imagined a feminin version of 'Manuel from Barcelona' that was me!!

So I chose the following course: Do your work well, keep quiet and only speak when absolutely needed, LISTEN! LISTEN!! LISTEN!! to this Babel babble of voices and accents and of all things!! Read the newpapers (when I learnt that 'News of the World' is anything BUT!! the news from the world as I would have expected!!) and also watch children's TV programs. Bagpuss, Blue Peter, Playschool rules OK!! and didn't Jeremy Irons look a twat then... real ugly duckling!! Anyone remembers him cutting his teeth at acting in Playschool ?... I do!...

Some 3 months on I was still a little  and isolated as I couldn't join in staff outings, parties etc... but certainly had gained some confidence... Until that particular day some cook in the kitchen was having a go at another staff who had just arrived. She was 

[Debra]

Thanks for the reassurance, but I doubt it!  Hopefully the kids will be able to help me out once they settle in and no doubt learn the language much more quickly and efficiently than I could ever hope to!

When I think of the different accents here (geordies, glaswegians, cockneys, scousers, that really strong Bath accent) it must be really hard for non English speaking people to cope here.  My own Yorkshire accent was modified and ridded of slang after years of living in Berkshire, to aid people there understanding me!  I'm hoping the range of French accents are not as broad!!  However, I suppose up until now I'd thought of accents and slang as being a problem with spoken French - not written!!

Part of the problem for my husband and I is in distinguishing slight spoken sounds.  A couple of times I've understood perfectly what my husband is trying to say but the French person he's speaking to hasn't.  When they eventually click and tell him how to say the word correctly - it sounds just as he said it, though obviously there must be a subtle difference we just aren't capable of hearing or reproducing yet!

We have a real laugh with that 'r' sound.  The landlady of a bar we always go to was trying to teach us how to say rum and coke 'rrrrum coca' and she, her husband, the barmaid and a few locals were all falling about laughing (good naturedly) at our attempts and difficulty in reproducing the sound!  We're happy to find that people are very willing to help.  The most useful phrase we have is 'how do you say this?' (written down for us to help us understand what we were trying to say, by said landlady) and we've never found anyone who hasn't responded really helpfully.

When we were moving furniture into our new house a couple of weeks ago, the maire came to introduce himself.  He had very little English but we managed to communicate and understand that yes, we have 3 children, yes, they will be going to the village school and that they will receive lots of help from the school in learning to speak French and write the French way - he laughed when we asked 'us too?'  We struggled when trying to explain when exactly we would be moving out permanently and resort to 'one other year' and he replied for the first time in English 'ah - next year' - which is when we realised that he probably has a better grasp of English than we do French!  We've often found that people who say they have no English actually end up speaking quite a bit of it to us when they see us struggling with French!

Incidentally, how DO you say 'next year'?  According to the famous babelfish its 'l'année prochaine' but if I tried to reproduce that verbally I have no doubt that my attempt would not be understood by a French person!

[Teamedup]

Debra, I don't have the ear and that is my biggest failing. I never hear whether something is on top or underneath, or know my backside from my neck.

Argot, well, I know too much. Got to a point where my eldest would whisper, please don't say that it is vulgar. Only I had picked it all up here, afterall I only arrived with five words.

[Debra]

roflmao at the thought of your eldest telling you not to be vulgar - its usually the other way around!  How long did it take you to feel 'comfortable' about communicating, TU, assuming you do, and whether its in slang or flowery language?

[Teamedup]

As soon as I could put a couple of words together I'd get stuck in. Not that anyone understood me, and I would get smiled at as if I had escaped from somewhere. If I had waited until I could construct a proper sentence I think I would never have managed. I have no talent for language and no ear either so I just thought I'd have to do my best. And bit by bit I got there. My french is good for me bearing in mind how poorly equipped I am personally to learn language. But it isn't 'good' in the intellectual sense of good french.

Friends take the mickey of my accent and my way of saying things, and I cringe when the odd one mimics me, because for all I really do try, I do have an english accent which I cannot rid my self of. My husband hasn't, there again he has the ear too.

Smiling and having a pleasant manner certainly helped me at first. Even the poor bloke at the SNCF who just couldn't understand what I wanted all those years ago ended up putting  his head on the desk and covered it with his hands, found when he peeked that I was still there smiling and looking hopeful and we got there in the end and I got my tickets to go where I wanted and back again.

I'll discuss anything with anyone and do, which is fine as most people I know here have an opinion if not any knowledge of just about every subject under the sun.

[Viv]

Any advice for a way forward when you can speak the language reasonably well and get your point accross but struggle to understand the reply? This is the problem that my Mother in law is having when she visits France. Do some areas have a particularly heavy accent? 

[Teamedup]

I don't think I understand the question, sorry.

There aren't that many parts of France where the accent is really strong. And from my point of view it is a miracle to me that anyone can speak reasonably well and not understand when spoken to. How does that work then?  

I really did learn like a child. I began to understand so much but actually speaking so that people could really understand me was slow. Didn't stop me trying and not giving up in spite of my limitations.