On a recent walk, this sign was kindly translated into German and English. The French actually says “Keep your dog on a leash”. As long as English speakers keep their dogs, they’re alright on or off the leash, presumably. In…
Tag: English language
Practical information from a festival
I was a tad shocked to see what practical advice the High Five festival website was giving me: “How to come” seems a bit personal for a ski and snowboard festival in Annecy. It’s truly commendable that the High Five…
Sacre bleu, mais merde…ZUT!
France has announced its Euro 2016 football anthem, and nobody is all that happy. The anthem, sung by popular French rock band Skip The Use, is a cover of a song by American band, Kiss. Their hit from the late…
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: bands, culture, English language, entertainment, euro 2016, Football, French language, marketing, music
Mundolingua language museum in Paris
I stumbled across a poster for the Mundolingua museum of languages during a busy long weekend in Paris. Given my love of language and Scrabble, this looked like my type of museum. Miraculously, I saw the poster during my only…
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: education, English language, entertainment, French language, museums, Paris, travel
Can I sleep at your place?
Antoine de Maximy is a name you’ve probably never heard of. He’s a French man who has travelled the world in an interesting and brave way. With cameras all around him recording his journeys, he asks random people if he…
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: culture, English language, kindness, strangers, television, travel
The French love affair with English words
Did you know that France is the world’s most popular country for tourism? Despite their reputed gruffness, the French population must be doing something right, right? France is a proud nation of people who (sometimes illogically) support regional food and…
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: culture, English language, food, French language, marketing, shopping, translation
Discovering the gems of France
Despite living in France for years, I’m amazed at how much there is left to discover right on my doorstep. The perfect example is the Musiques En Stock festival in Cluses. I only found out about the festival when a…
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: bands, Cluses, culture, English language, entertainment, festival, food, French language, landscape, music
When translation goes wrong — again
The January sales have been on in France, and I can only presume that some of the English slogans on the t-shirts were identified as mistakes, and sent to the sales to be sold on the cheap. Pictured are a…
The Tipiak ladies scare me
An unnerving advertisement has made its way back onto French TV. It’s the Tipiak ladies from Brittany. Basically, these three old ladies are sitting around chatting in their traditional Brittany outfits (which really look like a lot of effort to…
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: advertising, Brittany, culture, English language, food, marketing, television
Sorry for your English
French graffiti is just like English graffiti, with references to romance, sex and smoking drugs seeming to be just as popular here as they are in English-speaking countries. Most of the graffiti is in French, and sometimes I can figure…
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: culture, English language, graffiti, landscape, local, St Jean de Sixt
