not to mention the bombing/sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.
Timed to coincided with a planned meeting of the Greenpeace leadership aboard.
quick question: how many of you with your knickers in a twist get a kick out of the scenes in Holy Grail with the French people?
Or do you sit there and get offended at the stereotyping?
Just wondering.
Aie aie aie.
In the interest of maintaining my sanity, I am not going to get into a discussion about the validity of certain stereotypes.
I will however mention a little something that Oxy may not have realized: that particular bookstore caters for the most part to schools and businesses, and much less so to the individual customer. While this in no way excuses the horrible service you received, it may help to explain why the place was a) vacant, and b) non acceuillant.
Best of luck finding the books you are looking for!
Now, the whole point of this little excursion was that I had already checked my local Barnes & Noble, a fact that I ought to have mentioned. But in the end, CESM2 wasn’t entirely wrong: I finally remembered that the original, old, dumpy B & N on 5th and 18th (not 3 blocks from my office, grrr) includes a textbook department. It had both titles, which I duly bought.
So Pucette’s explanation makes sense. And perhaps it’s even a winning business plan, albeit without the most winning of staffs…
Am now busy reading the following Insider’s French entry:
I am not making this up.
Nope. That’s true. “histoires belges” are commonplace, here, like many other jokes related to many other nationalities in many other places. Some Belgians aren’t that pleased with the concept. But a difference is that Belgium and Belgian people aren’t disliked in France, nor stereotyped except in these jokes. I mean nobody believes that Belgians are actually stupid.
Actually, the jokes are usually the same everywhere. Only the nationality targeted changes. For instance, the same joke will feature a Polish guy in country A, and a Portuguese guy in country B.
ummm…
I seem to remember, late 70’s, maybe?, a national law being enacted in France (aimed, IIRC at commercial signs and ads, banning/restricting the use of an English word if an equivalent French word existed.
anyone know if it was/is on the books? enforced?
if mcdonalds doesn’t sell ‘hamburgers’, what does it sell in France?
Vincent: And you know what they call a… a… a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
Jules: They don’t call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese?
Vincent: No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn’t know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.
Jules: Then what do they call it?
Vincent: They call it a “Royale” with cheese.
Jules: A “Royale” with cheese! What do they call a Big Mac?
Vincent: A Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it “le Big-Mac”.
Jules: “Le Big-Mac”! Ha ha ha ha! What do they call a Whopper?
Vincent: I dunno, I didn’t go into Burger King.
For Sale-Cheap
325,000 French Army rifles. Only thrown down once! Make offer.
I think you might be confusing with language laws in Quebec. English words are very common in France. For instance a “Big Mac Value Meal” is called “Best of Bic Mac” in France. I doubt that would get through in Quebec, both legally and culturally.
I seem to remember something about the French gov’t requiring that anything written in English had to have French subtitles. They want to preserve their language, which is understandable, but why say telecopier when you can say “fax”? I figure the best thing they can do is add a few new words every now and then to keep up with the times and not fade into the dust.
What are the French doing in England?
Because being Jewish or Latino puts a person in a race, whereas being French is just a a nationality?
Stellar reasoning. Really. However, since English is not my mother tongue, I’m not so sure what you mean by “race”.
So, if I understand:
Juan Pedro is lazy, but then again it figures, he’s latino. -> Racial stereotyping -> Bad.
Jean-Pierre is insufferable, but then again it figures, he’s French. -> National stereotyping -> OK.
To me, these two statements seem equivalent. However, who knows, you might be using German Logic, in which case I suppose I have no choice but to surrender. You win.
[quote]
I seem to remember, late 70’s, maybe?, a national law being enacted in France (aimed, IIRC at commercial signs and ads, banning/restricting the use of an English word if an equivalent French word existed.
[quote]
AFAIK, if a foreign word or sentence appears on a product, or in an ad, it must be translated. It’s enforced. Usually, when it’s part of a slogan (usually for some mass consumption international product, say chewing gum or shoes) the translation appear in minuscules characters at the bottom of the add. On TV, the translation appears as a subtitle.
It seems to me it’s a basic necessity to make sure that the consumer can understand an ad, can check the composition of the food he bought or is able to figure out how his new washing machine works. Not sure why you find this law noticeable.
As for “big mac” : it doesn’t contradict this law. It’s the name of the product itself. You can call a product in any way you want, there’s no language/ understanding issue, there.
Concerning the fax/telecopieur : both words are used. Not sure once again why you’re surprised there’s a french word for various equipments. A computer isn’t called a computer in french, either, and a car isn’t called a car…so what’s the issue exactly?
Me think the issue is on your side here. I’m wondering why some people think it’s weird that french law requires a label to be printed in french or that french people actually use french words. What do you expect exactly?
As for the “latinos”. Is there somewhere else than north america where “latino” is considered a race? It seems more related to a geographical origin or a language thing than anything else, IMO…
I’m calmer now, and I apologise if any of my earlier comments were over the top.
Well, yeah, because “the French” don’t actually enter into any of it, do they? Or does this store have an unusually large counter staff?
I find it bizarre that the national government feels the language to be threatened by common, international terms.
in the US, the term is ‘garage’, not ‘car park’, we (at least a few still) eat sushi, etc. I have seen shops with little or no english in their signage. I do not feel the (English) language is threatened, and certainly the federal gov’t need not involve itself.
I consider this another of those “you lost, get over it (and yourselves)” issues. French (prior to WWI (I think) was the international language of diplomacy. After two world wars and Dien Bien Phu, US english replaced it.
again, get over it.
and, just for giggles - what is the translation for ‘hamburger’? is it really too much to ask the french to learn ‘hamburger’?
Even if every other stereotype about the French were true, I’m pretty tired of the lame “surrendering” jokes. Over 90,000 French soldiers died trying to hold back the blitzkrieg; it’s not their fault they were invaded by an overwhelmingly powerful enemy.
Ummmm… who’s fault was it that they build the Maginet Line instaet of spending the money on usuable equipment?
I find it absurd and eogtistically paraniod to quite an extreme that any country would enact laws enforcing the use of one language or another.
I know its happend(sort of) here, but not to the extent that it seems from posts in this thread that two of the French officialities have (Quebec and France herself) have taken it.
I like cheese.
Dude, if you want to protect the poor Belgians, attack the Dutch. They’re much harsher towards the Belgians than the French will ever be. And it’s all in good fun, believe it or not. We get our share back in spades.
Look, Europe is -in general- not as PC as North America is. We often make fun using national stereotypes, and most of it is just plain fun. As for the reputation the French have: I have mixed experiences. Parisians can be a tad snippy to tourists, even if they do speak French. I once got corrected on my grammar by a fucking ticket booth operator in the Metro, after asking her the shortest route to St. Michel.
What’s a man to do? Well, curse at her in fluent Dutch, that’s what.
Are all Parisians like this? No. Are all French people like this? Not remotely. Go to the south of France, to the Hautes Alpes, the Biskayan Gulf, the small villages in the Provence. You’ll be treated like a king.
As for the surrender thing: it’s just as funny as calling all Germans Nazis. You do the math.
The translation for “hamburger” is “hamburger”.
And I see no reason why french people should learn a foreign word instead of using a french word. Is it too much to ask the americans to learn “frites” instead of insisting on using “french fries”?
As for the “get over it” issue, most french people aren’t even aware that french used to be the diplomatic language. Reading american boards, it looks like this knowledge is more widespread in the US than it is in France (I don’t think it actually the case, but I see this so often mentionned that one has to wonder…). For some reason, some american people seem to be obsessed with the way french language is used in France (or with France in general, as it’s easy to notice, even on this board). French people speak french and aren’t going to speak english anytime soon, and aren’t going to use an english word instead of a french one just because you think, for whatever reason I can’t understand, that they should. Get over it yourself.
(And I notice by the way you conveniently forgot the “consumer’s rights” part when you refered to the “absurd law enforcing the use of a language”)