So, I came across the blog of Petite Anglaise today – it is, to quote, “a Brit’s-eye view of Paris”.
Ce site est le journal d’une anglaise, mariée à un français (The Frog) et vivant à Paris.
Sa vision de Paris vu au travers d’un regard très British est assez désopilante.
(says Luc Sainte-Elie)
Exactly. But in between being désopilante (hilarious), she has blogged quite a bit about the whole franglais thing. Now, as anyone who knows me well will know, this is one of my favouritest things to talk about (and mock), but for whatever reason I haven’t blogged much about it on here. So, a couple of highlights from her site…
Talking about the irrepresible French urge to pronounce all foreign names and words in their own accent, and then not understand foreigners when they actually pronounce them correctly:
When I did my time as an English Lectrice at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, I remember finding it nigh on impossible to understand my students’ English when they tried to tell me about their favourite non-French pop star, or actor. The names of famous people, known the world over, get the French treatment to the point where they are completely unrecognisable. Meet Broooz Weeleez (possible anatomical abnormality?) and Tom Aunks (my least favourite actor and the person guaranteed, in my opinion, to make the screen adaptation of the Da Vinci Code truly unwatchable).
(On the same token, try going in to a McDonald’s in Germany and order Chicken McNuggets – that is one product that is actually impossible to pronounce in a German accent!)
The eternal discussion in France against the use of Anglicisms has turned once again to new technology, namely the blog:
Surfing French (we)blogs of late I noticed that there is some (occasionally heated) debate among bloggers as to what they should call themselves and their output. The terms un blog or un weblog currently co-exist with un carnet web or un journal web, shortened to joueb. Strictly speaking as the Académie dislikes the word ‘web‘, preferring ‘toile‘, surely that should be un carnet-toile? In French speaking Canada on the other hand, their equivalent to the Académie has opted for un blogue.
Incidentally, the Académie’s blacklist of Anglicisms includes the DVD (disque numérique polyvalent, anyone?) and hotkey (raccourci au clavier?)…
There’s some fascinating stuff over chez Petite Anglaise… take some time to read through some of it!