The Other Side of the Channel

Leaving the Tower of Babel

2006-10-28T14:31:00.001+02:00

How do you manage to understand and to participate in a conversation when everybody speaks a different language? I mean, which language should you choose to speak when one person is a French native speaker (meaning her English is not that good) and the other two are English native speakers (meaning my French is not that good). In fact Jack is the luckiest since he is an English native and fluent French speaker. But Billie and I are in trouble. If she speaks too fast I don't get what she says and it's the same with me speaking English.

So we had to find a solution taking into account that I want to improve my French and Billie wants to improve her English. And we eventually found that solution. Like we did with the telly, we instituted a rule: we must now speak French on odd dates and English on even dates. Of course there are more odd dates than even dates but as we're in France, that's just normal. We've stuck to this rule for a little bit more than a week now and it seems to work quite well. When in the past we used to take it the easier way (meaning Billie spoke French and I spoke English) now at least some of us have to make efforts to communicate. The funny thing about this is we often have to use long circumlocutions to express simple ideas because we often can't find the words in the appropriate language. But at least it forces us to make complete (and complex!) sentences.

And that's not all! In addition to this rule I decided to use my blog as a mean to enrich my vocabulary. From today on each post will be the occasion to learn and use a new French word. So at the bottom of each post I'll put an English word with its translation and some expressions linked to it. Then from the next post on I'll use the French word instead of the English one. So little by little my posts will turn into French. Of course the words I'll choose are nouns or verbs (even adjectives maybe) and sometimes I'll be forced to translate the entire sentence into French so that it makes sense. Right, enough of the small talk, let's begin with today's word.

Manage 1. VT a. (= direct) [+ business, estate, theatre, restaurant, hotel, shop, time, capital] gérer ; [+ institution, organization] administrer, diriger ; [+ football team, boxer etc] être le manager de ; [+ actor, singer etc] être le manager or l'impressario de ; [+ farm] exploiter
b. (= handle, deal with) [+ boat, vehicle] manoeuvrer, manier ; [+ animal, person] savoir s'y prendre avec ; you ~d the situation very well tu as très bien géré la situation
c. (= succeed, contrive) to ~ to do sth réussir or arriver à faire qch ; how did you ~ to do it? comment as-tu réussi à le faire ?, comment y es-tu arrivé ? ; how did you ~ not to spill it? comment as-tu fait pour ne pas le renverser ? ; he ~d not to get his feet wet il a réussi à ne pas se mouiller les pieds; (iro) he ~d to annoy everybody il a trouvé le moyen de mécontenter tout le monde ; you'll ~ next time! tu réussiras or tu y arriveras la prochaine fois ! ; will you come? - I can't ~ (it) just now tu viendras ? - je ne peux pas pour l'instant
d. (= manage to do, pay, eat etc) how much will you give? - I can ~ 50 euros combien allez-vous donner? - je peux aller jusqu'à 50 euros or je peux mettre 50 euros ; surely you could ~ another biscuit? tu mangeras bien encore un autre biscuit ? ; I couldn't ~ another thing!* je n'en peux plus ! ; can you ~ the suitcases? pouvez-vous porter les valises ? ; can you ~ 8 o'clock? 8 heures, ça vous convient ? ; can you ~ two more in the car? peux-tu encore en prendre deux or as-tu de la place pour deux de plus dans la voiture ? ; I ~d a smile/a few words of greetings etc j'ai quand même réussi à sourire/à dire quelques mots de bienvenue etc
2. VI (= succeed, get by) se débrouiller ; can you ~? tu y arrives or arriveras ? ; thanks, I can ~ merci, ça va ; I can ~ without him je peux me débrouiller sans lui ; she ~s on her pension/on £60 a week elle se débrouille avec seulement sa retraite/seulement 60 livres par semaine ; how will you ~? comment allez-vous faire or vous débrouiller ?
3. COMP > managed competition N (US Ind) concurrence f réglementée or encadrée
> managed economy N économie f dirigée
> managed forests NPL forêts fpl gérées
> managed funds NPL (Fin) fonds mpl gérés
> managed trade N (Ind) commerce m dirigé

"Who's the master?"

2006-10-13T18:51:00.000+02:00

I'm not much of a TV watcher. Back home in old England I used to spend much more time drinking beer in pubs with friends than watching that stupid telly. But now I'm in France things have changed a bit. Yes, now I live with a girl and we only have one television. When we bought that telly Jack, Billie and I established a rule concerning the choice of programmes. The rule is quite simple: I'm the master of the remote on Mondays and Thursdays, Billie is on Tuesdays and Fridays and Jack's got the Wednedsays and Saturdays. On Sundays we're supposed to negociate (well... 'fight' may be a more appropriate verb). Of course if the master is not home then the other two have to negociate.

So yesterday was my day. When I came back home around 6.30 Billie was watching Star Academy. She was so captivated she didn't even answer my 'hello'. I went to see Jack in his room, he was rehearsing a play. When he saw me enter the room he suddenly stopped, turned to me, raised his arm pretending he was holding a skull and with the voice of tragedy said: "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy." We laughed for 5 minutes and then I came back to the living room. This moment was my favourite moment of the day. I sat next to Billie and with my brightest smile took the remote control from her hands. Oh what a pleasure! I wish you saw her face at this particular time. She moaned and groaned and despised me at the same time. That's the moment I chose to declaim "Here ends the reign of stupidity. Step back and kneel, for your master has come." And then I flicked to another channel.

But the real tragedy is that today she'll get her revenge, because today's Billie's day and we'll have to bear Star Academy in prime time. Jack and I will probably go out and have a beer somewhere instead of having to hear those lame teenage boys and girls shouting and screaming in ours ears for three hours. Oh dear, at least I try to find a consensus (sometimes). Every time Jack or I try to convince her to watch something (anything!) else we always get the same reaction: "Qui décide le vendredi ?" ("Who's the master on Fridays?)

Damn, I can't even find anything interesting on Mondays...

Want an international experience? Share a flat with people from all around the world!

2006-10-02T17:03:00.000+02:00

Since I decided to come and study in France, I thought it was even better to live with French people. So as soon as I was in Paris, I began looking for what French people call a colocation. It all went very fast and I only needed a day to find what I was looking for (and a little luck I might add). It is just the perfect place. My roommates and I live a stone's throw from the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred-Heart) in the Montmartre neighbourhood (for those who know Paris). I went for a walk in the area this weekend and I fell in love with the place. Those little streets winding up the hill towards the Basilique with plenty of artists of all kinds everywhere: painters, musicians and that bloke who makes dog-shaped key holders. My roommate Billie told me he's in the exact same place every weekend all year round. I think he's making a lot of money out of doing this and he seems to enjoy doing it although it looks quite boring. Of course I've got to see plenty of other places in Paris but Montmartre is the place where everyone who visits Paris should come.

But let's tell you a bit about my roommates. Who they are, what they do, you shall know everything about them.

First we have Aurélie, the French girl. Aurélie and I moved in the same day. I call her Billie cause I can't pronounce 'Aurélie' properly. She's 21 and moves out of her parents' house for the first time. It seems to be quite a shock for her to be independant so I guess we'll have to take care of her during her first moments with us. She speaks with her mom on the phone at least three times a week, poor girl. She studies mathematics and seems to be very good at it. She wants to become a maths teacher. For now I don't really figure out how she could be respected by her pupils but sh... this is a subject I won't tackle for now. She's got enough trouble accepting her new situation, let's not insist on that point. ;-)

Then we have Jack, the Canadian guy. First I must say Jack does not derive from James but from John. So Jack and I don't have the same name. I just wanted to be precise on that point to avoid any remark like "how funny, you have the same name!" (actually this is what Billie said when Jack and I first met). Anyway Jack is called 'Jack' even on his passport. Jack is 25, a huge guy, built like a rugby player. In fact he used to be a rugby player back in the old days in Canada and played with the Under 21 team a few times. He's been in France for a year now and is still seeking for a role in a French play. He may seem hard and surly at first but in fact he's friendly and very funny (especially when he's drunk a couple of lagers). Jack is an actor (at least it's what he wants to be). He wanted to play in French cause he's francophile like I am, that's why he crossed the ocean to prove himself he can be a good French-speaking actor. He hasn't obtained any role for now but is still confident he'll find one someday. I'm, too. I think he's a wonderful comedian and he keeps making Billie and me laugh every time he's home. Sometimes it's even hard to concentrate on our work!

So here are my flatmates, the ones I'll spend a year with. And belive me, I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun.

"Peux-tu parler plus lentement ?"

2006-09-27T12:06:00.002+02:00

I’ve been in France for a few days now and I already have my verbal tic. Everybody has a verbal tic. Sometimes you only need two minutes speaking with somebody to know what his/her tic is. Verbal tics in English are commonplace. You always have the ‘you know’, ‘kind of’, ‘sort of’, 'like', 'basically' (this one's so British), all these little words you can place everywhere in a conversation without even noticing it. Just yesterday I was speaking with my roomate (at least she did the speaking and I was listening) and she said 'C'est vrai que' at least once every two sentences. When I told her that she looked offended. I believe it's not a fault to have verbal tics, I have plenty, but at least you should know it.

Anyway as I was saying only after a few days I already have a verbal tic. Once every couple of sentences I say 'Peux-tu parler plus lentement ?'. Sometimes I get to think that's the only sentence I know in French. People talk so fast! And spoken French is not the French we learn at school. I mean (and here we have another verbal tic), for example my roomate told me my 'Peux-tu parler plus lentement ?' is correct but she added that nobody speaks like that any more. It's more like written language. So I assume there are more differences between written French and spoken French than between written English and spoken English. Then woosh the inversion that normally marks a question is flushed away and it becomes 'Tu peux parler plus lentement ?' or I can use the imperative form 'Parle plus lentement s'il te plaît' (God I'll never get used to these accents of yours, what is that for?) which is more direct but less polite. Oh, and talking about politeness, it's so hard to think about saying 'tu' or 'vous'. Each time I talk to someone I first have to think if I should use 'tu' which is casual or 'vous' more formal. Yesterday I said 'tu' to a teacher and I saw him wonder a little bit before saying 'You're not French, are you?' (I supposed that's what he meant). Right, so now I know teachers are 'vous'.

But I'm doing a considerable amount of efforts to maintain my attention and try to speak French. I know my pronounciation is not that good but you French people should hear yourselves speaking English! I don't mean everybody (some of the people with whom I spoke really impressed me) but some of them don't make any effort to pronounce phrases properly. How am I supposed to understand them then? Jesus sometimes I even ask them to speak French! But I don't blame them, I'm sure I'm less understandable when I speak French.

Though living in France bring certain advantages over my fellow students. I'm one of the interesting blokes everybody wants to talk with. I got lots and lots of questions about my home country coming from everywhere: 'Is that true it rains all the time in England?' (Well according to you how happen our grass is so green?) 'When will Tony Blair leave the government?' (How should I know? Now I'm in France I hear the same news as you guys!) 'Do you have a girlfriend in England?' (Woo that's a touchy one, let's say 'pass'.) All that sort of questions a foreigner has to face. As far as I'm concerned, I only asked one question: 'Do you really eat snails?' I have to try it one day...

Arrival in Paris

2006-09-25T14:07:00.000+02:00

Hi everybody,

This is the first of what I hope to be a long list of posts which will transcribe my vision of France. But let's start with a little presentation of who I am.

My name is James Jeffrey Murdoch, my friends and family call me Jamie but I rather use the nick Jeff when I'm on the Internet. I don't really know why 'cause I like Jamie. I started using Jeff when I was doing some chatting on the net while I was a teenager, so that I could pretend not to be me if I met someone I knew. So call me Jeff or Jamie, as you like (but please don't call me JJ, my French teacher in college calls me that and I simply hate it). I'm from Croydon, South London, were I was born and raised. I studied French at school and little by little began to feel an irrepressible desire to know more about France. While attending the London Business School I had the opportunity to spend a year in France in the HEC school thanks to the partnership between our two schools. So now I'm in Paris, due to live here for a year. I feel a little lost there and feels how difficult it is to speak good French.

At first I wanted to write a kind of diary to relate my adventures in France, but before leaving the UK I wandered on the Internet to see what other students that were in my situation were doing. I went over dozens of blogs and realized doing mine was not such a bad idea after all. So here I am, writing the first lines of my new blog, hoping to be read from time to time.

Enjoy your reading and don't hesitate to write some comments, I'll be happy to answer them.