I just finished watching the short-lived French series Cinq sœurs (Five Sisters), and I’m very disappointed. It was on 5 nights a week and was supposed to last for a year (260 episodes), but was cancelled after just 108. It wasn’t brilliant by any means, but it was interesting and it was also great for French listening practice, as there were a variety of formal and informal situations (though the verbs tutoyer and vouvoyer were used more than I’ve ever heard them in real life). Plus, it ended on a cliffhanger, with numerous characters in mortal danger. Very uncool! 🙁
French language
Read all the French magazines you can handle
Last week I subscribed to the Éco-forfait WWF illimité, a new option from French publisher Relay that allows you to download as many of their 400 French magazines as you can read, plus donates a euro a month of your 18-euro subscription to the World Wildlife Fund. I downloaded over 20 magazines on news, culture, food, wine… it’s fantastic. For info, see the bottom-left corner of the Relay site.
Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis
This movie has broken all French box office records, and with good reason – it’s hilarious, fun, and heart-warming. If you get a chance to see it, don’t miss. I can’t imagine having to watch it with subtitles though, as an important part of the story and dialogue has to do with the French dialect spoken in the north of France.
I read that Will Smith (among others) wants to do a remake. The French article said it would be Bienvenue chez les Blacks, so I’m guessing the English title would be something like Welcome to Harlem. Of course, these are very early days, but it sounds great – I can’t wait to see it!
French terms in English
Even if you don’t speak French, you do – take a look at these French terms used in English
Bravitude
So the big news in the French press is about the word bravitude used by presidential hopeful Ségolène Royal.
Comme le disent les Chinois, un Chinois qui ne vient pas sur la Grande muraille n’est pas un brave et un Chinois qui vient sur la Grande muraille conquiert la bravitude.
As the Chinese say, a Chinese person who does not come on the Great Wall is not a brave person and a Chinese person who comes on the Great Wall conquers bravery.
Royal’s use of this word set off something of a firestorm in the French news (including a mocking version of the French motto Liberté, égalité, fraternité).
Critics are comparing it to Bushisms like “misunderestimate,” but Royal says that it wasn’t a mistake – she coined the word because the word bravoure just wasn’t strong enough for the Chinese proverb she was translating. It’s an interesting question – what’s the difference between using a word that doesn’t exist because you don’t know any better and using one that doesn’t exist, but (maybe) should?
Her campaign co-director Jean-Louis Bianco said:
Je pense que ce qu’elle a voulu exprimer c’est la plénitude de la bravoure… c’est-à-dire quelque chose de plus que la simple bravoure.
“I think that what she wanted to express was the fullness of bravery… that is, something more than simple bravery.”
Her advisor Jack Lang said:
J’aurais aimé inventer ce beau mot. Il exprime la plénitude d’un sentiment de bravoure. L’inventivité sémantique fait partie de la capacité d’un candidat à parler une autre langue que la langue de bois.
“I would have really liked to invent this nice word. It expresses the fullness of a feeling of bravery. Semantic inventiveness is part of the capacity of a candidate to speak rather than waffle.”
(Source: NouvelObs)
Bravitude is a blend of brave and plénitude and means “fullness/completeness of bravery.” I wouldn’t recommend using it; we’ll just have to wait and see if and when it gets added to the French dictionary. 😉
French Gestures
As part of an initiative to encourage British tourism in Paris, French gestures have been “revealed,” for what you would think was the first time ever. It seems practically every online newspaper has an article about this “guide to understanding Parisians,” and I can only laugh when I check the publication date on my original photo gallery of French gestures: February 2001. Not to mention the fact that I have a lot more than 8.