Sydney Spy Classic
Sydney Spy Classic
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Le Translation

I wonder how much this translator got paid.

I'm thinking Hugh Grant did it himself.
Speaking of translation, right now at my french university they're piling me up with French translation homework. The class is so freaky, they're all french but they speak perfect english with pretentious British accents.
I do my best to live up to all Australian stereotypes by wandering into the room with my "Bondi Livesaver" jumper on, crazy surfer hair, saying stupid Australian expressions all the time with a fake bogan accent "SEND US A BUZZ IF YA AFTA SOMETHING, JEAN-MICHEL!" "CRIKEY, MADAME LACROIX! YOU'D BE UP SHIT CREEK THERE, HON" etc.
Anyway, help me! One of the texts is a blurb of Erin Brockavich and I need to fill in the blank with something that fits naturally.
"With three children to raise, [COLLOQUIAL EXPRESSION FOR HAVING LARGE BREASTS] and her bank account at zero, Erin Brockavich is desperately searching for a job."
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Saturday, March 10, 2007

French-Aussie Lesson #1

Bonjour children, it's time to put some education into you. It's important that you all know French as it's one of the most popular languages in... France. With it, you can contract foreign diseases on the island of La Reunion, face political turmoil first hand on Nouvelle Caledonie and live in French Canada.



To start with, most English words ending with -tion (emotion, action, subvention etc) are already french, just say it with an accent. Voilà, that's about 1000 words you know already.

So from now on, if something is written in rouge, it means that's the Aussie pronunciation. You'll notice lots of useless s's and t's everywhere in the french spelling which are silent, so don't stress out. We're not going to bother with all that "learn the colours in a day" tedium, we're just going to give you REAL french you can use.

As we go along, i'll use more and more français as I write and it'll seem très naturel and you'll find yourself understanding french very easily.


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C'est Super!


So, in French, when you want to make an exclamation (That's.., It's...) you just say "C'est..." (SAY...) like in "C'est la vie".

Marie: "C'est La Vie de B*Witched? C'est terrible!"
Jaques: "Non! C'est La Vie, c'est cool!"

Remember your exaggerated French accent when saying "cool" and "terrible", they're the same in French. Some other english/english-stolen words you can say are "super", "magnifique", "stupide" et "ok".

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Madame Tina Arèna



So basically, if tu want to ask someone if they like something, just say "TWO EM ....." [Tu aimes...]. Now, our own Tina Arena is actually much more populaire en France than en Australie, so she can be your conversation starting point when you meet French people. Here's un scénario très common.

Pierre: "Tu aimes Tina Arena?" [TWO EM TINA ARENA?] Do you like Tina Arena?
Jean-Baptiste: "Non, elle est merdique." [NOn, ELLE AY MERR DEEK] Nah, she's crap.
Pierre: "Moi, je l'aime eperdument, meme si c'est un tourment." [ZHE LEM EH PEAR DOO MOHn MEM SEE SAY TUN TOUR MOHn] Me, I love her insanely, even though it kills me.

So then juste start singing whatever Tina Arena song that tu know after you pose la question et french people will aime you.

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It's All About Image

Something très important for your prononciation, c'est the french lips (lèvres francaises)! [LEH-VRUH FROn-SEZ] These here are normal lèvres australiennes:

Now to make lèvres francaises, tu juste have to projette your top lèvre et pull slightly at the corners of your mouth. There you go, parfait! Of course, tu will need to turn black + white et have subtitles appear under you.


Ok, if tu are intelligent, tu comprends le français now! C'est magnifique! Tu know another langue already!

C'est all for today but continue à read et soon tu will read français très well. Add a comment...

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