And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:09:50 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake, saying:

>>>> You know, it's probably a *good* thing that I don't know how to say
>>>> "you have a really nice arse" in French. Because that waitress would
>>>> have probably slapped me for it.
>>>
>>> OK so I won't translate that :-D
>>  OMG, I just had a very silly idea... Google Translate. 0;-)
>>  (From the site that brought us "leave the impact price-increase your  
>> body"...)
>
> Hmm. I've just spent several hours translating every naughty phrase I  
> can think of from English to French. Damn, this has got to the the  
> silliest thing I've done in a long, *long* time... ;-)
>
> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?

"What! My mother was a saint. Get out!"

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:51:13 -0000, Gail Shaw sa dot com>  
<"<initialsurname"@sentech> did spake, saying:

>
> "Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
> news:47a3338f$1@news.povray.org...
>> Gail Shaw wrote:
>>
>> > Try Thai. It's a tonal language. The same sounding word has different
>> > meanings if you say it with a high pitch, medium pitch, low pitch,
> rising or
>> > falling.
>>
>> ...!!! o_O
>
> Apparently there's one combination of sounds that has meaning in all 5
> tones, and you can use those 5 words to make a sentence. However, when  
> the
> tour guid sia that sentance, t sounded to me like the same word 5 times.  
> I could not hear any difference.

[Insert obligatory B5 reference here.]

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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Phil Cook wrote:
> And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:09:50 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did 
> spake, saying:
> 
>> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
> 
> "What! My mother was a saint. Get out!"

o_O

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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"Gail Shaw" <initialsurname@sentech sa dot com> wrote in message
news:47a33ff0@news.povray.org...

> Apparently there's one combination of sounds that has meaning in all 5
> tones, and you can use those 5 words to make a sentence. However, when the
> tour guid sia that sentance, t sounded to me like the same word 5 times. I
> could not hear any difference.
>

Let me rewrite that, seeing as I apparently completely lost the ability to
type for a few moments

However, when the tour guide said that sentence, it sounded to me like the
same word 5 times. I could not hear any difference.

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"Phil Cook" <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote in message
news:op.t5ur3jmwc3xi7v@news.povray.org...

> [Insert obligatory B5 reference here.]
>

It's friday and I'm slow. Which reference did you have in mind?

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And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:08:39 -0000, Gail Shaw sa dot com>  
<"<initialsurname"@sentech> did spake, saying:

>
> "Phil Cook" <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote in message
> news:op.t5ur3jmwc3xi7v@news.povray.org...
>
>> [Insert obligatory B5 reference here.]
>>
>
> It's friday and I'm slow.

Weekend yay!

> Which reference did you have in mind?

Zathras, Zathras, Zathras

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:03:44 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake, saying:

> Phil Cook wrote:
>> And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:09:50 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull>  
>> did spake, saying:
>>
>>> Je me demande, cela fait un sens?
>>  "What! My mother was a saint. Get out!"
>
> o_O

GIYF - add "Futurama" to the query.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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On Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:23:34 +0000, Invisible wrote:

> To speak French, you have to actually speak in a French accent, or
> nobody knows what you're saying. Which actually makes sense, really...

Well, I've been told that the French (and in particular, Parisians) often 
will pretend they don't understand if your French is bad.  I had a 
similar experience to this in Barcelona - the difference between Spanish 
and Catalan is small enough that if you speak Spanish, they can 
understand you.

For example, in Spanish, the city "Barcelona" is pronounced "bar-se-lone-
a".  In Catalan, it's pronounced "Bar-theh-lone-a".  But if you don't 
pronounce it the second way, the locals will tend to pretend to not know 
what you're saying.  They damned well know what is meant, though.

Jim

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"Phil Cook" <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote in message
news:op.t5utu1ywc3xi7v@news.povray.org...
> And lo on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:08:39 -0000, Gail Shaw sa dot com>
> <"<initialsurname"@sentech> did spake, saying:
>
 >
> > It's friday and I'm slow.
>
> Weekend yay!
>
> > Which reference did you have in mind?
>
> Zathras, Zathras, Zathras

Ah right. I almost forgot them. But then, no one ever listen to poor
Zanthras

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Invisible nous apporta ses lumieres en ce 2008/02/01 05:23:
> During my stay in Switzerland, I discovered a number of things.
> 
> The region I was staying in (Nendaz) speaks French. Now, my knowledge of 
> French is minimal. I recall that what we refer to as a "gold fish", the 
> French call "le passion rougue" ("the red fish"), and that's about it.
We say "le poasson rouge"
> 
> I recall sitting down in the cafe at Siviez. Waitress wanders over and 
> mutters something in French. I look at her for a moment. "Well I hope 
> your English is way better than my French." She looks worried.
> 
> Well anyway, I eventually managed to figure out that if you mumble 
> "shokolah", they bring you a mug of hot chocolate. Which tastes ****ing 
> fantastic BTW.
> 
> Benny likes to drink some kind of coffee. I'm not sure exactly what it 
> is. The waitress comes over and he says "reversay". And she looks at him 
> like "dude, WTF?" Anyway, it turns out the correct way to pronounce this 
> word is actually a cross between saying "reversay" and trying to cough 
> up a gold watch: hhhhhhhhrrreversay. Otherwise they literally have no 
> idea what you're saying.
Kind of sound like "poured again" or "turned over". Depend on the exact context.
> 
> I still have no idea what this word actually means... Any guesses?
> 
> Also somewhat interesting: If you ask an English person how to say 
> "hello" in French, they'll tell you it's "bon-jor". Well, *I* didn't 
> hear anybody say that! What I heard was much more like "bor-shor". 
> Because, you know what? To speak French, you have to actually speak in a 
> French accent, or nobody knows what you're saying. Which actually makes 
> sense, really...
Just *what* french accent are you talking about? There are 100's of them...
I live in Montréal, Québec, end there are times I have dificulties understanding 
some other french speakers.
I can say the same about english eccents ;-)
> 
> Similarly, it's not "mer-see". It appears to involve a completely 
> different set of vowles, more closely approximating "meial-si". Danm, I 
> can't even *type* it, much less say it out loud.
"mer-see" is closer to the way we say it where I live.
> 
> For me, the most baffling thing was hearing little kids uttering 
> complex-sounding French sentences. Now, logically, this isn't 
> surprising. They're probably from France! What else would they be 
> speaking? And yet, it still amazed and astonished me every time... 
> French words seem to have such a complicated structure. And yet these 
> kids toss it around as if it's *easy*. Which, when you're a French 
> person, it probably is.
I was wondering the same when I had to learn english...
> 
> Like I said, logically there's nothing unusual here. Rationally, you 
> know that. But even so, when you see small children casually doing 
> something that you yourself find impossibly difficult... it's always 
> surprising.
> 
> (But then, come to that, there were children there who could ski better 
> than they can *walk*! Really showed me up...)
> 
> You know, it's probably a *good* thing that I don't know how to say "you 
> have a really nice arse" in French. Because that waitress would have 
> probably slapped me for it. Mind you, she says her boyfriend is always 
> teaching her new English words and phrases. (And damn, her English isn't 
> half bad...) Ho hum!
It's "Vous avez un beau derrière!" Or "Vous avez de belles fesses"
Pronounce (aproximataly):
"vou zavai un bo deriair" or "...de bell fess"
And, yes, it could result in a stiff slap in the face...

You may try to first learn Spanish or Italian, then learn French. Learning Latin 
and classical Greek can also help. Anyway, learning a new language is never a waste.

-- 
Alain
-------------------------------------------------
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Thomas Jefferson

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