Really?

One of the Chinese guys keeps us all smiling with his French:

"Est-ce que tu as vu Le vent se lève?" (that Ken Loach film about Ireland)

"Non. C'est un bon film?"

"Oui. C'est un film érotique."

.....

"Non! C'n'est pas érotique!"

"Non. C'est un film ésotérique."

...

"Je crois que non..."

"C'est un film historique."

"Oui. C'est ça. Un film historique."

Once he told us that he couldn't switch mobile phone operator because he has a flat. We were baffled. He hasn't got a flat. He meant un abonnement (a contract) but it came out as un appartement.

Makes me wonder what ones I do but nobody tells me about.

Come to think of it, sometimes people do fall about laughing suddenly for no apparent reason. I just thought it was their joie de vivre...

Comments

Anonymous said…
Well well. In German, ein Abonnement, is when, for example, you agree with teh ocal Post office to buy of one all the stamps published by the Austrian Post office for a year. So it is a contract in french! You can do it with newspapers too!
3:49 pm
Alan said…
Well if one is talking about magazines and newspapers un abonnement is a subscription, but in English we don't talk about a mobile phone subscription. We talk about a mobile phone contract. (It's that formal versus dynamic equivalence thing again!)
4:07 pm
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