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A Christmas Ski Holiday for Young Travellers
Have you always dreamt of a white Christmas but thought
skiing in Europe was only for investment bankers, movie
stars and royalty? Many youth travel specialists offer great
skiing package that will allow independent travellers to join
the jet...
Car Rental Safety
Vacations are traditionally a time when we let our hair down and have fun, and let all our humdrum daily worries stay at home to wait for our return. And while escaping the daily grind should be our primary vacation concern, we must not allow the...
On Oregon's Coast: Lewis & Clark and the Holidays
Sometimes, the best holiday celebrations aren't the most famous or obvious ones.
This is especially true on Oregon's coast, where one big secret is that this time of year doesn't just mean the area's notoriously stormy and wild weather, but...
Royal Visit Boost For Holiday Isle
Leaders of over 50 countries from the Commonwealth will be meeting on the Mediterranean island of Malta from November 25 to 27, and for three days the island will be enjoying the attention of hundreds of millions of TV and online news viewers and...
Tips on How to Choose the Right Holiday Hotel
After you have decided on a destination for your holiday, the next question that arises is how to find the perfect hotel for your stay.
The first thing you have to do is to start planning your trip in advance to avoid the unhappy situation of not...
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Moving to France - Bring your sense of humour!
Copyright 2005 Oliver Phillips. May be freely reproduced "as-is" for private and commercial use.
In this article from PFS France (http://www.propertyforsalefrance.co.uk/), B A Boyle a British expat, writes a "tongue in cheek" account about the communication challenges they faced when they moved to France.
For many newcomers to France, one of the greatest challenges is actually to make sense of the French language which we studied years ago in school.
If you’re lucky you may still remember a little vocabulary or how to conjugate verbs, the exceptions and the rules. Nevertheless, beware. french learned at school has its limitations. It’s most unlikely that you will be able to impress anyone by asking “Where is the station?” “I’d like to book a room with a shower” or even “How do I get to the Eiffel Tower”
So, soon after we moved here, we came to rely on two very good pieces of advice:
If you can’t make yourself understood, try saying it in a different way.
Learn how to ask politely for the French person to speak a little slower/clearer for example “doucement, S’il vous plait” (literally, softly please)
Let me give you an example. Our first summer here and we’re living in a quiet little French village. We’re ready to receive our first visitors, daughter, son-in law, & two young children; a family more used to seaside than countryside holidays. How do we keep the little ones entertained. The supermarket is full of little plastic paddling pools. We buy two. One for water and one for sand. Water, we have plenty of but we need to visit the DIY store in search of sand.
If I ever knew the French word for sand I’d
surely forgotten it long ago. We find a helpful assistant but make no headway. Even after playing the usual charade-like game, we still cannot make ourselves understood. I sense increasing frustration all round. Then I remember the first piece of useful advice. “Find another way to say the same thing”. Sure enough, somewhere safely stored in my head was the French word for beach, so we ask for a sack of beach. Although this brings howls of laughter from everyone within earshot – triumph for us – we get the sand.
We are now prepared for our visitors but the tap in the bathroom has started to drip, drip and drip. Happily our DIY skills extend as far as replacing a tap washer. Back to the DIY store. Sadly, not only do I not know the French word for washer I cannot think of any sensible word as an alternative.
The assistant, helpful as ever, is determined not to be beaten this time by a simple thing like language but after a barrage of totally incomprehensible conversation I try the second piece of advice. “Doucement, s’il vous plait” Ah, ah, the relief on his face shows us that at last we have made ourselves understood. “Un moment” he says and disappears. True to his word, a moment later he is back, “Voila, deux ciment” and from his laden trolley he produces two sacks of cement!
On our next visit to the DIY store we ignore the useful advice and take a dictionary instead.
About the Author
BA Boyle writes on PFS France (http://www.propertyforsalefrance.co.uk/) a website that helps French property owners advertise and sell, and potential buyers find, some of the finest and best cared for traditional French properties available.
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| Holidays on the Net - Welcome |
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| Kids Domain - Holidays |
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| Earth Calendar |
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| Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators - Holiday Information |
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