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Hints and tips for your holiday in Peru
Planning your holiday in Peru
Peru is a country with a rich and varied cultural and
architectural heritage. Facing the Pacific, it enjoys
spectacular and varied scenery, including Lake Titicaca, the
world's highest navigable lake, and has...
Holidays Afloat: Your Guide To The Best Yachting Vacations.
Yachting vacations used to be the sole preserve of the rich or famous; the price being unachievable for most people. Prices have now dropped considerably with the introduction of chartering and many yacht owners now offer other potential seafarers...
How To Learn Spanish Quickly and Easily
Spanish is a very useful language to learn as it is the world's second most popular language. Outside of the popular coastal tourist resorts a basic knowledge of Spanish is invaluable. Even in the tourist resorts you will find the Spanish will not...
PERU AT A GLANCE
General Information
Peru is the third largest country in South America and extends significantly along the Pacific Ocean. The country is bordered by five other South American gems: Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile. Peru is a vibrant...
Taking a City Break - the relaxing way
Long weekend city breaks have rapidly become one of the most popular short holiday choices for the British public. Cities such as Amsterdam, Prague and Barcelona are filled throughout the year by tourists looking for a weekend escape. However,...
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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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