I’ll welcome ideas for other posts like this one, either other expressions I’ll try to translate or general French-English-translation posts ideas. If some little French mystery or weirdness has been nagging at you for a while, now is the time to ask.

Below are English expressions = their French equivalent (and the literal translation of the equivalent, if it differs):

• Naked as a jaybird = Nu comme un ver (Naked as a worm)
  
  
• Putting all your eggs in one basket = Placer tous ses oeufs dans le même panier (idem)
  
  
• An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, Better safe than sorry = Mieux vaut prévenir que guérir (Better to be safe than to cure)
  
  
• The lion’s share = La part du lion (idem)
  
  
• The early bird catches the worm =(+/-)= L’avenir appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt (Early risers own the future)
  
  
• To rain cats and dogs, It rained buckets =
  Il pleut des cordes (It rains ropes)
  OR Il pleut à sceaux (everybody around here pronounces it “à sciot”, but I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be “à sceaux”, which would be buckets)
  OR Il tombe des clous (It is falling nails… wow, that sounds harsher in English)
  OR Il pleut à boire debout (roughly: It rains enough for drinking standing up)
  
  
• Beggars can’t be choosers, Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth =(+-)= À cheval donné, on ne regarde pas la bride (If the horse is given, you shouldn’t be picky about the bridle)
  
  
• The cherry on top = La cerise sur le sundae (The cherry on the sundae)
  
  
• Getting ahead of one’s self = Vendre la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué (Selling the bear’s hide before killing it)

Note: I’ve just turned my reply to Simon’s comment on my last post into an entry of its own. The post was about Xavier’s English immersion sessions at home: here is the link.

There is a law that protects French in Québec, and this law restricts access to English school to French speaking children, unless they come from an English family. Despite the fact that my kids would not even be eligible for English school, I think my choice would still be to send them to a French school.

Beyond the learning of a second language (and the general communication abilities that come with it), attending school in a second language implies many other things:

• Steepling into a different culture:
  • Subjects for school projects and research likely originating from the foreign language’s culture;
  • Friends and interests unavoidably derivate from the foreign language’s pop culture;
  • Exposition to teachers with a political agenda;
  • Literature studies inclined toward the second language’s heritage.
• Knowledge gained on math, science, art, etc., using a completely different vocabulary than everyone around – and, possibly, available resources as well;
• Another version of history taught in class which, I fear, would take out much emphasis on local history;
• Fewer classes in the mother language, ie. a poorer (read and written) primary language, depending on the child and parents.

Just to deflate some of what I have just listed:

• I do not consider the second language’s culture or literature as inferior.
• I do not assume there are no teachers with political agendas at the primary language school (I actually expect there to be more of them, unfortunately).
• I do believe a lot of the difficulties of this approach can be compensated by the parents’ devotion.

In our situation of French being a minority language, and in this particular household where English culture (from online culture to literature to television) takes a big place, it makes more sense to me to compensate for what language and cultural knowledge are missing in class at home, where we are well equipped to do so with weekly immersions and media. This is not a critique on the weakness of the English program in public schools; I am aware that they have a lot of ground to cover on a variety of topics, and unfortunately they cannot set the faster pace that a personal approach can. English takes an important place in our own work and hobbies, and we find it a crucial tool for opening up to the world around us (not to mention online resources), so it will be easy for us to communicate it to our children.

I am not sure how this translates (excuse the pun) when evolving into a majority language and considering sending one’s children to a minority language school; the situation is certainly different, but I believe some of the considerations are the same.

To conclude, I want to note that I am not inclined to propose Québec should become an independent country and that the French language here should be protected at all costs, nor do I rush to ban our mother language and culture, which I hold dear. It is all about balance, as I hope this post – and, heck, this whole blog – can evidence.

PS. I also have another entirely selfish reason for not wanting my kids to be too “international”, which is my fear of seeing their path taking them millions of miles from my small mommy heart!

Frank and I broke into laughter at Xavier’s tone of indignation. It happened many weeks ago, a Monday, which is English immersion day for Xavier at home. His daddy had just come home from work and he greeted Xav in this second language, to get into the game.

[I inverted the languages below for the English version of this post.]
F – Allô, Xavier, ça va bien?
X – No, daddy. “Hello, how are you?” Like that!

That day – it was the second or third immersion we were doing, I think – Xavier displayed a passing revolt toward this perversion of his routine communications. His mommy was not using the same sentences as usual and, the horror!, even went so far as to change the words to his favourite stories. Fortunately, this passed quickly, and he is starting to enjoy this new language game.

From the first experience, I discovered that my two years old boy could easily understand me, even if I was speaking a foreign language. Communication, at this age, is mostly composed to directives and simple sentences. By using demonstrative gesture and appropriate tone (joy, disappointment, pride, etc.) in familiar situations (favourite games, meal time, etc.), I can get my meaning across to Xavier without too much problem.

That is how I started: I spoke in English to Xavier, and he answered me in French. Lately, however, I have had a lot of success by going through his first linguistic knowledge, but in the second language : we have fun naming face and body parts, as well as zoo and farm animals from his Little People collection. It is funny, because Orléane, who will soon be a year old, is beginning these same learnings at the same time (face and animal sounds), but in French, for starting. Xavier, for his part, is answering the same questions in English, and he is that much prouder to point out her “nose” to his little sister!

I have to admit, however, that it is a little frustrating at the beginning – as much for the parent as for the child. It feels like a step back, communication wise: we have to go back to basics and start anew, in this new language. We are used to communicating faster and get into more and more complex notions with our little man. The temptation is great to jump to the familiar language to explain a situation or a complex thing at the moment it presents itself, and I sometimes do. I also use the mother tongue for urgent directives that must be understood immediately – “Careful of your sister!!” – or to remonstrate, if need be.

Overall, I anticipate success in the long term. We encourage Xavier, but we do not push him – best he sees it as a game. What’s more, since Xavier naps in the afternoon, and I let go of the English afterward, our immersion day is more of a half-day.

By combining these immersions, English television and, in a few years, appropriate literature, Xavier and Orléane should have a solid bilingual foundation. This is important knowledge that Frank and I value a lot.

Posts in this category will differ in French and English – languages will be inverted, of course, and some content will be adapted.

In the sixties, it has been a popular musical trend - both in France and Québec, I believe - to translate English hits into French songs. This might seem corny – and it was: try to imagine “The Locomotion” or “These boots are made for walking” in another language – but I guess songs were easier to market abroad once translated in a foreign language. Hey, it’s still valid: Shakira, for one, has done a lot of song translation in recent years.

As a result, almost all the classics of English holiday songs were translated into French (and have become classics of the holidays in French). I should also note that there are legislations in radio that require a minimum percentage of French songs to be aired on Québec’s French-speaking radio stations, as a means to preserve the language (oh, it’s protected like you wouldn’t believe…).

Words and entire sentences have been changed in the translation, in the pursuit of rhyming. In good holiday fun, I thought I would take two of these holiday classics that were translated to French, and re-translate them back into English.

The little Red-Nosed Reindeer
(Notice there’s no names at all in this version, to us he’s just the little Red-Nosed reindeer.)

When snow covers green Finland
And reindeer cross the heath (most words in those 2 verses end with the same sound)
The wind in the night
At the herd, there’s still talk about him

{Chorus}
He was called Red Nose
Oh! How cute he was
The little red nose reindeer
Red as a wick
His little nose made them laugh
Everybody made fun of it a lot
They even went so far as to say
That he liked to have a little drink

A fairy who heard him
Cry in the dark
Said, to cheer him up,
Come to heaven tonight

Like a red nose angel
You will drive in the sky
With your little red nose
Santa Clause’s sleigh

(Solo and repeat of the last two paragraphs)

{Chorus, modified}
He was called Red Nose
Oh! How cute he was
The little red nose reindeer
Red as a wick
Now that he trains
His chariot through the skies
He’s the king of reindeers
And his nose inspires envy

You, girls and boys
For the great night
If you know your lessons
As soon as midnight sounds
This little dot that moves
Like a star in the sky
It’s Red Nose’s nose
Announcing Santa Clause (repeat three times)

(Fun fact: “Red Nose” was adopted for a name by an organization which offers a free drive-back service – by volunteers – during the holidays for people who had too much to drink.)

Hail the wind (Jingle Bells)

On the long road
All white with white snow
An old man advances
With his cane in hand
And high up there, the wind
Whistling in the branches
Blows him the romance
He sang (when he was a) little boy:

{Chorus:}
Hail the wind, hail the wind
Hail the winter wind
That goes whistling, blowing (alliteration in French)
In the tall green firs…
Oh! Hail the wind, hail the wind
Hail the winter wind
Snow ball and new year’s day (top rhyming, eh!)
And happy new year grand-mother…
Merry, merry Christmas
Of a thousand candles
When sing to the sky
The bells of the night
Oh! Hail the wind, hail the wind
Hail the winter wind
That brings back to old children
Their memories of yesterday…

And the old man
Goes down to the village,
It’s the hour where everything’s nice (used for “quiet”)
And shadow dances at the corner of the fire
But in each house
An air of party floats
Everywhere the table is ready
And the same song is heard:
{to the Chorus}

I think I prefer the French version of this last one, actually, because the story is sweeter and it’s third person.

Early happy holidays, Englishwomen and Englishmen!

A couple of years ago, Émilie asked me to set up our WordPress installation to allow publishing in both English and French. So here is how we achieved this. Technically, having a bilingual blog isn’t that complicated – it’s writing all the posts twice that takes some patience.

After trying out several things and plugins, we finally found what we needed: Polyglot. We still use the 0.4 that existed back then – and which still works nicely – but I’m sure the newer 2.5 version is even better (as a matter of fact, I really should update that eventually).

Polyglot is really simple to install and use. For installation, one must modify polyglot.php to define the languages to be used, then modify wp-config.php for the default language. Next, to allow visitors to view the site in the preferred language, the parameter &lp_lang_pref=en or &lp_lang_pref=fr must be added to the link for language choice. This parameter will create a cookie that will remember the preference of the visitor. As for the RSS links, they can be located by adding ?lp_lang_view=fr or ?lp_lang_view=en to the links.

For composing, it’s not complicated either: everything that is between <lang_en> </lang_en> tags will only appear if the language parameter is ‘en’. For example:
<lang_en>Here is a cool picture</lang_en><lang_fr>Voilà une belle image</lang_fr><img src=’coolpic.jpg’>

In this example, the text is translated according to the visitor’s language, and the image appears in both cases (no need to repeat it because it is not included in a language tag).

For more advanced users, it is also possible to create your bilingual theme by using a php Polyglot command directly in your theme files; for example this text that presents recent posts:
<?php lp(’<lang_fr>Récents articles</lang_fr><lang_en>Recent posts</lang_en>’); ?>
In version 0.4, it was the lp command that was available, it think this has changed in the newer version to p__ or p__e.

When we started using Polyglot, bilingual blog plugins were pretty rare, and those that worked even more so. Polyglot has met our needs. There are probably more possibilities today, but I recommend it because it is simple and handles the job well.

There. Now all’s left is translating this post.

You know, fv mentioning this whole “Pluto’s not a planet anymore” made me remember how this totally messes up the acronym-phrase they taught us, for memorizing the planets’ order.

The French sentence was “Mon Vieux, Tu M’As Jeté Sur Une Nouvelle Planète!” – ie. “Old buddy, you threw me on a new planet!” – for Mercury, Venus, Earth (la Terre), Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. And very ironically (Simon won’t fail to tell me if I’m misusing that word), Pluto’s acronym word was “Planet”.

But I’m sure they considered that carefully when they decided to ditch it.