Fresques italiennes/Italian frescoes

Toronto, 30 degrés à l'ombre, facteur d'humidité de 34.

La lecture, depuis une semaine et en pièce climatisée, du livre "Michaelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling" de Ross King, est une activité qui ne demande pas d'efforts physiques. Après avoir dévoré une centaine de pages, je suis complètement absorbé par les détails sur le travail de fresques italiennes. Une idée: regarder l'Internet et voilà que je tombe sur le site très contemporain de l'Atelier Saint-Honoré, qui donne une description détaillée des techniques nécessaires, en espagnol, italien et français, avec schémas à l'appui.

http://www.atelier-st-andre.net/fr/pages/technique/technique_fresque/definitions_fresque.html#Anchor-La-3504

Pour un traducteur, c'est également une mine de terminologie. Tout à fait par hasard, je passe d'une page à l'autre et je tombe sur une page anglaise:

http://www.atelier-st-andre.net/en/pages/technique/fresco_technique/wall_fresco.html

Je remarque ici l'ajout d'un drapeau anglais. Donc, pour nos collègues anglophones, il y aura une version anglaise!

Je continue à lire le site et je tombe sur une page sur la Chapelle St-Georges, à Publier (en Savoie).

http://www.atelier-st-andre.net/en/pages/gallery/publier1.html

Suivent une série de pages détaillées sur les travaux dans la chapelle. Chose absolument étonnante est que j'ai passé plusieurs étés à Publier, dans la colonie de vacances de l'ancien Internat St-Georges (de Meudon). J'y avais été pensionnaire au début des années cinquante!

Que le monde est petit! Pour les intéressés aux fresques, voilà une source de renseignements précieux.

Merci au Père Egon Sendler!

Where an idiomatic expression is misunderstood by a non-native speaker

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060615.PARLDECORUM15/TPStory/?query=hands+wrung%2C+Bill+curry

Further to the Globe story about "vulgar gestures" used in the House of Commons, what apparently happened is that the MP who was offended, the Government House Leader Rob Nicholson , was not familiar with the expression "faire un bras d'honneur" which my dictionary describes as "to put two fingers up at somebody; to give somebody the V-sign, give somebody the finger (US)."

The interpreter made a mistake and said Italian arm, instead of An arm of honour (the literal translation of the above expression). Because of the Italian element, Mr. Nicholson felt that the expression insulted some of his Italian constituents.

There are many expressions, both in English and in French, where a particular nationality is used as a qualifier:

1) In the culinary arts, cuit à l'anglaise means boiled
2) In the world of movement, filer à l'anglaise means to take French leave (to run off or run away)
3) In sexuality, une capote anglaise is a French safe a.k.a condom
4) And a French kiss is a patin or se rouler un patin (not to be confused with the word skate, as in ice-skate)
5) In architecture, a French door is a porte-fenêtre
6) and a Dutch door is a porte d'étable
7) In clothes making, French chalk is craie de tailleur (as if all Frenchmen were tailors)
8) In geography, The English Channel is called La Manche (the sleeve) in French.
9) To go Dutch for a meal, the French says "partager les frais",
10) That's Greek to me in French is C'est de l'hébreu ou du chinois (it's Hebrew or Chinese to me).

Protect your left caudate

An recent article in the Technology section of the Globe & Mail, entitled "Wire for sound", describes the following:

"Brain-imaging studies have shown that people who are fluent in two languages use the same brain circuitry for both. This left scientists wondering how the brain differentiates between two languages.
in Britain, Germany and Japan have found evidence that part of the brain known as the left caudate helps bilingual people distinguish the language they hear and control the one they speak.

Researchers
The study involved a group of people comfortable in both German and English and another group fluent in Japanese and English, but the researchers suggest that the same system is at work in all bilingual brains.

They say their conclusions are supported by a trilingual woman who suffered damage to her left caudate. She retained her ability to speak all three, but would involuntarily jump from one to another."

As a bilingual person, I am not aware of my mental processes to that extent but I do know that if I am tired, my English is greatly interfered by French than when I am rested.

Un néologisme boiteux : carbumodulable

Voici un extrait d'un article récent paru dans Le Monde :

Les constructeurs automobiles restent réservés
LE MONDE 08.06.06 14h09
Le soudain volontarisme du gouvernement sur l'éthanol E85 provoque chez les constructeurs automobiles un sentiment partagé. Ford, qui a joué les francs-tireurs en proposant le premier des véhicules carbumodulables (Le Monde du 5 novembre 2005), capable de rouler à l'E85, voit son lobbying récompensé.
....
PSA, comme Renault, ont néanmoins promis de proposer des véhicules "flexfuel" dès 2007. Pour joindre l'acte à la parole, le président de PSA, Jean-Martin Folz, s'est rendu à Bercy, mercredi 7 juin, en Peugeot 206 "flexfuel", tandis que le PDG de Renault, Carlos Ghosn, avait présenté la veille au ministre des transports, Dominique Perben, un modèle de Clio capable de rouler à l'E85.

Une recherche sur Internet révèle que c'est le mot bi-carburant qui est le plus souvent utilisé. C'est un peu comme le mot caoutchouc qui se prononce élastique ou le beurre de cacahuètes que l'on trouve dans les magasins sous le nom de beurre d'arrachides.

Please provide a translation sample

A new restaurant opened in the neighbourhood - so do we rush to get a free sample of their food before going there for a meal? Unless they are advertising an unusual specialty, I do not think any restaurant would give way food.

Why then would a translator provide "a sample translation" of a client's job in the hope of getting the whole job? That is what happened to me today when a new prospective supplier asked me to translate a small sample of a job I was asked to quote on, so that their Montreal people can give their ok. The dark side of this can sometimes be that a dishonest client who will parcel out the text to be translated, sending out the various pieces to be translated for free to various freelancer bidding for the job, and pronto, reassemble the translated bits to obtain a completely (??) translated text.

It would be useful in these circumstances to have access to previous company French communications and to a copy of their corporate terminology. Then the only area that could be criticized would be style - which can be adjusted to suit the customer.

A graphic designer friend of mine follows the same rule when people ask for a sample design - makes sense, doesn't it?

Are you left out or excluded?

A recent poster from the Government of Canada 2006 Census was asking passers-by whether "They had been left out? " and encouraged them to contact a special number to help them fill out the census questionnaire.

What was troubling was the French side of the poster, which asked "Have you been excluded" (Étiez-vous exclus?). Any native English speaker will confirm that to be left out usually implies a mistake or an oversight. Although the dictionary states that leave out and exclude are synonymous, native speakers will make a difference and use each expression in different circumstances.

I quickly called Elections Canada and spoke with a very understanding new Canadian clerk who took down the details of my complaint and promised to forward it to the proper authorities.

I just hope that those French-speaking citizens who read the sign did not feel Excluded, just Left out.