Vivre en français en Amérique/ Live in French in North America

L'actualite » Vivre en français en Amérique

Very interesting and informative articles on French in North America, the famous Bill 101 and the people who were born after it came into effect.

L'Actualité est un excellent magazine qui me permet de garder le pouls sur le Québec et le monde francophone du Canada.

Two solitudes /Nos deux solitudes

Two solitudes on the battlefield

It is interesting to observe what is happening in Kandahar and how the new arrivals from the 22 Regiment integrate with the other Canadian troops.

Selon Don Martin, les deux solitudes continuent d'exister sur le champ de bataille. Il est étonnant que la presse veut toujours trouver une polémique, un problème et attiser les flammes.

To be watched. Affaire à suivre.

A linguist’s mystery solved / Un secret de polichinelle

The news have been full of articles on the new contingent of Canadian troops being sent to Afghanistan. Selon sa langue, la presse semble avoir des avis partagés sur ces troupes.

The press seems to be making a fuss about the fact that these are troops from Valcartier, Québec. One of the things I could not understand is why they were called Van Doos.

Just today, an article on the L’Actualité website (De l’entraînement à l’Afghanistan) provides a series of pictures of the troops.

The paper article (September 2007 issue) of the same magazine, called “De Valcartier à Kandahar” , finally provides an explanation:

The troops are from the 22^nd Royal Regiment, called by their English speaking colleagues the Van Doos (from vingt-deux, with an English accent).

L’Actualité contient en fait plusieurs articles sur les militaires, “La guerre de Rick Hillier” et le second, mentionné ci-dessus. Leur présence me surprend car j’avais pensé que la guerre n’était pas très bien vue au Québec. Il faut préciser que l’Actualité appartient au groupe Rogers Media qui est définitivement anglophone.

Une situation à surveiller. An interesting development to be watched.

How to Leave a Comment on a Blog

David Finch | media, productivity, technology and ...: How to Leave a Comment on a Blog

Un collègue de la HPCA nous avait fait parvenir un lien au blogue de David Finch qui explique très clairement les avantages d'un commentaire réfléchi. Il s'agit en effet non seulement de laisser quelques mots mais également d'ajouter un peu de soi à la conversation.

As Dave says in his 3rd point, Give something to the Conversation. Our readers will be curious to see another point of view, a twist on the situation or an unusual way of dealing with a challenge.

Challenges in translation occur when two languages and two cultures meet. I am sure that many of my overseas readers have encountered situations where the lack of fluency in a second language created a problem in communication. Sharing their experiences might help our blog readers to communicate better.

Using my blog as a home page/Mon blogue devient une page d’accueil

I recently wrote of an unexplained increase in hits on my blog page and could not quite explain it. When I shared my concern with a specialist, it was suggested that maybe the reader had set up my blog as his/her home page. This would explain the regular visits, of only one page at a time. The hit count would therefore be affected and erroneously show a large number of visits (instead of repeat visits).

Le nombre de visites recensées par Sitemeter peut représenter soit un élément positif soit une méconnaissance des différents aspects d’un blogue. Il existe un effet une autre façon de recevoir les mises à jour d’un blogue – c’est l’utilisation de la fonction RSS. Dans le cas de mon blogue, cette fonction est remplie par le logiciel Atom (en bas de page- Subscribe to Posts).

It certainly is flattering to know that some of my readers think highly enough of me to set up my blog as their home page but they may find that it is handier to use the RSS function which would notify them each time a new post appears on the blog. In Blogger, this is the Subscribe to Posts caption at the bottom of the page.

It is amazing how much there is to learn out there! Et moi qui pensais avoir tout compris sur les blogues!

French leave: Definition

French leave: Definition and Much More from Answers.com

It is always interesting to find out what brings readers to my blog. One of my recent visitors was looking for the equivalent of the expression "French leave". I hope he found it. I just went on to Google and typed"French leave" in the search box. Voilà!

Elle est étonnante la facilité avec laquelle on peut trouver toutes sortes de réponses sur Internet. Dans le passé, il fallait donner toutes sortes de précisions et le processus semblait lourd et compliqué. Pour contrôler les résultats, il suffit de faire des recoupages et chercher les réponses avec des synonymes ou des expressions parallèles.

Researching the expression "Filer à l'anglaise", it appears as though the expression "anglaiser" used to mean to steal, as in slip away. (nothing to do with the English). So the expression really meant "to leave discreetly", as a thief would do, to steal away.