Posting in French?

[old_beginner]

I realize than many of the contributions to this board are made by French speaking people who make efforts, sometimes laborious, to post in English.
Would it hurt someone if French posts would be made to that board, especially for the Quebec City and other out of Montreal areas? I understand that some English speaking only readers would not be able to understand them but, on the other hand, it might attract useful reviews by some locals who do not feel comfortable enough in English.
It is also frequently mentioned which providers are good in English but, as a French speaking local, it would be useful for me to know which ones are comfortable in French!
Feed-back (positive or negative), even in French would be appreciated.
Pour les Québécois: je voulais juste savoir si ça dérangerait ben du monde qu'on se parle en français au sujet de ce qui se passe chez nous!! On manque peut-être des commentaires intéressants de gars qui osent pas écrire en anglais.

 

[chowhound]

Well, I prefer English, as I do not speak French, but I suppose that a post in French is better than no post at all! There are internet translation sites that seem to work well enough to get the basic idea translated. So, I would say post in whatever language you prefer!

 

[ManAboutTown]

English, French, heck Japanese if you like... contribute!

MATt

 

[E B Samaritano]

sa la vie.. I am partial to French without a translator..LOL..

Gentlemen,

As far as I'm concerned IF anybody wants to post in French on this board anywhere, he or she is welcome to do so. Montreal is a french speaking town and in deferrence to that fact, we should welcome cotnributions here in french. The rest of us monolingual cripples will be able to follow the dialogue by using the translation facilities at Babelfish, etc. I notice that many french speakers have made an effort to post here in English, and I thank them for that. I will not be so closed- minded as to think that this is an English speaking only forum.

EBS

 

[Avery]

Re: sa la vie.. I am partial to French without a translator..LOL..

Originally posted by E B Samaritano
The rest of us monolingual cripples will be able to follow the dialogue by using the translation facilities at Babelfish, etc.

EBS, Just bear in mind that computer translation isn't all that precise.

I used http://ets.freetranslation.com/ to translate "Resident sage asshole" into French and then back to English.

The result: The inhabitant idiot wise

 

[E B Samaritano]

Re: Re: sa la vie.. I am partial to French without a translator..LOL..

Originally posted by Avery


EBS, Just bear in mind that computer translation isn't all that precise.

I used http://ets.freetranslation.com/ to translate "Resident sage asshole" into French and then back to English.

The result: The inhabitant idiot wise

Geesh Avery...that actually sounds pretty acccurate to me. I might just use that to begin with to avoid a misunderstanding if someone should translate..LOL.

The Braziallian dialect of Portugese, i.e. Carioca is not understandable to many natives Portugal either. Running that through babefish or any of a host of other translators gives somewhat curious results as well.

But then again, the posting is bound to be far more precise in the native dialect than it is if the person tried his own version of English. I'm also counting on some of our bilingual friends to help us out. I'm all for allowing Japanese even, if it helps the cause of encouraging contributions here..LOL..

EBS aka "le bon samaritan"

 

[Peeping Tom]

Well, if someone would need a translation I might be able to help, but it would have to be for something serious - not like a three word review. One could always PM me, with the understanding that no reply means I'm out of town - I do alot of contract work on site.

Any other locals with good enough french - if there were a few volunteers, we could set up a review translation network?

 

[CoolAmadeus]

Francophone à la rescousse!

I am French but I always post in english on the boards, to make sure everyone interrested in what I have to say can understand. Many French speaking individuals also speak English, or at least understand it anyway, but it's not necessarily true the other way around!

As someone else wrote on another board, the French is a language of nuances, and no translation tool can get the real essence of a sentence if that sentence is ambiguous, poetic, even is only sligthly, or simply too long.

So, I will continue to post in English, but if someone needs a French translation, it will also be my pleasure to help. As PeepingTom mentioned, it would have to be more than for just a few words though, since most translation tools can help for that already (even if the results are somewhat weird, to say the least, as for "Resident Sage Asshole" LOL!).

CA

 

[E B Samaritano]

CA,

The english language is full of idioms and double entendres as well. My thinking here is that I am much better at communicting my thoughts in my native language and being properly understood in context by other bilingual people than I would be if I hazarded trying to express those idioms and entendres in another language. Therefore, as much as I encourage english posting by Francophones, it may be expedient for them to post in French to properly express themselves. Then we could have the beneifit of bilingual people such as yourself to properly convey the meaning of the posting.

An incidently, despite the nuances, the translation of the French posting on that other board was quite clear and without significant nuance..LOL..

EBS

 

[E B Samaritano]

Originally posted by pierrepaul
J'ai soulevé cette question dans les premiers jours suivant la naissance de ce site. La réponse parmi les anglophones qui fréquentent le site était unanime. Le français est le bienvenu. A ma connaissance, les propriétaires du site n'ont pas fait de commentaires sur la question linguistique.

J'aimerais une plus grande participation des Québécois-français, surtout puisque nous ne fréquentons pas nécessairement les mêmes établissments ni les mêmes agences.

Quant à moi, j'ai passé beaucoup de temps pendant ma jeunesse à l'extérieur du Québec, et alors, mon français écrit est parfois boiteux, ce qui explique le fait que j'affiche majoritairement en anglais.

Oui Pierre Paul,

And that explains why this a perfectly well written and easy to understand French posting. Indeed there are no prohibitions against posting in French here. This message board is hosted in Canada where the official languages are English and French. Our host would not dare be so arrogant and culturally ignorant to demand that a poster use only English. Montreal is a French speaking city and there are many Quebecois who go to establishments that are not familiar to anglophones. Sometimes you have to excuse us Americans. We have a requirement that people speak English in America and when they don't learn we call them lazy. Then when we go to their country we demand they speak English as well. What do you suppose they call us?

Might I suggest that for those who are not comfortable with English that they can post in French and give an English version a try as well. It might help get the attention of some of us who don't have the time to treat their contribution as important if it is not written in English.

EBS

 

[old_slicker]

Perhaps another way to approach this would be that any French speaking poster who sees a French post could translate it. No need for anyone in particular to always do it.

I'm french speaking myself so if I come across an interesting post, it would be my pleasure to translate it!

old_slicker

 

[CityHunter]

bilingual

I have not learned French yet but will like to do so soon.
It will be nice if there are volunteers who are willing to do the translation to the French posts. This way non French speaking members can pick up some French at the same time.

Old_slicker, thanks for being the volunteer

 

[E B Samaritano]

Monocle,

Very well then. Post in French, but if you do know English, please provide an English version as well as a compromise. A thread started in English will have more continuity that way. If I am interested in joining a French thread, I can always do so translation and I think some of the posters here have volunteered to help as well. As you point out, and I certainly do agree, you can be much more accurate in your native language.

EBS

 

[Happydan]

I can also translate for you guys.

 

[E B Samaritano]

Originally posted by martinl68
Je suis content que la question soit soulevée parce que je suis beaucoup plus à l'aise pour poster en français qu'en anglais. Dorénavant je posterai en français avec une version anglaise à la fin. Je pense que comme ceci personne n'est lésé.

Thankyou very much martini,

We will look for your posts in French and will appreciate your efforts to translate them into English as well.

regards,
EBS

Monsieur Martini,

Merci beaucoup. J'apprécie votre écriture en français. J'espère que vous écrirez également en anglais.


A bientot!

le bon samaritan

 

[HornyBoy007]

We used to post in English in other boards like canbest. Which made sense, since canbest e.g is concerned with Canada and not only quebec and it is safe to say that the majority of the readers of canbest (or similar sites) are anglophones.

For MERB (I'm pretty happy with this site BTW, especially that we don't have to wait for week before seeing our posts published END BTW) the site focuses on Montreal and quebec city it will be very interesting to have posts in french too. Hopefully, this will encourage some people to speak up. The idea of having separate english threads and french threads could be interesting and maybe helpful to some people. Though, we don't want to run into some linguistic ghettos. For myself, I don't mind reading posts in french or in english as I switch from une langue a l'autre seemlessly.

HornyGars.