My first time in this select little corner of the board!!

My daughter (17)is off to Paris in a couple of weeks, to stay with a friend of a friend for the English and French half term break. She will be helping to look after her children and practicing her spoken French - excellent timing as she has an important oral exam the week after she comes back (though the examiner might wonder why her speech is peppered with French schoolyard slang!)

This has all been arranged between our mutual friend and my daughter, but I thought I should write a courtesy e-mail to the French host. My French is a bit rusty (I'd be better in Italian now!) but I have achieved something respectable, I hope. Needless to say, I keep fiddling about with it and would appreciate some help with a couple of expressions which I am a bit unhappy about the way I have phrased them:

1. She is looking forward to meeting your girls - she loves children and is very good with them..........

2. She is very responsible and well behaved......

3. Aquaerobics


Also, in referring to our mutual, delightful, friend can I say 'une personne sympa', or is that too slangy or just plain wrong?!

Merci beaucoup for any help you can give!

quote:

Posted 29 January 2009 03:40 AM

1. She is looking forward to meeting your girls - she loves children and is very good with them..........

2. She is very responsible and well behaved......

3. Aquaerobics

Let me try:

1. "Elle s'impatiente de faire la connaissance avec vos filles. Elle adore les enfants et s'entend très bien avec eux.

2. I think you can say simply "C'est une fille sérieuse".

3. Dunno, stumped !

Ken, Sylvain, au secours.

Thank you for that - another French friend (there are so many French living in this part of West London!) suggested ' Aquagym' as a translation of Aquaerobics.

I like your version of point 2 - it actually describes her very well !

Americana, your answer is quite good. Minor nitpick: I may have written for 1. "Elle est impatiente de faire ..." "Elle s'impatiente..." looks like she is throwing a tantrum(sp?) because she has not met them yet.

quote:

"Elle s'impatiente..." looks like she is throwing a tantrum(sp?) because she has not met them yet.

and she is !



Sylvain, you bring up a very good point.
After I read the original post, I had hesitated for days to respond. The direct translation would have been easy as pie. However, I have a sneaking suspicision that when it comes to terms of endearment or the kind of politesse-based superlatives, such as "dear" this "dear" that, or "can't wait", etc., in French one should take it down a notch. Ex: When writing to strangers, don't address the person as "cher" so&so right away. Ditto, tone down a phrase like "can't wait to meet so&so" in the French translation.
This is the kind of implicit rules of a culture that are very difficult to find in books.

quote:

After I read the original post, I had hesitated for days to respond. The direct translation would have been easy as pie. However, I have a sneaking suspicision that when it comes to terms of endearment or the kind of politesse-based superlatives, such as "dear" this "dear" that, or "can't wait", etc., in French one should take it down a notch. Ex: When writing to strangers, don't address the person as "cher" so&so right away. Ditto, tone down a phrase like "can't wait to meet so&so" in the French translation.
This is the kind of implicit rules of a culture that are very difficult to find in books

True, true - which is why I was amending and reamending my original version for a couple of days! My first thoughts in English were far too gushing and translated really badly - I worked in the French speaking part of Swizerland many, many years ago and learnt the hard way about literal translations in both formal and informal situations!

That's why I posted here, to get a more sensitive (and up to date) take on the sense of what I meant to convey. Merci!

Excellent points, everyone. Thanks for this thread. I'm enjoying it.

I agree - in translating, tone, cultural factors and conventions are big!