OK, C'est bon? C'est bon.

[king_pellinor]

OK, I'm writing up some notes on our trip to St Malo. It may take me some time to piece things together, as my memory is blurry and has holes in, so you may have to wait for a fuller version. In the meantime:

- I ache and I'm tired

- I don't think I've stopped smiling since Friday evening.

- Je keep translating tous le choses que je suis about to say from English into pidgin Franglais, et quand people speak a moi en Anglais je translate ca aussi et maintenant je suis tres tres confused.

- Et je peut parle seulement tres lentement, avec les pauses pour l'autre person a comprendre et je nod et je smile a tous le monde. Ce n'est pas professional for a Chartered Tax Advisor.

- "C'est bon" is wonderful phrase that I have used far too often these three (four?) days. I wonder what it means.

- Men of Wight, Oyster Girls and Wight Bells are lovely people. Even when I make them dance for a solid hour in clogs on cobbles in bright sunshine AND with no beer, water, toilets or prospect of being able to stop.

- One of them isn't lovely at all but, eh, c'est bon. I used to wonder what it would be like to lose my temper, and now I know. What surprises me is that I could blow up, then be happy and smily with everyone else, and then blow up again when a certain person came back, and then be happy and smily again.

- I suspect the happy smiliness is helped by the number of sympathetic hugs I got. Did I say morris people are lovely?

- France were robbed. They were all over Italy in the second half, and penalties are no way to decide the World Cup.

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Welcome back! I wish our KPMG contacts spent their time smiling and nodding, instead of frowning, saying "Hmmm" and drawing in their breath ...

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

France may have been all over Italy midfield, but Buffon rarely seemed threatened, so it's hard to see why it would mean France were robbed. But then I don't share the apparent Anglo-Saxon disdain I've noted all over the comment boards for the defensive game ;-) If any robbing went on, it was Cannavaro not getting the Golden thingie, as he played consistently superbly whereas Zidane was more uneven (if more spectacular).

But I agree about the penalties. Bah, c'est bon!

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm all for the defensive game normally, though I have to admit I often get a bit carried away with my cavalry (not in football, I hasten to add - I don't really care for the game).

In this situation though I thought Italy too defensive - they seemed to have lost the initiative to France for most of the match that I saw (I came in late due to confusion over the timings).

But then I don't really know about football, I just pretend to. And being in a French bar with a load of Frenchmen and a bellyfull of French beer may perhaps bias one's opinions :-D

[bunn.livejournal.com]

You have just transported me back to my first ever French exchange visit, aged 12. The father of the household kept smiling, nodding and asking me 'Ça va?'

I didn't know what it meant! And after the first couple of times, it was too late to ask! I couldn't find it in my phrase book! (I fear I was looking under 's'). After a while I was hiding when I saw him, lest he should ask me again....

Anyway, just be careful who you go saying "C'est bon" to, you don't want to traumatise someone for life ...

[amalion.livejournal.com]

"Anyway, just be careful who you go saying "C'est bon" to, you don't want to traumatise someone for life ..."

Indeed. Not the sort of thing to say after someone has just fallen off the Brittany Ferry...

However I did enjoy reading the Franglais. "C'est bon"

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Both are general purpose phrases that can mean virtually anything depending on context and inflection. English equivalents would be "OK", "Fine", and so on.

"Ca va" literally means "It goes". Typical usage would be:

A: "Bonjour, ca va?"
B: "Oh, ca va. Et vous?"
A: "Oui, ca va"

Which translates as:

A: "Hello, how's it going?"
B: "Oh, fine. And you?"
A: "Yeah, I'm OK".

"C'est bon" literally means "It is good". Typical usage:

A: "[complicated set of instructions]. C'est bon?"
B: "Oui, c'est bon"

Now say it in English:

A: "[complicated set of instructions]. Is that OK?"
B: "Yep, that's fine."

[bunn.livejournal.com]

There is nothing more traumatic to a 12 year old than someone doing A and standing there expecting you to say B, but you don't know what he said or what to reply...

I think he was puzzled because my French was otherwise not bad, so I'd be chatting away in rather slow careful French with other members of the family, then he'd come up and say the fatal words and I'd stand there looking like a rabbit in headlights until he decided to speak English instead.

It's funny from a safe distance...

[evilmissbecky.livejournal.com]

Welcome back! I'm glad you had a good time, despite that one awful person.