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THE WAR IN LYON
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THE WAR IN LYON
Earl wrote on Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:18:19 +0100:
The above subject popped into my head because of the Gare de Austerlitz and the habit of Europeans to name train stations after famous victorious battles in history. Napoleon, a war criminal, from a few centuries ago ctually won a battle at Austerlitz which the French have not forgotten. The bottom line battle of his career, however, was at Waterloo. He lost. Why did you not mention the old story about the Frenchman in London at Waterloo Station who said "You British are different from we French. We name stations after victories, you after defeats" ? -- James Silverton Potomac, Maryland Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not |
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THE WAR IN LYON
On 13/12/08 21:29, in article ,
"James Silverton" wrote: Why did you not mention the old story about the Frenchman in London at Waterloo Station who said "You British are different from we French. We name stations after victories, you after defeats" ? -- James Silverton Potomac, Maryland A good one. |
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THE WAR IN LYON
"James Silverton" wrote in message ... Earl wrote on Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:18:19 +0100: The above subject popped into my head because of the Gare de Austerlitz and the habit of Europeans to name train stations after famous victorious battles in history. Napoleon, a war criminal, from a few centuries ago ctually won a battle at Austerlitz which the French have not forgotten. The bottom line battle of his career, however, was at Waterloo. He lost. Why did you not mention the old story about the Frenchman in London at Waterloo Station who said "You British are different from we French. We name stations after victories, you after defeats" ? -- James Silverton Potomac, Maryland LOL - worth bookmarking. |
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THE WAR IN LYON
Earl Evleth wrote: On 13/12/08 19:24, in article , "Bill Bonde { Remember, Remember, to Vote on the 5th of November )" wrote: "Ville-lers le Bell", he would look at you confused because he would have to have heard something like "Ville-lee-aye le Bell" to understand what you were saying. It amazes me how far you go to attack me. Informing you, important if you take a taxi. Maybe French needs a phonetic orthography. One of the errors of English speaks is their really gross mispronunciations. I treated this years ago in the following amusing post. THE WAR IN LYON One of the difficulties of high school French is that it is quickly forgotten and probably never really learned. Two years of the stuff at the age of 16-17 evaporates by the time one is 40 or 50. The most difficult part of the language is that even familiar words are not pronounced the same. The Europeans` pronunciation of the alphabet from Ah to Zed is already different than the American (A as in hey, to Z as in Zee). About 30% of French vocabulary uses the same words as in English, but the pronunciations are different . I suspect this is due to it being French and not English. Nation. In American English it is pronounced as "nay-shun" and in French as 'nah-see-own". More or less! English has historical or etymological spelling, by and large. This makes pronunciation insanely difficult. The French is probably easier. Of course the French thing is how the word boundaries work. One of the most common errors English speakers make is when they jump into a cab and mutter " Guerre de Lyon " when they want to go to Lyon train station in Paris; The driver usually understands since he or she has encountered it thousands of times; Which is only fair because the person saying it has probably never encountered it said correctly: "I want to go to il treno, der Zug, the bloody TRAIN!" The French ear wants to hear "Gare" (train station) which rhymes with the English word "bar", not " guerre " (war) which rhymes with "bear". Why would someone say "gare" to rhyme with "bear"? Historically, Lyon is not known for its wars. It escaped being a battle zone in WWI and WWII although was an active site for the resistance. My French history is poor but I remember no famous battle in the region. Certainly it has escaped modern military attention so asking the taxi driver to take you to any contemporary conflict in the region will fail and lead him to let you off at the Gare to Lyon. This successful arrival will deceptively lead you to believe that your French is not that bad at all, perfect in fact, since your desired destination has been reached. I wouldn't conclude that my French was perfect because I could be understood by someone who was trying to understand what I was saying. Of course if he deliberately doesn't understand, as is common around here, that won't make me conclude that it isn't at least reasonable enough. The above subject popped into my head because of the Gare de Austerlitz and the habit of Europeans to name train stations after famous victorious battles in history. Napoleon, a war criminal, from a few centuries ago ctually won a battle at Austerlitz which the French have not forgotten. The bottom line battle of his career, however, was at Waterloo. He lost. His little thing in MockBa wasn't too successful either. Tolstoy even wrote a novel. There is no Waterloo station in Paris, or elsewhere in France. To find this train station one will have to go to London, where they still crow about the job they did on Napoleon. Note, however the Brits have no train station named after the battle at Yorktown (which they lost to the French, with some minor help from the Americans). On the other hand, the Paris Gare du Nord Is that final 'd' pronounced or not? The 'r' would be, I think. (North) and Gare de l'Est (East) could be taken in a general sense when it comes to wars, since both of those regions have had so many of them. The Americans, believing that history is bunk, have never, to my knowledge, named any train station after a battle. The Americans, however, never have had a clear idea on which battles or wars they won or lost. The war of 1812 did not go that well, Did you know that it started on September 11? and the Alamo was a defeat. How do you define "defeat"? I guess King Pyrrhus might differ. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo #begin quote News of the Alamo's fall prompted many Texas colonists to join Houston's army. On the afternoon of April 21 the Texian army attacked Santa Anna's forces in the Battle of San Jacinto. During the battle many Texians shouted "Remember the Alamo!" Santa Anna was captured and forced to order his troops out of Texas, ending Mexican control of the area, now known as the Republic of Texas. #end quote And this doesn't even begin to tell the story of Santa Anna's loses to the actual United States. They were actually willing to give up all of Mexico. That's a pretty big defeat not for the US. Pearl Harbor rallied the nation, and the loss of the Philippines were historical incidents. True, Vietnam is not a proud moment in the nation's history, but history never influenced train station naming as in Europe. Anyway, you can be assured that the French will accept your bad French gladly if they can get an inkling of an idea of what you are trying to buy from them. The exchange of money greases the tracks of international exchange and good will. Pronunciation is secondary. I thought you said this was supposed to be funny. -- "I'm sorry, too, Dmitri... I'm very sorry... *All right*, you're sorrier than I am, but I am as sorry as well... I am as sorry as you are, Dmitri! Don't say that you're more sorry than I am, because I'm capable of being just as sorry as you are... So we're both sorry, all right?... All right." Peter Sellers, "Dr Strangelove", 1964. |
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Crosspost crap by evleth explaining his life
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THE WAR IN LYON
Pfff retired people have such a sense of humor...
Haw haw now back to beddie. "John Rennie" a écrit dans le message de ... "James Silverton" wrote in message ... Earl wrote on Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:18:19 +0100: The above subject popped into my head because of the Gare de Austerlitz and the habit of Europeans to name train stations after famous victorious battles in history. Napoleon, a war criminal, from a few centuries ago ctually won a battle at Austerlitz which the French have not forgotten. The bottom line battle of his career, however, was at Waterloo. He lost. Why did you not mention the old story about the Frenchman in London at Waterloo Station who said "You British are different from we French. We name stations after victories, you after defeats" ? -- James Silverton Potomac, Maryland LOL - worth bookmarking. |
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THE WAR IN LYON
James Silverton wrote: Earl wrote on Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:18:19 +0100: The above subject popped into my head because of the Gare de Austerlitz and the habit of Europeans to name train stations after famous victorious battles in history. Napoleon, a war criminal, from a few centuries ago ctually won a battle at Austerlitz which the French have not forgotten. The bottom line battle of his career, however, was at Waterloo. He lost. Why did you not mention the old story about the Frenchman in London at Waterloo Station who said "You British are different from we French. We name stations after victories, you after defeats" ? I'm surprised that France has any train stations. -- "I'm sorry, too, Dmitri... I'm very sorry... *All right*, you're sorrier than I am, but I am as sorry as well... I am as sorry as you are, Dmitri! Don't say that you're more sorry than I am, because I'm capable of being just as sorry as you are... So we're both sorry, all right?... All right." Peter Sellers, "Dr Strangelove", 1964. |
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THE WAR IN LYON
Magda wrote: On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:21:23 +0000, in rec.travel.europe, "Bill Bonde { Remember, Remember, to Vote on the 5th of November )" arranged some electrons, so they looked like this: ... I'm surprised that France has any train stations. I'm surprised that you know what France is. Is this the pro-French group? |
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THE WAR IN LYON
Magda wrote: On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:02:13 +0000, in rec.travel.europe, "Bill Bonde { Remember, Remember, to Vote on the 5th of November )" arranged some electrons, so they looked like this: ... ... ... Magda wrote: ... ... On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:21:23 +0000, in rec.travel.europe, "Bill Bonde { ... Remember, Remember, to Vote on the 5th of November )" ... arranged some electrons, so they looked like ... this: ... ... ... I'm surprised that France has any train stations. ... ... I'm surprised that you know what France is. ... ... Is this the pro-French group? So, you are voting on the 5th of November - which year? It depends on who's running. -- "I'm sorry, too, Dmitri... I'm very sorry... *All right*, you're sorrier than I am, but I am as sorry as well... I am as sorry as you are, Dmitri! Don't say that you're more sorry than I am, because I'm capable of being just as sorry as you are... So we're both sorry, all right?... All right." Peter Sellers, "Dr Strangelove", 1964. |
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