When a word sounds exactly the same in French as it does in English, yet has an entirely different meaning, it is often referred to as a ‘False Friend’. Indeed some words can have a meaning far removed from what you intend. For example a ‘chauvinist’ in French means ‘nationalist’ in English. It is for [...]
Monthly Archives: January 2010
Le racing, racing the wrong way
Thursday, January 21, 2010
While historical successes of Racing Strasbourg, or ‘Le Racing’ as they are known hereabouts, have not led to high expectations from their devoted fans, recent developments have made even the most football-phobic residents of France’s ninth largest city groan with embarrassment. Can it really be the same team that lifted the league cup in 2005 [...]
A date for your diary
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
31st December 2010, New Year’s Eve, the last day of the year. Okay, I know, you might be doing something in the evening, but between the hours of 9 and 5 (excluding lunchtime of course) will be your last chance to register to vote in any forthcoming European or Municipal elections. If you don’t register [...]
How spurious
Monday, January 18, 2010
I’ve had one of those days. First off, my meeting with the Strasbulles web team was put asunder thanks to a spurious general error on the Strasbulles website. Secondly, I was unable to connect to the internet because my laptop had spuriously decided that it couldn’t remember it’s name. Thirdly, as I set off for [...]
limited connection
Monday, January 18, 2010
Ever had that annoying little yellow triangle alert symbol appear over your network connection, and no matter what you do to alter your network settings, you just can’t seem to get connected to the internet? This happened to me this morning – but thanks to a little program I found here I’m back online! Unfortunately [...]
International sports rights
Saturday, January 16, 2010
There’s nothing more frustrating to sit down in front of your computer 5 seconds before the match starts to be presented with a standard copyright notice, usually along the lines of “Cannot play media. Sorry, this media is not available in your territory.” While I have nothing against international copyright law, the way media companies [...]
A note from your health insurers
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
I received an ‘oh-so-helpful’ response to my plea for financial aid from my ‘mutuelle’ yesterday. To paraphrase: Your letter has reached my attention. However it is impossible for me to respond favourably to your request for your anticipated revenue for 2009. Ordnance 2003/1213 of 18/12/2003 states that estimated revenues must take into account, by anticipation, [...]
Groovy widget
Monday, January 11, 2010
Just thought I’d share this with you – it’s very clever. Feedjit Live Blog Stats
Snow chaos
Monday, January 11, 2010
Just typical. Monday morning after a wee bit of snow and guess what: no trains have been cancelled public transport hasn’t ground to a halt the roads were gritted before dawn and no schools are closed Which means I have no excuse but to knuckle down and do some work!
The swinging tit’s of Olivia Ruiz
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
When Russian Vladimir Nabakov released his first English novel, Lolita, he was heavily criticised for choosing such a shocking subject matter, no-one really bothered to congratulate him on writing flawlessly in a foreign language. But that’s the Anglophone world for you – few of us really appreciate the difficulty of learning and applying a foreign [...]
Login
Copyright © 2013 Englishman in Strasbourg. All Rights Reserved.
Magazine Flow created by Themes by bavotasan.com.
Magazine Flow created by Themes by bavotasan.com.