August 2010

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August is a month where the principal news presenters are on holiday, as are the teams that produce the 'enquiries'. But I keep a good stock to hand. Here is one on the traffic in endangered species

Sous le soleil les étoiles is a chic cultural chat-show with an over-excitable presenter. I don't watch it much. However, this imaginative presentation of summer festivals made me laugh. And the line at the end - talking about a folk-music festival...

I avoid religious subject for obvious reasons, but in the televisual desert of the summer I turn occasionally to KTO la chaîne catholique, where there are sometimes some good documentaries. This one on the Basilique de Fourvière which is in Lyon, interested me, first because of the reference to Thomas à Beckett, ans secondly because of the specialised register of the religious commentary

Here is Jean-François Zygel, a fine musician who has specialised in popularising classical music. I am never sure how I feel about these programmes, but here is a quiz where the cotestants have to identify classical themes by their rhythm. Not as easy as you might think...

This next clip demonstrates beautifully the extent to which the brain tricks us into believing that we are following what is spoken, when actually we are not. This documentary on Diand de Poitiers had a section on the costume of the period. I took an extract thinking it was Level-1, because of the voice-over. In fact I had great difficulty transcribing it. The voices of the two models are indistinct, as is that of the first expert. However, I had picked up the sense of what was being said, and so my brain assured me that all was well. Not so - that is why the transcription is such an essential exercise

An excellent piece of reporting from TF1 news on the problem of marital violence of the psychological, rather than physical type

We haven't had a Comment c'est fait recently, so here is a nice one on how tuiles salées are made. The terminology is confusing. The English call the generic variety potato crisps, the Americans potato chips. These are the shaped variety that we tend to call 'Pringles' in this country (just as we generically call a vacuum cleaner a hoover)

The typhoon Xynthia did more than cause great damage to homes in the Vendée region of France. In its wake arose a great controversy over the compulsory destruction of building considered to be potentially dangerous. The owners did not necessarily agree. So TF1's reportage on the problem of coastal erosion in Normandy adopts a prudent tone - but finishes by saying that man cannot win against nature. In Britain our King Canute learned that some time ago...

Let's be clear, this extract contains not just bad language, but very, very bad language. The worst in fact, either in English or in French. So, please don't download, if you are likely to be offended....

Why post this ? First, because it demonstrates something very fundamental - how we express emotion. In English we do it by emphasising syllables. The French mostly do it by varying the pitch of the voice.  And that is why the psychiatrist who speaks first in the extract is quite wrong. In English, it is not that there is a lack of variety in obscene vocabulary - what matters is repetition and cadence, rather than originality. The example given in the extract shows that beautifully

And then there is the curious business of the importation into current French of the Arab N.T.M  Despite the claims made about variety of vocabulary, French bad language very quickly loses its 'punch'. Words like baiser, enfoiré, and even enculé lose their power to shock. Not so this Arab-French expression which occupies almost the whole of the second half of the extract

Yet another of these extracts where I start of confidently expecting a gentle Level-1, and find myself  working do disentangle what the lady expert says. But it's a nice little piece on Jeanne d'Arc.

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