Sat, 20 March 2010
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In our monthly French language column, intrepid Douglas Campbell scours the media and tracks down Finkielkraut, English-style apposition and Jason Bourne .Je fais mon Finkielkraut - "littéralement". And yet I quote NTM.
As I heard someone say on the radio yesterday, "je fais mon Finkielkraut", that's to say I'm going to do a little old-fogeyish state-of-the-language Canute-style complaining about the language, and about both languages, too. "Littéralement" gets (mis-)used in the same way in French as "literally" does in English. Complaining about it is essentially pointless: "c'est l'usage qui l'emporte". However, it can be fun noticing examples of surreal and mad images conjured up by the use of "littéralement" as though it were nothing more than "really", "very much" or "greatly"...
Before "la défaite" – yes, of course, from the journalists' lexicon of cliché, "la défaite cuisante du 15 de France" – rugby was increasingly popular even in football-mad towns. Hence the comment, on France Info, saying that "les écoles de rugby sont littéralement submergées", which surely would make it more like water-polo than rugby.
My current favourite of this type was on the France Culture press review, on 3 October, when it was said of an American politician that "il avait en face de lui des démocrates qui l'ont passé littéralement sur le gril". So, in a sense, he was quite literally in the hot seat. Another one from a recent Nouvel Obs interview about the link between diet and cancer (27 October issue, p.9): "la demande de viande bovine et de produits laitiers a littéralement explosé".
When does it seem justified in the press? Perhaps in this report about the Gaza Strip ("la bande de Gaza") in Le Monde : "tout le monde attend sans savoir ce que l'avenir réserve à ce confetti rectangulaire de 360 km² peuplé de 1,5 million d'habitants.
This handy guide from Expertise in Labour Mobility includes how to write a CV, application procedure, interview dos and don'ts, Belgian management culture.
Belgium’s first alternative directory assistance services - available through the shortcode 14-14 - can now be accessed on the internet.
Moving to Belgium presents a host of challenges to expats, not least of all finding the right home.
The psychological effects of global mobility can be physically painful.
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