(no subject)

[felis_ultharus]

It hath now been hours and I'm still trying to figure out how an intelligent, well-educated francophone employee of a major federal government ministry could have thought that the standard English word for "les gens" was "the gigolo."

I can only assume it's the result of a prank by a malicious English-speaker. I'm not really allowed to point out people's mistakes during these placement tests, so I couldn't actually ask her.

I also wonder how many times she's written "gigolo" in place of "people" on government documents. If you get any government documents with the word "gigolo" in it where the word "people" should be, you know I've spoken to that woman.

So, yeah -- it was an interesting day giving English-as-a-second-language placement tests.

Another breakthrough in my editing has put me about one-fifth of the way through my major edit.

Comments

[sugar-spun.livejournal.com]

*cries with laughter*

So the gigolo went to their hotel and enjoyed the amenities therein?

[jenjoou.livejournal.com]

They put Ludwig to music? ;) It would be appropriate considering his passion for music I suppose. Hmmm that makes me wonder if there's a drama CD. I just finished downloading the Antique BAkery drama CDs from the forum I linked in my journal. Now I have to check if tey have Ludwig II...

And that story is both hilarious and sad. I'd believe it was a prank but it seems to me the sort of thing you figure out kind of fast. Like how the first French rougemacabre's husband taught her was "Je suis ton esclave". ^_^

[yumemisama.livejournal.com]

...

This is exactly the reason why, when I asked the Dutch how you said "Keep out" in their language, I Babelfished "geen Toegang" before writing it on half a dozen signs.

I used to grade Spanish tests for my high school Spanish teacher. She said the cruelest thing I ever did was once, in a fit of frustration, translate EXACTLY what the student had written on the essay portion.