Re: Réflexions sur la culture et les différentes cultures, Reflexion on Culture and on the different cultures (Mixture of French and English)

Guilaine Lun 10 Fév - 10:36

Hi Gérad, Muriel et tous nos lecteurs !

"But... why prefer -> preferriing -/> preference ?
"or... Why refer -> referring -/> reference -> referee -> referent -> referential ?

>Voici la réponse, j'espère que celle-ci répondra à tes questionnements :

Règle normale : Dans la plupart des cas, l'ajout d'un élément (désinence ou suffixe) à un mot anglais n'entraîne aucune modification orthographique. Toutefois lorsqu'on ajoute l'un des éléments suivants, l'orthographe de certains mots peut se modifier de manière plus importante :
- s du pluriel des noms,
- s de la troisième personne du singulier du présent de l'indicatif,
- ed du prétérit et du participe passé,
- ing du participe présent et du gérondif,
- certains suffixes.

Dans les mots que tu indiques plus haut, il ne s'agit pas de verbes, et l'accentuation n'est donc pas la même : elle ne porte jamais sur le fe comme dans le verbe : to pre'fer - to re'fer, mais : 'referent - refe'rential - refe'ree - 'preference -

Dans 'order' , le verbe et le nom ont la même accentuation, il n'y a donc pas de modification orth. dans ce cas.

"Your judgment is bias(s)ed" :
Oui, la traduction que vous donnez est tout-à-fait correcte. Mais un jour, j'avais trouvé : "orienté" et je trouve que l'idée est bien rendue en français, vous ne trouvez pas ?

gerardM Lun 10 Fév - 14:31

Howdy Ghislaine, Muriel, everone.

@ Ghislaine: thanks for the news words: they are very clear.

>> I like this verb : "to bias" . Can you translate into French ?? This judgment is biased
> What about: Ce jugement est biaisé.
> "The jugement est partial"
> un jour, j'avais trouvé : "orienté" et je trouve que l'idée est bien rendue en français, vous ne trouvez pas ?

To me, the three are equivalent.
I personaly prefer biaisé as it's the same root as biased.
This word -in French- was very often used during my studies so that I guess the weight is special.
"Biaisé" implies "orienté" like in a question (or a problem") voluntarily expressed with words leading to a favorite response.
In addition to "orenté", "biaisé" also includes possible cheating.
"Partial" is a bit different as restrictive (specific).

Guilaine Mar 11 Fév - 11:48

Yes, Gérard, I agree with your comments.
Thanks for the questioning of the whole subject. I like to find out the "why" of things that seem incoherent.
Bye for now.

gerardM Jeu 13 Fév - 21:55

Hi everyone,

I'll have to catch up.
Here is an exchange between Americans on Facebook. It's started by Linda, a friend of mine who is a teacher, very strict about the quality of the language (so no slang): lots of unusual words/expressions for me scratch

-

Linda - Here it comes! Got out to run for 46 minutes. It was freaking cold out there. Made it back just in time.
Heather - Good Luck! Tomorrow is our day. Since our snow will meet with a front from Canada, they are telling us we will have a Nor'easter...swell.
Catharine - Full face ski mask and leg warmers?
Linda - Two layers on the legs and a toboggan under hoodie, but I could have used a ski mask. Remembering all those sledding parties, hot cocoa, geeks, and sparklers. Tell the boys that I'm building a luge on "the Circle".

gerardM Dim 23 Fév - 15:27

Hi everyone,

Well.

Linda - Here it comes! Got out to run for 46 minutes. It was freaking cold out there. Made it back just in time.
Heather - Good Luck! Tomorrow is our day. Since our snow will meet with a front from Canada, they are telling us we will have a Nor'easter...swell.
Catharine - Full face ski mask and leg warmers?
Linda - Two layers on the legs and a toboggan under hoodie, but I could have used a ski mask. Remembering all those sledding parties, hot cocoa, geeks, and sparklers. Tell the boys that I'm building a luge on "the Circle".

- freaking cold - didn't know the expression - OK another one among lots
- out there - yes, I know the expression but want to point out it is very frequent (with the meaning of here)
- Nor'easter - I suppose it means north eastern = coming from the north east
- swell - didn't know all of the meanings of this word family: very interesting swell, swell box, swellhead, swellheaded, swelling (nouns, adjectives, verbs, idioms, phrasal verbs)
- a toboggan under hoodie - what the hell is it?
I understand "hoodie" (hood) but toboggan??
By the way, I didn't know that "toboggan" came from the Canadian French but... this word "toboggan" doesn't have the same meaning as in French: it's a kind of sled.
I cannot find any meaning matching even on The Free Dictionary... maybe something to protect both ears with approximately the shape of a toboggan... scratch

- sparklers - another word to print into the brain
- luge - what's this again?? Not found in my dictionary.

gerardM Dim 23 Fév - 15:41

Hi there.

Tell me: would Hollande be capable of a bet with the head of a neighboring country on a soccer match?

I would see the PM of the UK doing this but I don't see Hollande with Merkel, do you?
That's what Obama and the PM of Canada did: a crate of beer if Canada female hockey team was able to defeat their American counterpart.

I would like Hollande, Merkle et al do this!!

gerardM Dim 23 Fév - 15:53

Hi everyone,

Probably 3 am in Central US.
Cathy, a Canadian born friend living in the US, stayed awake to watch the men's final of hockey at the Olympics.
... and a bunch of expressions and interjections during and after the match (victory).

Cathy - Half awake, but here and standing sorta up ready for this Gold Medal Game. ‪#‎goforfold‬ ‪#‎TeamCanada

Cathy - Robocop was alright. It had its moments. Now debating whether to set alarm so I can watch the gold medal game at 6 AM or not. I really would like to see it live but... sigh. First world problems.
Dave - To sleep in or not to sleep in that is the question...

Cathy - Yeah! GOAL!
Pieter (a Dutch friend of ours) - Canada without their goalie would be price-less for Sweden.
Cathy - I swee, what you did den. Yeah, that was bad. I'm not ashamed though. But the #priceisright
Pieter - in the pocket
Cathy -
Cathy - And one more! woooooooot
Gérard - Félicitations pour la victoire Cathy!
Cathy -
Gérard - Je comprends pourquoi tu n'hésites jamais à prendre partie pour ton pays de naissance, contre ton pays d'adoption pour tous les matchs de hockey.
Doublé hommes-femmes pour le hockey, doublé hommes-femmes pour le curling... comme à Vancouver, non ?
BRAVO !
Pieter -
Cathy - It was beautiful
Cathy - A Vancouver, le curling feminin avait ete remporte par l'equipe Suedoise. Mais nous avions remportes le double au hockey et le curling masculin. Une tres belle recolte quand meme! Et encore a Sochi, excellente recolte.
Gérard - Ca ça remonte le moral !
Bonne nuit Cathy !

Cathy - w00t! ‪#‎wearewinter‬ ‪#‎wearehockey‬ ‪#‎wearegolden‬
Corrine likes this.
Gérard - And Obama to pay a crate of beer to the Prime Minister (for the girls' victory)!
Cathy - hehe

Cathy - Siiiiiiiiiiiid! 2-0! wharrgarbl

gerardM Dim 23 Fév - 16:45

Bonjour à tous,

-> (Facebook) 1 kilo de culture générale

Pour les inconditionnels de la culture générale : parution de 1 kilo de culture générale aux Presses Universitaires de France

Réflexions sur la culture et les différentes cultures, Reflexion on Culture and on the different cultures (Mixture of French and English) - Page 7 1902948_268084003351300_127762240_n

gerardM Ven 28 Fév - 21:17

Hi there.

An article about fashionable topic in the US:

-> How can the White House beat the youth 'gangsta culture'?
President Obama launched his "My Brother's Keeper" initiative Thursday, calling on public and private entities to create more opportunities for young minority men and break down social conditions that keep them impoverished and imprisoned in disproportionate numbers.

Shortly after the announcement, senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor" to discuss the "gangsta culture" perpetrated by the rappers children idolize. Host Bill O'Reilly noted that President Obama is in a unique position to lead the charge for change, suggesting he gather influential black entertainers in a public push to "make it uncomfortable" to have a baby out of wedlock and sell drugs.

Well, I personally consider that societies evolve like humans and that what happns in the US now will happen in our conutries within 10 years? 20 years?

gerardM Ven 7 Mar - 22:53

It's a photo posted by Linda today: "Icy".

gerardM Ven 21 Mar - 18:23

Bonjour à tous,

Un article de Slate.fr :

La culture en question
Dans un livre excellemment informé, Régis Meyran et Valéry Rasplus s’intéressent aux migrations du concept de culture, à ses usages savants comme à sa récupération politique.
Il y a en réalité deux ouvrages assez distincts dans ce travail à deux voix, et seule la deuxième partie se réfère réellement au titre. Néanmoins, il fallait sans doute présenter au lecteur un aperçu des débats scientifiques sur le concept de culture pour en estimer correctement l’usage dans la politique française contemporaine.

Du Volksgeist au culturalisme américain
De la possibilité d’un relativisme culturel modéré
Le concept de culture est-il heuristique?

En définitive, un livre remarquablement informé qui, s’il ne convainc pas toujours, a l’immense mérite de susciter de précieuses controverses.

gerardM Lun 24 Mar - 18:33

Hi everyone,

I'm glad to read Americans are not always respectful and can criticize and fight.

-> This J.C. Penney Worker Was Fired For Telling The Truth About Its 'Fake' Prices
J.C. Penney is going to war against a former employee who outed the department store for its questionable discounting practices.

The department store was drastically hiking prices on items, cutting them back and then advertising huge "discounts," the former employee, Bob Blatchford, told the Today show last July. In one case, a "rack of $7 shorts became $14, and then they were 50 percent off," a separate J.C. Penney worker told the Today show.

"I saw a lot of pricing teams going through the store, raising the prices, mostly doubling -- towels and clothing," Blatchford told NBC's Jeff Rossen. "Then they would go on sale, and they wouldn't always go on sale for 50 percent off. Not only was it a fake sale, but they were actually paying more than they would have been previously."

... and Corrine's question: "Are you duped by "sales"?"

gerardM Mer 2 Avr - 0:23

Hi there.

Susan H - 1 h
My 25 year old washing machine is hinting I need a replacement. Well at least the floor got a good wash.
Elke C-S -
get yourself a twin-tub.. its future proof. low wattage and you can run it on rain water, if you want. decide washtime yourself etc. lots of pluses..

Who keeps thinking Americans are wealthy?

MurielB Mer 2 Avr - 8:15

Hi Gérard, everyone
Perhaps they have developed a strong environmental awareness. I didn't know what a twin tub washing machine exactly was.
For those who don't know here is a video

gerardM Jeu 3 Avr - 23:24

Hi everyone,

I keep repeating Americans are not what the clichés say: no, they are not wealthy; no, they are not trying to earn the maximum of money... yes, they have a high respect for communities and mutual aid.

I learned this in 2001 as I participated on American computing forums.
~~
Do you want to have another clue:
... found a few minutes ago on Facebook:

Mike H - Our beloved Summit organiser Paulette's son, wife and baby have been caught up in the horiffic Oso mudslide this week and have lost everything, as well as sustaining some serious injuries. I'm sure many in the MVP community would like to help if they can so I hope you don't mind me mentioning this appeal?

Mike H - Calling all US MVPs. A friend is visiting NY in a couple of weeks and needs a pay-as-you-go SIM for some US calls and a bit of data. What's the best deal at the moment and who would you recommend please?

This type of requests are frequent in the States. It doesn't surprise anyone (nobody would think Mike might be a crook and I'm sure he will receive money); would it be surprising in France inside a community?

Tis American culture, that's all!

gerardM Mar 8 Avr - 12:25

(posted by my friend Corrine)
I'd like to point out
that you probably often read
words in homage to the police, to firemen, to soldiers, etc.
That's the US!
In France, too often, many people send them stones...
Sad

MurielB Mar 8 Avr - 13:39

Yes he is the pinnacle of courage and what he has done is amazing ! :-)

I do hope all our French soldiers, police, firemen don't receive stones when they help people. Crying or Very sad

I didn't know that the pinnacle of a system or of someone's ambitions or hopes, represents the highest or most successful point or degree. Thanks for teaching me !

gerardM Mar 8 Avr - 14:25

> I do hope all our French soldiers, police, firemen don't receive stones when they help people. Sad

Unfortunately, our soldiers recently got abuse somewhere in Africa...
Unfortunately, there're several examples of stones received by both the police and firemen in the great Paris... when there are not caught in an ambush, being called just to be attacked.
... similar situation for doctors who ask for police protection or refuse to visit.

gerardM Mar 8 Avr - 19:41

Hi everyone,

Another example of Americans not being wealthy...
(coming from friend at Facebook)

As you probably know XP won't be maintained by Microsoft any longer, starting today.
Mike, a specialist, is asking Microsoft:

Mike H - Fun question of the week: With XP now out of support, what's your response to people using it?
- There's been years to prepare for this and it's been well publicised...
- Finally none of those annoying "Apply Updates Now?"...
- "HULK SMASH!"...
Andre D-C - Still using it
David S - If it still does the job why do you need to replace it?1 h · J’aime
Mike H - David the argument to that of course is that, so far as keeping you safe and secure, it "doesn't" do the job, not any more
Andre D-C - Cleaned a terrible variant of shortcut virus off Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 systems yesterday evening. Full updated, Windows Defender, standard account.57 min · J’aime
Corrine C - How about this scenario -- A forum friend (known since 2002) is on dialup, has never had an infection. The firewall still worked, Avast worked but Flash didn't, it was a pain to use a "reader" for Word documents and many websites didn't display properly. So, in December, he retired his Windows 98SE computer and broke down and purchased Windows 8!34 min · J’aime
Mike H - Corrine what did they use the Internet for? If it's dial-up then, I'm speculating, maybe not shopping and banking. If so it would make a huge amount of difference33 min · J’aime
Corrine C - Surfing, e-mail. He's a "senior" and on a very tight fixed income so has very limited funds, which is another reason why he is on dialup. Actually, at that site, there are quite a few on dialup with old computers.

Read what Corrine wrote: people still with dialup; very tight fixed income; Windows 98SE...

MurielB Mar 8 Avr - 22:08

Hi Gérard everyone
What I have discovered about Americans is that they don't mind talking about money or income. A couple of years ago I had an American pen friend (somebody I didn't know). We regularly exchanged letters for a certain time. In her first letter she explained to me what her wages were. She supposedly wanted to state the facts clearly before starting a friendly relation. Why not ?

gerardM Mar 8 Avr - 22:35

Money is something important in daily life, isn't it? Why not speak about it then?

In addition to speaking about money, Americans are set in "social classes"...

These class models feature an upper or capitalist class consisting of the rich and powerful, an upper middle class consisting of highly educated and affluent professionals, a middle class consisting of college-educated individuals employed in white-collar industries, a lower middle class composed of semi-professionals with typically some college education, a working class constituted by clerical and blue collar workers whose work is highly routinized, and a lower class divided between the working poor and the unemployed underclass

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class_in_the_United_States )
Americans are not as secret nor jealous as the French.

MurielB Mar 8 Avr - 22:38

they don't want to keep up with the Joneses (I like this expression)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_up_with_the_Joneses

Keeping up with the Joneses" is an idiom in many parts of the English-speaking world referring to the comparison to one's neighbor as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority.

gerardM Ven 11 Avr - 11:49

Hi Muriel, hi everyone,

Imagine that it's at least the 10th time I think of something I want to post here (because it surprised me) but when I think of it I'm not in front of my screen and when I'm in front of a screen, I don't think of it affraid

Here we're.

I just want to say that individual letter boxes are exactly like in Donald's (no, not Mc $C\'est vrai!!$ , the ducky) with that big red box on top of a pole.
The letter box is not at your door but by the street even tho' there's no fence nor gate. At my friend's the box is even on the other side of the road ie at 30 meters from their house and they usually pick up mail when they drive back home.
That letter box doesn't have a lock; everyone could take your mail... but it's not a problem (we're not in France).
Under the red box, there often is a tube to host magzines.

What's more is that if you want to send a letter, just put it inside your mailbox and the mailman will collect it.

(I didn't inquire but just lived in 2 different homes in the US; were they specific or is it similar everywhere in the country? I guess it's not the same in big cities and condos - tell me)

MurielB Ven 11 Avr - 13:52

That letter box doesn't have a lock

Gérard, I didn't know about that. Is it safe ?

MurielB Ven 11 Avr - 14:01

gerardM a écrit:> I do hope all our French soldiers, police, firemen don't receive stones when they help people.
Unfortunately, our soldiers recently got abuse somewhere in Africa...
Unfortunately, there're several examples of stones received by both the police and firemen in the great Paris... when there are not caught in an ambush, being called just to be attacked.
... similar situation for doctors who ask for police protection or refuse to visit.

Gérard, everyone
I am very pleased to see that the French younger generation is better than the older one
http://www.francebleu.fr/infos/agression/sofiane-je-ne-l-ai-pas-laisse-mourir-j-etais-avec-lui-1438473