La vie française: Damn non-QWERTY keyboards, France as Pastry Land, & A Note on Weird French-to-English translations

Hmmm. I seem oddly unable to post comments on the blog...or anyone else's Blogger blog. I suspect this has something to do with the non-QWERTY nature of the keyboards here. That's right...the keyboards here are more like AWERTY. Luckily, some clever student has figured out how to turn on the QWERTY function so that I can type, unimpeded, at my usual 50-60ish wpm (with about 30 mistakes per minute). Hee.

So, in order to respond to a few of the comments so far...

Connie: Your eating an omelet in breakfast form at 1 AM, a mon avis, technically counts as a "late supper", so you are not just another boring American.

Liz A.: yes, I have tried canelés before, and they are abso-tively delightful. It's a Bordealaise specialty, kind of a mini bundt cake made with rum. At least, I think it's rum. Tasty little suckers, though. Baillardran is a specialty shop that sells overpriced canelés, but they have a nice website where you can see the tasty canelé in all its glory. What's really cute is that they have bébé canelés, which are even tinier and oh-so-cute. In other news from Pastry Land, I have been putting alot of concentration into tasting different pains au chocolat (chocolate croissants) at different pâtisseries. Usually, there is no difference between the pain au chocolat and the chocolatine, but I've discovered that certain shops differentiate between the two by using butter in the pains au chocolat and margarine in the chocolatines. Sometimes, a pâtisserie may only sell the pain...but they use margarine instead! The nerve!!!

Yes, yes...onto the weirdo French-to-English translations. So, I'm somewhat puzzled about who decides to translate titles. This was particularly evident yesterday, when I went with some school friends to see a film entitled Et si c'était vrai... (Translations: And If This Was True...). The movie poster at the cinema was quite plain - no stars pictured - and my friends told me that the movie was in French, so I just assumed that it was a French movie. Ooookay.

After a barrage of trailers and commercials (yeah, it's no different in France...but perhaps there is less crap?), the cinema turns dark. The movie begins. The opening theme music begins. "Hey," I think, "This is a cover of that Cure song I love, 'Just Like Heaven!' Isn't it funny that they're using it in a French movie!" THEN...I see Reese Witherspoon! SHIT! This isn't a French movie! This is the American chick-flick movie Just Like Heaven! Geez, I wouldn't even see this movie in English, much less French. Still, it was amusing enough. Good practice in French listening, at least.

In the instance of Just Like Heaven/Et si c'était vrai..., it's actually the English translation that's at fault. Apparently, the movie is based on a French story entitled, you guessed it, Et si c'était vrai.... OK...so that's cool. I understand. But examples of other translations that bother me slightly:

English ==> Français
That time-honored, Drew Barrymore chick flick, Never Been Kissed ==> College Attitude (WHAT?!?! WHY?!?! They're not even in college in that movie...)

Men's magazine Maxim ==> Maximal

Strawberry Shortcake ==> Charlotte aux Fraises (Translation: Charlotte in the Strawberries)

Um...yeah. I'm quite surprised that they didn't turn the title of Titanic into Le Bateau Qui Éviait; (Translation: The Boat That Sank).