Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The View From Here

We're at that point in the move where the worst is both behind and in front of us and the present isn't really all that bad.  Because yesterday, the trying part of the whole ordeal was having to hang around the house all day with nothing really to do but be available to answer the packers' questions should they arise.  But these guys being professionals, and me being the organized sort, there really weren't many gray areas. So they assembled boxes and packed while I fiddled.

Three of the crew members are French; they don't speak English but since the firm specializes in international moves, they make it a practice to label the boxes so they will be understandable on the other end.  (And I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that the movers in DC may speak Spanish but they sure won't speak French. ) Amid the boxes and rolls of tape, I noticed the cheat sheet they were using with translation of common moving terms from French to English.  And how could I not share some of these with you?



Some worth sharing (French ------> English):

salle a manger:  diwing room
salon: liwing room
jardin: gardin
buffet bas:  bas buffet
aspirateur: Hoover

And my personal favorites?

grenier: grenier
lustre: sheen

Okay, so technically, lustre does mean sheen. But I think they were looking for the alternate translation which is chandelier.  Fortunately, we do not have a grenier so no possibility for error there.

10 comments:

Ksam said...

Ha, great list! But since we're being technical here, to be fair, the Brits do use "Hoover" as both a noun and a verb where the Americans would say "vacuum". It's one of those cases of a brand name becoming so integrated into society that it becomes the object itself - kind of like our use of Kleenex or Band-aid.


That still doesn't leave any explanation for the rest of them though! ;)

Maureen Morrow said...

Oh, Anne, how I can relate to your feelings as you pack up and move from a place you clearly loved. Megan will be attending Johns Hopkins in the Fall so maybe we can get together in DC in the upcoming year to reconnect.

debbie in toronto said...

such neat boxes....

the reality has now hit me...no more Anne!

in 23 days....crap.

have done the math and you leave the day I arrive ....exactly...see you at CDG...

Anne said...

Ksam: I should have taken pictures of how they actually labeled the boxes and furniture. These included "rugle" for a small rug and "arrrchar" for armchair.

Maureen: Nothing would please me more. And congrats to Megan.

Debbie: Flying United? I'll give you a little wave.

Amy said...

Sounds like my kind of translation! It breaks my heart to see your life in France all packed up - I've been living vicariously through you since I discovered your blog a while ago. Savor these last few days!

Anonymous said...

I just burst out laughing in my cube at this one!

Starman said...

"salle a manger: diwing room
salon: liwing room"
Are the typos yours or theirs?

g said...

thanks for taking all of us every step with you-will miss my morning coffee with you!-g

Steve said...

You are being harsh here, most of the translations I could read from the picture do make sense :-)

Anonymous said...

biblo? is that supposed to be a new spelling for bibelot? maybe they should use stickers/pictures - works well for any language! did they pack well, at least?

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