Sunday, September 12, 2010

Fun with French phrasebooks

As I looking over our Pairs pictures, I was remembering the French phrasebook that we used to make our way through the city. It had all kinds of helpful phrases in it, like:

"Where is the bathroom?"
"I would like one of those."
"Could you help me, please?"

You know...The standard things you might have the occasion to say during the span of a day. Matt and I thought it was hilarious, though, that one of the questions listed in the phrasebook was:

"What are your thoughts on socialism?"

Seriously. If you're ever in a situation where you speak so little French that you need to use a phrasebook, do you really think you're in any position to be asking a question like that? I could barely muster the linguistic prowess to order a glass of water, let alone initiate a complicated political conversation.

If you have to look up the question, how do you expect to understand the answer?

That's bold, French prhasebook. Très bold.

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