Monday, November 05, 2007

Datating the Criticity of Planification

A former boss of mine just had to endure a meeting with some French blokes. Here an extract of his informal report:

Anyway, we like to poke fun at the Indians for their sometimes strange English ("prepone" etc) ... they are but beginners compared to the French.

New Franglais classics include :
- "Datation" : which I understand means something like the process of Time Stamping
- "Criticity" : I guess priority

and as absolute winner
- "Planification"

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

eh ben ça me surprends pas du tout, au contraire :) comme les froggies n'aiment pas tellement quand on parle anglais auprès eux, par example la pub au télé usant des mots anglais a toujours des explanations en français :) tout au bout de la publicité.

vive la france:)

Ms Mac said...

Ah, so good. But I am having coffee with a friend in German tomorrow. I hope I won't be the subject of such a cruel informal report.

Oh, and we get reports like those from an Australian who has to work with Americans!

What does Prepone mean, anyway?

Antipodeesse said...

Oops, I'm probably guilty of having used some of those froggyisms... but without even realising.

How embarrassment.

Gomad, you just spoiled my entire evening.

Mr. Urs said...

Sylv: Probably a way of learning French then, if they always instantly translate everything.

Ms.Mac: Prepone means to bring forward in time, this is used in India as an antonym to the word 'postpone'. Before I knew this word, I was under the impression that people invent words they actually need. I've never experienced anything to be preponed in India.

Antipodeesse: I'm terribly sorry. I reckon I would be easy to find loads of krautisms on these pages.

spentrails said...

"Planification" is especially good. All puts me in mind of our Dear Friend.