Travel with Angela Lansbury: More Language Mistakes To Avoid

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

More Language Mistakes To Avoid - Starting with French Hotels

France

The word hotel is common to many languages. What could go wrong?

I was tiny when my parents drove into a small French town looking for a hotel. It was about five or six o clock and we saw the sign hotel.

It was rather a large building, so my father thought it might be expensive. We drove around looking for another hotel. However, we didn't see one so we went back to the big hotel.

The word hotel is common to many languages. I was tiny when my parents drove into a small French town looking for a hotel. It was about five or six o clock and we saw the sign hotel. It was rather a large building, so my father thought it might be expensive.

We drove around looking for another hotel. But didn't see one. So we went back to the big hotel.

It had entrances on four sides of the square but the first one we tried was closed. So was the second. So was the third.

Finally, we found the front gate. That was also locked.

At this point we had to ask a passer-by. He directed us to a long, convoluted journey to a distant hotel, marked on the map. As an afterthought, we asked, 'why is the big hotel shut?'

He replied, There's is no big hotel.

We pointed to the sign. It said clearly, Hotel de Ville. Hotel of the town.

He laughed and laughed. Eventually we found out that 'hotel de ville' is French for town hall.

It had closed at six o clock, too late to answer our questions. It certainly did not have bedrooms.

Useful Websites

duolingo.com French and other languages

memrise.com French and other languages

Earworms (Berlitz) new and second hand from Ebay and other selling websites

google translate

wikipedia in french

Wikipedia in English about the French language

Write in French on Facebook and you can turn on translate

polyglot page on Facebook

Singapore has a French speaking Toastmasters International club

Toastmasters International has several documents in English as well as French and other languages so you can compare the English with the French translation

About the Author

About Angela The Author

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books.

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President Public Relations, Immediate Past President.

Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.

Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

The recent meeting of BHA included Garen Tee on using story telling in business, on bha.learncool.sg . Also an educational on using Powerpoint for posters.

Next BHA meetings, (subject to revision)

1 (Saturday, May 15th, was 2 pm Singapore time, postponed because of national speaking contest.)

After Vesak day and Hari Raya:

Postponed to Saturday May 29th, 2021, at 2pm. Login to bha.learncool.sg earlier.

2 Next June meetings 1st Wednesday evening June 2nd at 7 pm Singapore time.

3 Third Saturday afternoon, June 19th, Singapore time. Thanks to the old team and Inauguration of New Team.

Special speech with slides about teamwork in sport and Toastmasters International and life, by the President of West Coast Toastmasters Club who often help BHA with workshops and invite us to give speeches at their club.

Inauguration of new committee by incoming Area Director of S