I was reading the French newspaper Liberation. Actually, “reading” is an exaggeration. It’s more like I was piecing together vague comprehension based on recognizable cognates and an array of possible meanings gleaned from my trusty French-English-French dictionary. And then I happen upon the word “tampon.” What could that possibly mean? It turns out this word — the source of such proper embarrassment in English — means blotter or stamp in French. Ew. I’m dreading the inevitable day that I’m in France, and “tampon” comes up in reference to something I’d get on my passport. Even weirder, it’s a masculine noun.
For the past few months, I’ve been listening to RFI (Radio France Internationale’s) 15-minute news podcast called Journal en francais facile — Easy French. Well, if this is the easy French, I quiver at the thought of the diificult French. Oh, it starts off easy enough — Bonjour á tous — but then the words begin. Rapid-fire French, with no pauses and occasional cuts to telephone reports. It’s amazing how one word can clue you into the entire context of a new report. “Manifestations” (protests), for instance. These days, there are a lot of manifestations.
I read Liberation in its entirety — after all, this newspaper does cost me $5 at Out of Town News, so I read everything. My reading comprehension is much better than my listening comprehension, so I understand perhaps 65%. That doesn’t include the wee bit of English that I found in the personal section…
