Foot

n. – soccer
arbitre
n. – referee
Marchand de journaux
n. – newsstand vendor
My husband enjoys watching soccer and I have to admit, I’ve started enjoying watching the occasional game as well. Soccer is faster and leaner than American football. There’s not all that heavy body armor and while the object is to take the ball away from your opponent, it doesn’t require a pile of men jumping on top of each other to do so. Rugby, while looking a lot rougher than soccer, is actually known more as the gentleman’s sport. Each, like any sport, inspires impassioned fans and the passion is easier to maintain since there are no breaks for commercial interruptions. The games begin, are played for 90 minutes and then end (save the occasional overtime or injury penalties).

Watching soccer, like watching football, requires a lot of yelling at the television, the players, and the referees. My husband yells when something bad or good happens – sometimes I’m not sure which has occurred, but if there’s swearing involved it’s most often something bad. Watching sports is stressful which is why I prefer not to pick a favourite team. This way I won’t be disappointed when one team loses. Tennis makes me nervous as does figure skating, but gymnastics is probably the hardest because it’s so dangerous. I don’t usually have to worry about the latter two though unless it’s the Olympics. When we watched the last Soccer World Cup in New York, it was downright depressing. So I try not to get too attached.

The match we watched last week was a nail biter between Barcelona and Chelsea. Barcelona won with some controversy surrounding the referee. Chelsea players were swearing and pointing fingers and frankly it was all a little frightening. The next morning when I stopped by the newsstand to pick up my weekly Paris Match, I picked up a copy of L’Equipe, the daily sports paper, for my husband. The vendor assumed they were both for me and so began to engage me in a dialogue about the game, how Chelsea was robbed and that the calls by the ref were bad. I didn’t know the word for referee so I wasn’t really sure what he was talking about, but decided to sound intelligent by adding my own opinion about the referee which was in fact exactly what he had been saying!

That happens a lot with my father-in-law, too. Some people I just have a harder time understanding than others and I can usually pass it off by smiling and nodding until the conversation stops and I realize some sort of response from me is required. My father-in-law (who is “gentil comme tout” or as sweet as anything) loves “jeux de mots” or plays-on-words so it’s not always easy to keep up with him. It can also be tricky in French since there are many “faux amis” or false friends.

To choose a few, “isolation” actually means insulation where “isolement” means isolation. “Sensible” means sensitve (there doesn’t seem to be a word for sensible unless you want to use “pratique”, which does in fact also mean practical). “Traiteur” doesn’t mean someone who betrays you, but rather someone who caters food, sort of like a deli. “Figure” means face where “silhouette” means figure and “ligne” means nice figure as in the expression “je dois garder ma ligne” meaning I have to watch what I eat. “Corps” means body, but a live one even though it rhymes with “mort” which means dead.

There are many English words that the French don’t translate like weekend, chewing gum and fun as a few examples. But what I particularly enjoy is how they keep the English word, but pronounce it as if it were French. My friend Marie couldn’t understand why I didn’t know the famous actor she was talking about until I figured out that Reeshard Zhere was in fact Richard Gere. Last night it took me some time to figure out that Owoelle was actually AOL – I think the Tyme Warnere after it gave it away.

So my French continues to improve and my appreciation for sports continues to increase, but we’re taking a break from soccer this week to watch the festivities at the Cannes Film Festival. Who knows maybe we’ll spot some big stars like Zhouliah Roberes.