<story><title>How good is your French accent?</title><url>http://frenchmeter.com</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>notalaser</author><text>Ordinateur was not invented when computers came to the market. It was coined in its modern sense of computing &lt;i&gt;machine&lt;/i&gt;, not by Proud French People Who Liked Their Language but by IBM France, because they felt that &amp;quot;calculateur&amp;quot; (French for -- whaddya know! -- &amp;quot;something that computes&amp;quot;, a literal equivalent for &amp;quot;computer&amp;quot;) was too restrictive. In the 1950s, when that happened, &amp;quot;ordinateur&amp;quot; had been in use for a very long time. I don&amp;#x27;t know how common it was (I&amp;#x27;m not a native French speaker), but it&amp;#x27;s certainly not a word they made up on the spot (it&amp;#x27;s of very obvious Latin origin), and they don&amp;#x27;t use it because they don&amp;#x27;t have a more appropriate word for &amp;quot;computer&amp;quot; (which they do -- &amp;quot;calculateur&amp;quot;, which they deemed inappropriate because a &amp;quot;calculateur&amp;quot; could do a lot more than &amp;quot;calculer&amp;quot;; just like, indeed, a &amp;quot;computer&amp;quot; could do a lot more than &amp;quot;compute&amp;quot;).&lt;p&gt;Many European languages had a local equivalent for &amp;quot;computer&amp;quot; long before electronic computers were around, and French is certainly not the only one that kept it.</text></item><item><author>teekert</author><text>The French are very proud and protective of their language. I have a similar experience, I was asking Je cherche le croissants (or something: I&amp;#x27;m looking for croissants), I got a blank stare until my friend made a very theatrical overly french &amp;quot;Croissants!&amp;quot; hand waving and all, then the supermarket guy understood. I know of no other language that invented new words when computers came to the market (ordinateur) or when RNA splicing was discovered (Épissage). French will be spoken long after Dutch completely Englifies.</text></item><item><author>joeblau</author><text>Funny Story: I was traveling from Portugal back to the U.S. through Charles de Gaulle Airport and my Dad gave me 4 Euros.  I went to this little bakery and the man behind the counter asked me what I wanted in French.  I mustered up as much &lt;i&gt;throat&lt;/i&gt; as I possibly could and said &lt;i&gt;croissant&lt;/i&gt; which was apparently good enough for him to go off on this long answer to what I ordered.  I looked at him blankly and said &amp;quot;Sorry man, that&amp;#x27;s the only word I know.&amp;quot;  He was not amused.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chrstphrhrt</author><text>My fave in Québec is &amp;#x27;baladodiffusion&amp;#x27; for podcast. Not sure if they say that in France too.</text></comment>
<story><title>How good is your French accent?</title><url>http://frenchmeter.com</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>notalaser</author><text>Ordinateur was not invented when computers came to the market. It was coined in its modern sense of computing &lt;i&gt;machine&lt;/i&gt;, not by Proud French People Who Liked Their Language but by IBM France, because they felt that &amp;quot;calculateur&amp;quot; (French for -- whaddya know! -- &amp;quot;something that computes&amp;quot;, a literal equivalent for &amp;quot;computer&amp;quot;) was too restrictive. In the 1950s, when that happened, &amp;quot;ordinateur&amp;quot; had been in use for a very long time. I don&amp;#x27;t know how common it was (I&amp;#x27;m not a native French speaker), but it&amp;#x27;s certainly not a word they made up on the spot (it&amp;#x27;s of very obvious Latin origin), and they don&amp;#x27;t use it because they don&amp;#x27;t have a more appropriate word for &amp;quot;computer&amp;quot; (which they do -- &amp;quot;calculateur&amp;quot;, which they deemed inappropriate because a &amp;quot;calculateur&amp;quot; could do a lot more than &amp;quot;calculer&amp;quot;; just like, indeed, a &amp;quot;computer&amp;quot; could do a lot more than &amp;quot;compute&amp;quot;).&lt;p&gt;Many European languages had a local equivalent for &amp;quot;computer&amp;quot; long before electronic computers were around, and French is certainly not the only one that kept it.</text></item><item><author>teekert</author><text>The French are very proud and protective of their language. I have a similar experience, I was asking Je cherche le croissants (or something: I&amp;#x27;m looking for croissants), I got a blank stare until my friend made a very theatrical overly french &amp;quot;Croissants!&amp;quot; hand waving and all, then the supermarket guy understood. I know of no other language that invented new words when computers came to the market (ordinateur) or when RNA splicing was discovered (Épissage). French will be spoken long after Dutch completely Englifies.</text></item><item><author>joeblau</author><text>Funny Story: I was traveling from Portugal back to the U.S. through Charles de Gaulle Airport and my Dad gave me 4 Euros.  I went to this little bakery and the man behind the counter asked me what I wanted in French.  I mustered up as much &lt;i&gt;throat&lt;/i&gt; as I possibly could and said &lt;i&gt;croissant&lt;/i&gt; which was apparently good enough for him to go off on this long answer to what I ordered.  I looked at him blankly and said &amp;quot;Sorry man, that&amp;#x27;s the only word I know.&amp;quot;  He was not amused.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sevensor</author><text>A better example might be &amp;lt;&amp;lt;magnétoscope&amp;gt;&amp;gt;, which I learned means &amp;quot;VCR&amp;quot; when I studied French in the &amp;#x27;90s.&lt;p&gt;Edit: accent</text></comment>