I think I mentioned in my last post that I am working with a new coach/trainer. He lives in Quebec, but is originally from France. He speaks some English, but not a lot. I can speak French to a certain point, but I don’t know a lot of horse terms in French. We were actually able to communicate quite well and both of us learned some new words.
I love languages and studied a few different ones in university (Jack of all trades, master of none? Lol) I find it interesting how people can communicate with just a few words and hand gestures, or if the two people each speak a bit of the other language, everyone learns something.
One of the people at the barn commented after the lesson that she saw us laughing a lot while we were working with Dolly. It was mostly due to language issues – he would laugh at my pronunciation of a word in French and I would teach him a word in English that he couldn’t pronounce well.
The best was one word in English that he didn’t know and that happens to have a very funny meaning in French.
He was explaining that when he leads a horse, he wants the horse to stay behind his shoulder. The horse should stop when he stops (nothing too exciting there...) and then when he stops, he asks the horse to back up a couple of steps. He then sort of paused and looked up as if he was searching for the right English word to explain something.
He said in French “sorry, I don’t know the words in English for this - "je caresse le cheval”. He said, “is the right word in English ‘caress’?” I said, “Well, you could use that but it is a bit more intimate than you might want to use for a horse.” I smiled and he got my meaning.
He asked me “What is the good word, then?” I made a bit of a funny face and hesitated before answering.
“It’s...um... well, the word in English is ‘pet’.” “Pet? Really, Laura?”, he asked. I nodded my head and the two of us burst out laughing.
The word ‘pet’ in French means ‘fart’. So every time he pet Dolly, he would say “I’m petting this horse” and would laugh like a loon.
I guess I could have used the word "pat" which is also correct, but "pet" and "pat" sound so similar, it probably wouldn't have mattered!
My next goal is to find some French horse books and see if I can learn some vocabulary before his next visit in a couple of weeks.
Name That....
2 days ago
5 comments:
Sounds like fun! Yay for learning! Yay for books!
Always good to have a lesson with laughter. Takes some of the tension out and makes a more relaxed atmosphere. I think a French to English might not be a bad idea.
Lol, it's great that you are sharing a laugh along with the coaching. Good idea to use the opportunity to expand your french vocabulary.
That's funny!
You might remember I'm (trying) to learn Greek. There are some words that are very close in pronunciation but have very different meanings. For example one word means soft when pronounced with a certain accent but means a$$hole when the accent is changed.
Well, that's one way to keep conversation light and flowing.
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