More French help

[kengr]

Ok, here's the way I have the scene in French class going now. Correction of my French or suggestions on better wording will be accepted, but not necessarily followed. :-)



French wasn't too bad. Though I was a bit surprised to realize that the boy who was wearing my outfit was in my class. I hadn't really noticed him before.

Mlle. Fischer found a way to use both of us in the class though. It started when one of the boys pointed at me and said "Il est très joli!" in a mocking tone.

I managed to remember to respond in French. "Je ne suis pas un garçon! Je suis une fille!"

Mlle. Fischer stopped us right there. She pointed at Jon and said "Il est joli." Then she pointed at me and said "Elle est très joli."

She continued, "Tous les deux vous veuillez venir à l'avant de la salle, s'il vous plait?"

What could we do? We walked to the front of the class as she'd "requested"?

When we got there she turned us to face the class. "M. Felix est un travesti. Mlle. Erickson est une transsexuelle." Jon didn't look very thrilled with the label. Couldn't really blame him.

This led into discussion of a few other terms and the way French was even less suited than English to deal with genders more complex than male/female.

She noted that while it was standard to use the male form (travesti) for male cross-dressers, and the female form (travestie) for female ones, there was no agreement about transsexuals. Some said male-to-female should be referred to as "transexuel" and have the male forms used with them. Others said it should be "transexuelle" and the female forms. And of course, the reverse was true for female to male transsexuals.

We were told to use the form for the preferred gender, not the birth gender in her class. And that anyone who addressed me improperly would lose points for that day's class participation.

All in all the class wasn't too bad. Probably because Mlle. Fischer would tolerate some talking as long as it was in French and we were mostly paying attention. Getting caught whispering in English during one of her classes was bad news. She'd done things like assign boys to keep a diary for a week in French, of course. And make them read from it to the class while we all got to criticize any mistakes.

For some reason this meant we tried a lot harder to pick up conversational French. Gee, imagine that.

So I figure Jon and I got mostly left along because trying to figure out how to insult us in French was too much work.

Comments

[draxenn.livejournal.com]

only one part that could use a touch up, and it depends on how you want it to be said.

She continued, "Tous les deux vous veuillez venir ? l'avant de la salle, s'il vous plait?"


is she asking "Do you two want to come to the front of the class, please"(a direct translation)

Or is she telling them "You two, please come to the front of the class.

Either way, you should drop the "Tous les deux" and stick with someting more simple like "Vous deux, viens a l'avant de la salle"

if you want to be very commanding, you can even drop the "viens"
"Vous deuz, a l'avent du salle"
which translates to "You two, to the front of the class"

hope this helps! :)

[kengr]

What I want is something "polite" "Both of you, please come to the front of the room". I do want "if you please" tone, even though it's an order. :-)

So would "Vous deux, viens a l'avant de la salle, s'il vous plait." work for that?

I'm picturing her as polite, but sneaky. Witness the bit with allowing "reasonable" amounts of talking in class if it's in French. :-)

[draxenn.livejournal.com]

So would "Vous deux, viens a l'avant de la salle, s'il vous plait." work for that?


yes, yes it would :)

[kengr]

Merci beaucoup, mon ami.

[draxenn.livejournal.com]

Bienvenue!