A long time ago, I did a degree in modern languages. To try and keep my skills from fading, I follow a few French and German language users on Twitter. And one of these, the French-speaking arm of the FCO let me know a few weeks ago of a planned event at the end of September.
The UK arm of the European Commission is hoping to celebrate European Day of Languages with a day of multi-lingual blogging. The date is 26th September, and you can read all about it on the EC Facebook page for the event.
We’d like to take part with a series of blog posts in a variety of languages, but to be honest, there are relatively few of us on the LDV team who remain fluent in Foreign. So we’d like to recruit writers from amongst our readers.
The parameters are these: we need short blog posts in non-English languages, with an English translation provided as well. You can choose almost any topic, but remember your audience will be predominantly Liberals from the UK. Please send your post to me [email protected] by 0.01 on 25th September to allow me to schedule the posts in advance. If your language uses a non-Latin font, please allow extra time so we can figure out the technicalities of making your words appear here on the Voice.
Il y a beaucoup des années, j’ai suivi des études des langues étrangères. Pour pas perdre mes pouvoirs linguistiques, je suis au Twitter quelques gens qui parlent en français et en allemand, dont une est la branche francophone du bureau de l’exterieur du gouvernement Britannique. C’est ce bureau qui m’a fait apprecier une journée prévue pour la fin de septembre.
Le bureau du Comission Européen dans le Royaume-Uni a l’intention de fêter la journée de langue avec un évenement de blogging multi-lingue qui aura lieu le 26 septembre. Vous pouvez-vous en enseigner sur ce site Facebook (en anglais)
Ici sur Lib Dem Voice, nous voulons prendre partis, mais entre nous, puisque nous ne parlons assez peu de langues étrangères c’est à vous de proposer des articles vous-mêmes.
Les paramètres sont ainsi: il nous faut des articles blog dans des langues à part de l’anglais, qui contient une traduction anglaise avec. Vous pouvez choisir n’importe quel sujet, mais il vous faut se souvenier que ceux qui lisent vos mots seront des Liberaux d’origine anglaise. Vous êtes invités d’envoyer votre article sur [email protected] avant 0.01 du 25 septembre pourque je puisse les verifier en avance. Si vous avez l’intention d’écrire dans une langue qui exige des lettres non-latin, veuillez me contacter en avance de ce date et je préparerai les technicalities de faire apparaître vos mots. Et – svp – si j’ai fais des erreurs de français – soyez gentil quand vous me les expliques!
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Michael Meadowcroft: A Liberal of Intellectual Rigour and Uncommon Integrity
Debt-ridden graduates claim they are seen as cash cows
Why non-fiction books need their indexes
Changes in status: Local Elections wrap up
Tom Bailey
Daniel Walker
Matt (Bristol)
Hywel
12 Comments
did you use google for the french translation? 😉 c’est la grammaire et certaines expressions/tournures de phrases surtout.
I’ll see if I have something to contribute after the conference (my first) ( je verrai si j’ai quelque chose à contribuer après la conférence (ma première))
Non so se questa sarebbe l’idea giusta per un articolo:
Ho letto recentemente su La Stampa un articolo di Bill Emmott, l’ex redattore dell’Economist, in cui spiegava che il sistema elettorale attualmente in vigore in Irlanda (il voto singolo trasferibile) funzionava molto bene la’, e che andrebbe molto bene anche per l’Italia. Pero’ , secondo Emmott, il sistema maggioritario funziona ancora molto bene in Gran Bretagna. Se una persona istruita e ben informata puo’ pensare cosi’ dopo tutto quello che e’ successo negli ultimi anni con i governi Laburisti eletti con un consenso di meno di un quarto dell’elettorato, non promette bene per il dibattito che dobbiamo vincere l’anno prossimo sulla riforma elettorale.
I don’t know if this would the right idea for an article
I recently read an article in La Stampa by Bill Emmott, the ex editor of the Economist, in which he explained by the current Irish system (STV) worked very well there and that it would also would be very good for Italy. But, according to Emmott, first past the post works very well in the UK. If an educated and well informed person can think like this after everything that has happened in recent years with Labour governments being elected with the support with less than a quarter of the electorate, it does not augur well for the debate that we will have to win next year on electoral reform.
Sorry. “explained THAT the Irish system.” Duh. Not sure how you say “Duh” in Italian though!
Des fautes, certes – mais bon effort quand même, Alex: écrire dans une 2ème langue n’est pas facile, quand on n’a plus l’occasion de s’en servir souvent. ça se perd au fil des années.
>So we’d like to recruit writers from amongst our readers.
Nick Clegg, veilleicht? 😉
@ Sandra no, I bloody didn’t! 🙂
Robert – sounds great.
@ Cassie – wir werden bestimmt ihn fragen!
Formidable! Quelle bonne idée.
I should think microblogging would be the better medium. I studied in Paris – sat exams in French – but can’t even string a sentence together any more. Next year – European Twitter Day I think!
Roberto, complimenti per il tuo italiano. Non credo ci sia un equivalente diretto di ‘duh’. Forse la cosa che si avvicina di piu e ‘uffa’… chiedero a mia mamma (italiana)…
Robert, congrats on your Italian. I don’t think there’s a direct equivalent for ‘duh’ – perhaps the closest you can get is ‘uffa’… I’ll ask my (Italian) mum….
Wow, that was Italian?! I assumed it was Spanish and read it perfectly comfortably… which tells you not only how mutually comprehensible they are, but also how long it’s been since I read something in Spanish!
I’ve been living in French for the last couple of years, so I’ll have a think and see what I can come up with. Something on international development, perhaps…
Jen bona ideo! (meraning, “That’s a good idea” in Esperanto). I’m mnot sure that Esperanto is given a fair hearing here in the U.K. For a fair introduction, take a look at http://www.lernu.net
Esperanto works! I’ve used it in speech and writing – and sung in it – in about fifteen countries over recent years.
Indeed, the language has some remarkable practical benefits. Personally, I’ve made friends around the world through Esperanto that I would never have been able to communicate with otherwise. And then there’s the Pasporta Servo, which provides free lodging and local information to Esperanto-speaking travellers in over 90 countries. In the past few years I have had guided tours of Berlin and Milan and Douala in Cameroon in the planned language. I have discussed philosophy with a Slovene poet, humour on television with a Bulgarian TV producer. I’ve discussed what life was like in East Berlin before the wall came down, how to cook perfect spaghetti, the advantages and disadvantages of monarchy, and so on.
Eble mi blogos en Esperanto.
I agree with the comment by Bill Chapman that Esperanto is not given a fair hearing in the United Kingdom.
However we did not go as far as Hitler and Stalin, who both sent Esperanto speakers to death camps for using the language.
Perhaps we should do the same to those who refuse to acknowledge that English should be the future, dominant, World language? Perhaps a step too far though. Roll on Esperanto.
In the meantime have a laugh at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp5IF41b8zs&feature=related