Author Topic: Anyone read French?  (Read 2066 times)

K Frame

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Anyone read French?
« on: August 31, 2005, 10:00:19 AM »
My French is kind of rusty, and I don't have the reading comprehension that I used to, but....

I was reading Le Monde, the big French paper, a bit ago, and I was getting the distinct impression that the reporting was almost gloating over the devastation along the Gulf Coast.
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The Rabbi

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Anyone read French?
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2005, 10:46:00 AM »
Got a link?
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K Frame

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Anyone read French?
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2005, 01:32:09 PM »
I use Babelfish for basic translations.

http://babelfish.altavista.com/


"be rescue squads fought, Wednesday August 31, counters the rise of water in New-Orleans and continued to seek survivors of the Katrina cyclone which would have made hundreds of died in the south of the United States. The population should not be able to return before several months in this town of Louisiana. The authorities called with the evacuation of the some 200 000 people who are always present on the spot. The agglemoration, located below the sea level, counted 1,4 million inhabitants before the passage of the cyclone.

"It will probably be necessary from 12 to 16 weeks so that the inhabitants of New-Orleans can regain their residences in the flooded zones", declared Wednesday its mayor, Ray Nagin, on the chain of television ABC. Corpses float in the streets of the city and are likely to quickly pose "serious problems of public health", it specified.

Built largely under the sea level and encircled water levels, New-Orleans is almost completely submerged since the fortress of dams built all around the metropolis yielded. The televised images are overpowering. Wednesday morning, they showed enormous breaches letting of the bubbling water floods flow lake joint Pontchartrain towards the center of the city.

Geographically, New-Orleans resembles a basin. In north, the immense lake Pontchartrain. In the south, the Mississippi river. In the east, a little further, the One-eyed lake. Only the historical district of the centre town, slightly higher, like several small insulated districts, were relatively saved, with levels of one meter water or less. The lowest zones of the city were on the other hand sometimes flooded under six or seven meters of water.

"OF THE HUNDREDS OF DIED ON THE COAST"

The level of water having invaded New-Orleans was however stabilized, announced in the course of the day General daN Riley, of the body of the American Army engineers. "the level of the water of the lake (Pontchartrain) is from now on the same one as water inside the city, which means that water will not enter the city more, except with the high tide", specified the Riley General.

"It is necessary that the inhabitants leave... It is the challenge which we will have to take up today. We made come from the buses. They will have to be taken along by boats, by helicopters, with all the means necessary ", declared gouverneure of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco. Approximately 23 000 people taken refuge in Superdome, a covered stage of New-Orleans, started to be evacuated towards Houston, in close Texas, it specified. This operation of width should take two days.

In Mississippi, the coast was devastated on at least 40 to 50 km length, according to the governor of the State, Harley Barbour. "Along the beach all the buildings broke down", has it says on the chain of NBC television. No assessment of victims, even provisional, was available more than 48 hours after Katrina struck full whip the coast of three States, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

There are perhaps "hundreds of died on the coast" of the south of Mississippi, affirmed Tuesday Vincent Creel, the spokesman of the town hall of Biloxi (Mississippi), one of the cities most touched by the cyclone. More than 125 people found death in Mississippi, indicated Wednesday a local daily newspaper, Clarion-Ledger. Katrina touched Monday morning of full whip the coast of the south of the State of Mississippi, of Pascagoula with Gulfport while passing by Biloxi, a coastal city of 50 000 inhabitants."

K Frame

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Anyone read French?
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2005, 02:54:49 PM »
Yep, that's basically what I was getting, except for the nuances that you lose in running it through a translator.

Maybe I'm all wet here, I don't know.
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Bemidjiblade

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Anyone read French?
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2005, 04:40:56 PM »
I'm semi-fluent.  but usually I end up w/ high blood pressure or hysterical laughter when I read Le Monde

K Frame

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Anyone read French?
« Reply #6 on: September 01, 2005, 06:03:53 AM »
Same here, Bem. I'm semi-fluent when it comes to reading (not speaking).
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Nathaniel Firethorn

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Anyone read French?
« Reply #7 on: September 01, 2005, 04:20:35 PM »
Looks like straightforward reporting to me, not a gloat. (Just kind of mentally correcting for Babelfish's bad translation of idiom.)

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