Acute abuse
Oct. 17th, 2005 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyOne of my personal peeves is shop names that are wrong. They annoy me, far more than they should. For example, there is a supermarket near my house whose doors I shall never, ever darken, for it is called Bi-Lo.
Just lately I've noticed a new angle to this: shop names that are wrong bilingually. Shops that somehow relate to appearances of people or things - hairdressers, homewares - in particular are bursting with French. Sort of. Many of these places try to give themselves that little bit of je ne sais quoi, but often give themselves something else entirely: an acute accent. They're everywhere. Perhaps people think no French phrase in complete without an acute? For example:
I don't mean to mock these people; really I don't. Sometimes I'm barely coherent in English. But if you're going to go to the effort of opening a shop - printing up business cards and letterhead, having signwriting on the front window, putting ads in magazines - wouldn't you spare a minute to look at a French dictionary to make sure you've got it right? Get it right and you may look continental and sophisticated; get it wrong and you'll just look a bit silly.
Just lately I've noticed a new angle to this: shop names that are wrong bilingually. Shops that somehow relate to appearances of people or things - hairdressers, homewares - in particular are bursting with French. Sort of. Many of these places try to give themselves that little bit of je ne sais quoi, but often give themselves something else entirely: an acute accent. They're everywhere. Perhaps people think no French phrase in complete without an acute? For example:
- Andre Lé Hair (the hairdresser I walked past in Ballarat the other day) - what I particularly liked about Andre was how he didn't put the acute in "Andre", where it belongs, but did in "Lé", where it doesn't. He obviously thought of "les" and got a bit confused. Unless his name actually is Andre Lé, in which case, won't I look foolish?
- Gigi á la Maison (homewares) - points to Gigi for managing to get the accent on the right word; points from Gigi for having it go in the wrong direction.
- Trés Jolie (homewares) - I suspect this is how Gigi would describe herself.
I don't mean to mock these people; really I don't. Sometimes I'm barely coherent in English. But if you're going to go to the effort of opening a shop - printing up business cards and letterhead, having signwriting on the front window, putting ads in magazines - wouldn't you spare a minute to look at a French dictionary to make sure you've got it right? Get it right and you may look continental and sophisticated; get it wrong and you'll just look a bit silly.
