An Englishman abroad....

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Sholtz - 22 Apr 2004 03:20 GMT

During a recent trip to Marseilles, my travelling companion who is fluent in
French, made me approach the front desk of the hotel and utter these words
supposedly to book a room for the night:

"Excusez-moi. Je suis un étranger ici et j'ai juste attrapé mon chinois dans
la porte de rotation. Pouvez-vous m'aider ?"

As perhaps you can appreciate it was several minutes before the desk-clerk
could control her voice and very kindly explain that my friend might have
been playing 'the little joke with me'.

It occurs to me that it would be interesting to collect similar colloquial
phrases in different languages with their English translation for future
trips abroad.

So I am putting this out in the hopes that you might reply with some
humourous quotations in your language which may be used by an eccentric
English man at a foreign hotel check-in desk (for maximum comedy effect)

Regards to the group,

Sholtz

Replies to: comedy at sholtz dot port 5 dot com

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Erick Andrews - 22 Apr 2004 20:54 GMT

> During a recent trip to Marseilles, my travelling companion who is fluent in
> French, made me approach the front desk of the hotel and utter these words
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> Replies to: comedy at sholtz dot port 5 dot com

The closest I can think of is a book called "Sky My Husband" ["Ciel Mon Mari"]
by Jean-Loup Chiflet. Not sure if it's still in print. Funny stuff, though.

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Best,
Erick Andrews
delete bogus to reply

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Tony Mountifield - 22 Apr 2004 22:42 GMT

> During a recent trip to Marseilles, my travelling companion who is fluent in
> French, made me approach the front desk of the hotel and utter these words
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> could control her voice and very kindly explain that my friend might have
> been playing 'the little joke with me'.

For the unenlightened amongst us (or at least me), would you mind explaining?
My basic French thinks that means "Excuse me. I am a stranger here and I
have just trapped my china in the revolving door. Could you help me?"

There's obviously something I'm missing, as it seems to have nothing to do
with booking a room! :-)

Cheers,
Tony

Signature

Tony Mountifield
Work: tony@softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk
Play: tony@mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org

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Sholtz - 23 Apr 2004 08:30 GMT

| For the unenlightened amongst us (or at least me), would you mind explaining?
| My basic French thinks that means "Excuse me. I am a stranger here and I
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
| Cheers,
| Tony

See http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/French.html

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Tony Mountifield - 23 Apr 2004 10:13 GMT

> | For the unenlightened amongst us (or at least me), would you mind
> | explaining?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> See http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/French.html

Ah...

Signature

Tony Mountifield
Work: tony@softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk
Play: tony@mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org

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Adrian Bailey - 23 Apr 2004 00:54 GMT

> During a recent trip to Marseilles, my travelling companion who is fluent in
> French, made me approach the front desk of the hotel and utter these words
> supposedly to book a room for the night:
>
> "Excusez-moi. Je suis un étranger ici et j'ai juste attrapé mon chinois dans
> la porte de rotation. Pouvez-vous m'aider ?"

Tirez l'autre.

Adrian

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arachedeux - 23 Apr 2004 04:56 GMT

> So I am putting this out in the hopes that you might reply with some
> humourous quotations in your language which may be used by an eccentric
> English man at a foreign hotel check-in desk (for maximum comedy effect)

Bugger me there's thousands of them, Don't shoot until you see the whites of
their eyes, and; Stop chucking those bloody spears.
Ironic enough?
cheers,

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david56 - 23 Apr 2004 09:36 GMT

Sholtz typed thus:

> During a recent trip to Marseilles, my travelling companion who is fluent in
> French, made me approach the front desk of the hotel and utter these words
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> humourous quotations in your language which may be used by an eccentric
> English man at a foreign hotel check-in desk (for maximum comedy effect)

Please fondle my buttocks.

Signature

David
=====

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Discussion Groups / British English / April 2004

An Englishman abroad....