karine-in-oz

Last night, I was talking to a Scottish expat who spent a year in Paris and he said to me that the hardest thing he couldn't pronounce was 'Merci beaucoup' (Thank you very much). For some reasons, he cannot make the sounds "coup" properly, and something else spills out. This is how he explained it to me:

"See, I can't help it, everytime I would go somewhere, it became a sound automatism ! So I would go the restaurant, and the waitress would come along and give us our meals. And then, here I go without any control of it: 'Merci beau-cul' (Thank you, nice ass). You should see the face of the girl ! Damned it, I tried so many times to train myself in front of mirror, I could never make it !!!"

So it made me laugh and I told him another 'Lost in translation' threads of mine

"I use to have that acquaintance whose first name was Fanny. In France, it doesn't mean anything, but in here it is unbeareable as it means "pussy". Also, the other day, I went to a French Get together and I bumped into that lady whose last name is Fuks (Apparently it is originally from Germany). I suggested her if she could try to change her name on her resume (can you?), since she was unemployed, and has never looked for a job in an Anglo-Saxon country. And then, I also had that friend, who got married and had to change her name to Noti*

- Are you saying Miss Fuks became Mrs Naughty ?"

*Orignal spelling has been modified here but the pronuciation is the same in English

Monday was a public holiday and a friend of mine suggested to go to the Hunter Valley. The good thing about it is that you always end up discovering new great wineries (ex: Hungerford Hill...)

Lately, I had a recurrent question that I asked to whoever, and sometimes to complete strangers, "If the man doesn't for the first diner date, does it mean he is not interested?".The reason why I asked is due to a discussion I had with a couple where the girl was very firm on the fact the guy should pay the 15 first dates (fifteen, I put this in letter, because I couldn't believe it) and the guy said he would never pay for the first date because he wanted to get rid off the princesses or gold diggers. After exchanging with him, we (French girls), said to the guy that we would expect the man to pay for the bill for the first diner date. Otherwise we would believe he is not interested in us and he just wants to be friends. Put it this way, it bears the message "I want to sleep with you". If the girl refuses him to pay, it means "No I don't want to sleep with you" and if she accepts, it means "Yes, at some point, I would will sleep with you...Maybe..."

After doing my little personal survey, I realise that in Sydney, they don't think the same way: 50% of Australians who said it doesn't mean anything, 30% who said they were happy to pay for the first three dates. The only ones who said they would pay for more than 10 dates, actually said they would pay all the time. I realised with surprise that paying the bill the first time around doesn't bear any s#@%l message in Sydney. If the girl wants to pay for her part, or if the man asks the girl to split the bill, it doesn't mean he is not interested. 

After it also depends on what your backgrouns is. For example,after discussing with some expats from Asia, they said to me that money was playing a bigger part in the relationship, and that it was more expected from the man to pay for most of the things. Even for some Malaysian expats living here since a long time, it is something very important for them. One of their arguments was "How can he support a family when I will stop working, when he cannot even buy some expensive gifts?". For others, Australians or not, it was more education and family background: the father and brothers were expected to pay for all women in the family.

So the conclusion is : If you get paid for the 15 first dates, there is a good chance that you bumped into someone who is willing to pay all the time...If a Sydneysider doesn't pay for the 1st diner date, it doesn't mean he is not into his date.

Lately, expats are having discussions about the loss of the tax benefit called "Living Away From Home" allowance. This particular benefit is similar to a tax deduction based on your rent, food consumption and family structure (i:e single, married, with x children...). This benefit currrently applies to foreigners who had to leave their country and come to Australia for work, in addition to locals moving interstate. For a single person earning 60kAUD, it can be something like $1,000 per month, for example.

Now the big fuss is that the current Australian government decided to do some changes to obtain a surplus budget by 2012-13, and one of the decisions made was to restrict this benefit to people maintaining a place in Australia only. People with a house overseas would excluded from this scheme, from July 2012 onwards.

So it means that for most expats under a long term business working visa (457),  it is gonna be a (big) loss, as it can be one of the most significant salary incentives. Once this benefit is lost, some mention they may reconsider relocating outside of Australia to obtain the same (or more) level of salaries.

Personally I don't think it is gonna make fly out that many expats :

1/ Most of the expats are not aware of this benefit until they come to Australia or until being told by someone who already benefit from it. 

2/ Given the economic situation, some expats would still accept a work visa and a job without LAFHA as long as the salary is in the market range (which can be often higher than in Europe)

3/  Not all companies allow this benefit since it is the company's decision. You cannot claim LAFHA on your own as an individual. So some expats are out of the question.

4/ It would possibly offset salaries, as employees could be more encouraged to look for another better paid job. 

5/ It could also encourage people to apply sooner for permanent residency as expats tend to wait for the end of the LAFHA scheme (4 years max) before applying... Which give them more freedom to apply for other jobs.

Sources:

http://www.ato.gov.au/businesses/content.aspx?doc=/content/52023.htm

http://www.smh.com.au/business/budget-surplus-to-narrow-to-15b-20111129-1o45z.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-29/swan-reveals-budget-update/3701142

http://www.budget.gov.au/2011-12/content/myefo/html/index.htm

Lately I heard a few stories of lost translations between French/ English and misunderstood accents. You may find it funny or not, you may understand it or not, but I'll try to share this with you, knowing that it is funny when being told than being written :

1/ Infidelity

A mixed couple of mine told me that in few months in their relationship, they had a conference call with some friends of the English partner. The French partner was asking about fidelity in UK and her accent gave something like :

" So, do you cheat on your partners ?

- ... No, we don't shit on people, we don't do this in this country"

2/ Exhibition

A French friend of mine was representing her company at a professional exhibition. One of the visitor came to her and said 

"Do you know where I can fin the booth of company XYZ ?

- Sorry I am just an exhibitionist"

... whereas the proper English translation for "exposant" is "exhibitor" 

3 / Cheese

Sometimes, when translation from French to English, it can happen that we take the French words and try to Englisize, hoping that we may get away with it. A French friend of mine actually said the following to her English partner :

"Can you help me with the salad ?

- Sure, what do you want to do ?

- Can you wash the salad, tomatoes and rape the cheese ?"

..."Grate" is actually the appropriate translation of the French word "raper"

4 / As Is

A friend of mine was telling the story of a consultant doing a pitch to his customer. With his accent, he was saying

"We are going to perform an As-Is audit in your company

- And how do you intend to do it ? See in the cafeteria and rate everyone's asses ?"

... For those who don't know "As-Is" means, it means "current status". We usually use to describe business processes which need to be changed to "To-Be" future processes 

5 / Happy ending

Another friend of mine was telling the story of another consultant which was having a negotiation and he kept saying "And I hope we can reach a happy ending"... After a while, one of his workmates explained to me that this particular saying "Happy ending" is what prostitutes do to their customers at the end of a performance