2006-11-06

"Gerard Kennedy's French Not Good Enough" LeSoleil

Quebec City's newspaper LeSoleil interviewed Gerard Kennedy last week (Kennedy's first newspaper interview in the province!) and called Gerard Kennedy's French "acceptable one on one, but the quality was not good enough for a debate or a TV interview":

M. Kennedy s'exprime dans un français acceptable dans un tête-à-tête. Mais malgré un séjour d'immersion d'un mois au Québec cet été, la qualité de sa langue ne franchit pas encore la rampe dans un débat public ou une entrevue télévisée.

Gerard Kennedy was referred to in the article as "Mr. 1 percent" because of his performance in the delegate selection in Quebec where he finished in sixth place.

Kennedy says he "remains unknown" [in Quebec] but gave no signs of being discouraged.

As far as I know, this is only the second in depth interview Gerard Kennedy has given in French in the entire campaign! So if he remains unknown in Quebec, he has nobody to blame but himself.

The gist of the article is that Kennedy says that English Canadians are not ready for Quebec to be recognised as a nation but that there should be some kind of recognition of Quebec. "We need to find the right expression".

Gerard Kennedy had called Quebec a nation in the last Montreal debate but then briefly explained to a CP reporter a couple of days later that "Quebec was a nation only in French".


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Marié à une Acadienne, M. Kennedy s'exprime dans un français acceptable dans un tête-à-tête. Mais malgré un séjour d'immersion d'un mois au Québec cet été, la qualité de sa langue ne franchit pas encore la rampe dans un débat public ou une entrevue télévisée."

"Married to an Acadian, Mr. Kennedy speaks an acceptable French in a one-on-one discussion. But despite a one-month French immersion stint in Quebec this summer, the quality of his French doesn?t come across in a public debate or televised interview."

Now isn't that a more fair translation?

Altavistagoogle said...

No. "Ne franchit pas la rampe" would be "not there yet" or "insufficiant" or "not good enough".

Literal translation: unable to get up the ramp.

Altavistagoogle said...

Or a "major handicap"

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