TTIP Again, Teaching English, Quality And Gresham's Law

TTIP Again

I got an email from an old friend in England, Eric Leach, proudly proclaiming that a petition he had been supporting against TTIP had gathered well over 3 million signatures throughout Europe. And so he should be proud. Apparently a number of councils in England have come out against TTIP and the intention is to get more to do so. By contrast, I've asked a number of friends here who should be aware of TTIP if they are and none seem to be. There are certainly no signs of general revolt as there were, for instance, with the NOME law that allowed the part-privatisation of the electricity industry. But then few here take much notice of what goes on in Brussels until it affects their lives directly. I take this to be this to be an illustration of the general attitude that, although Brussels is important, if the French don't like it's decisions they'll simply ignore them and won't comply.

Quality Food And Drink

Friend Steve and I were discussing the quality of wine locally. We had both known the days of the 1950s and 1960s in England when the bottle you brought to a party was invariably a white semi-sweet Sauternes or Entre de Mers (which, incidentally, I've never seen in France) or an Algerian or Moroccan red. These latter generally had grounds of a purplish colour at the bottom of the bottle and were barely drinkable but enabled you to get into party mood and were your laisser passer if you hadn't been specifically invited to the party. That market in England has totally disappeared from view, as also has that for the Blue Nun style hocks for the blue rinse set.

Here in Mollans and now we are spoiled for choice for rosé wines ranging from light and flinty to full-bodied and most of the local vineyards make at least one good red wine, some extremely good, at very reasonable prices which, allowing for inflation, would have been affordable in our student days. No one seems any longer to make the inferior quality of red wine that we drank as students. And in England there is possibly a better selection of wine from worldwide sources than in any other country, albeit at prices grossly inflated by the tax regime.

What both Steve and I discovered in our discussion is that something very similar has happened to the food market in England. There is still, admittedly, the fast food market but that is now universal. Apart from that, if you want bad food you almost have to go looking for it. One distinction I used to make between England and France was that if you ended up in the middle of nowhere in either country and decided to eat in the local cafe or restaurant, the chances were that you would get a good meal in France and a bad one in England. That seems no longer to be as true. English TV now seems to be obsessed with cooking good food and has been for some time, which is no doubt a contributory reason, but it does seem that the English are now educating their taste buds and using their feet to follow their taste buds. And the market is responding.

Teaching English

I probably should have headlined this teaching and learning English. Because both Steve and I are getting insights into our native English while we are teaching it to the French. I've always thought that English grammar is essentially simple compared to that of most other European languages and hold to that view. There are no cases or genders to think about, precious little in terms of verb conjugation and a fast disappearing subjunctive. Vocabulary is just that in all romance languages; you either know the word or you don't. On the other hand, the use of prepositions is difficult in most romance languages and probably much more so in English beause of our use of them to modify verbs; and, of course, pronunciation in English is a nightmare.

What this seems to amount to, from the evidence of our classes in Mollans, is that most of the participants don't have a great deal of difficulty with written English provided they have the relevant vocabulary which, admittedly, is not normally the case. Vocabulary, anyway, even for me in English, is a never-ending quest. What has amazed me is the huge gulf between most written English and the spoken colloquial variety (even excluding slang). Take, as just one example, one person saying to another: “We're going for a meal Tuesday week; can you make it?” A perfectly normal sentence but…….what is a Tuesday week and are you being invited to cook the meal? You won't find much help from a dictionary even with “going for a meal”. “The drinks are on us” is another phrase we've used; meaning we are soaking wet? And elisions…………..we might write “we are not” but never say it, except possibly for emphasis. It's, aren't, hasn't, hadn't, won't, mightn't (but not mayn't), etc, are all part of everyday English conversation but foreign to people with intermediate English but who are beginners as speakers.

That is part of the quagmire that Steve and I are trying to tread our way through. But it's still fun at the moment, for us and apparently for the participants too.

Gresham's Law

I'm having a problem in the house with basin stoppers at the moment, which made me think of Gresham's Law. Gresham's Law was formulated in the field of economics and asserts that bad currency drives out good currency. However, the principle that inferiority drives out quality is often applied more generally. It has its equivalent in the field of language development, in the Law of Least Effort. That asserts, effectively, that incorrect grammar, spelling, punctuation, pronunciation, etc, will replace good grammar, etc, over time.

I was reminded of this by the basin problem because I have never understood why French plumbing doesn't use plugs in basins and baths. Plugs are virtually indestructible and infallible. The French lever system is fine if it works but the devil to fix if it doesn't. My kitchen sink has the lever system with the lever mechanism hidden somewhere in the bowels of the sink and seems impossible to fix without buying a new sink. If a plug breaks or goes missing it is easy and cheap to replace it. What's more, the French system, which was never used in the UK, is now appearing there more and more frequently. It's a good illustration of Gresham's Law.

I feel the same way about chopsticks. I never use chopsticks to eat Chinese meals (although I can, not very well) because I think that if the Chinese had invented forks they would use them. They have invented spoons, which seem to me more appropriate for most Chinese food, but I can't imagine why anyone who had a fork would use chopsticks unless they wanted to show off their dexterity or have fun with friends seeing who could balance the most rice grains on a chopstick.

Rant over. It's just occurred to me that this argument conflicts with what I have written about food and drink above.

Bread And Road Names

Homage To Bread

One of the pleasures of being here is the easy access to very good bread. There are two bakers in the village who bake their own bread and many alternatives in nearby Buis, Entrechaux and Vaison, several of which style themselves specialists in one way or another. Most seem to have just two doughs for the general run of bread, one for white bread and one for wholegrain, but the variety of crusts they produce is extensive. Then of course there is bread with olives in it, the local fougases, and bread with nuts in it. It is a reason I usually eschew the classic French breakfast of croissants or pain au chocolat and buy a fresh crusty loaf to have with jam or honey. My current favourite is a pain de campagne from one the village bakeries which seems to keep its crustiness the whole day. I haven't yet found an exact equivalent to the granary bread I used to enjoy in England, with it's good crust and soft interior; wholegrain breads here tend to be dense. But that is a small quibble.

Although locals use such fillers as couscous, rice, pasta and potatoes to a considerable extent, bread still seems to be the standard at every meal. I know that if I invite friend Daniel for a meal I always have to have bread to hand, even though he doesn't eat cheese (has a lactose allergy) and even if the meal is a shepherds' pie.

Road Names

I've mentioned in an earlier posting that all the streets in the village and those around it have now been given official names. All those I am aware of are reasonable. A lane near my house that runs under the chateau is now officially but unimaginatively the Chemin sous le Chateau. Friends Steve and Jo were previously at a loss when trying to effect a transaction online which insisted on a street address, when their road had no offical name, and so invented whatever they thought might be appropriate. It is now, very reasonably, the Route de l'Ancien Chemin de Fer, which is what it once was. But what did locals know it as before the railway became along, because there was a previous road that wandered along and across the railway track? The address on their house deeds record it as Au Bout du Cros, which is not actually the name for a street but for an area: a “cros” is an old French term for an area where sheep were grazed. So why not Sheep Lane, or Walking Pullover Lane, which somehow sounds more picturesque to me? I think we are losing the chance to add some former ribaldry and colour to road names, which means the Bowdlerisers and political correctness crew are winning, and that should never happen.

The one good example I can think of in the village is the Passage Tire-Cul, which roughly translates as Drag Your Arse Up passage. And the name is not only colourful but also very apposite since it is a narrow and very steep passage of steps. In London there is still Pudding Lane, Old Jewry, Primrose Hill and Poultry but Magpie Alley and Hanging Sword Lane have gone: and I'm sure there was once a Gallow's Hill. Love Lane is still there and in the City, implying the financial transactions that gave rise to the name, although there may not have been much love involved. Even Haymarket is redolent of its past. But London also has Trafalgar Square which might more relevantly be named Pigeon Shit or Pigeon Bomb Square. I wish, when road naming has to be done, the people responsible would overlook the boring famous people and places that are usually the source, use more imagination and delve into the sites history to find something colourful. Playing safe is too easy and militates against the joys in life. So what if some people are offended? Some always are and are probably going to find a reason to be offended anyway.