Dear Editor,
I apologise for not writing earlier. As a French enthusiast, I enjoy reading editorials with a title that sounds French. The Jamaica Observer has a penchant for same.
The captioned article that appeared in this Thursday's paper seems to have a French feel. However, I recognise the words "beau" and "jour" but not "se". The contents of the article speak to a pleasurable stay/visit but "se", to my knowledge, comes from French Creole and thus does not fit into the title. By inference, I checked for the French word "séjour" which in fact means "stay or visit" and is one and not two words. It also has an accent.
For the general reading public without any knowledge of French, the title is thus misleading. For those with an imperfect knowledge of French, it would serve to misinform them further.
As a French enthusiast, I'm concerned about the inaccuracy of both the structuring of the title and its translation. Additionally, the last line, which serves to accentuate the supposed English meaning of the title, is thus unfortunate as the title does not in fact translate to beautiful day.
Notwithstanding, keep up the great work and keep the (accurate) French coming!
I would appreciate some feedback on my views.
Desrine Bogle (PhD)
Chair & Associate Professor
Department of Humanities
College of Humanities, Behavioural & Social Sciences
Northern Caribbean University
Mandeville, Manchester
Editor's note: 'Beau se jour' is the name of the property, given by the owners who explained that it is Trinidadian (French) creole. In fact there is a place in Trinidad, as well as in St Lucia named 'Beau se jour'.
That's not French!
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I apologise for not writing earlier. As a French enthusiast, I enjoy reading editorials with a title that sounds French. The Jamaica Observer has a penchant for same.
The captioned article that appeared in this Thursday's paper seems to have a French feel. However, I recognise the words "beau" and "jour" but not "se". The contents of the article speak to a pleasurable stay/visit but "se", to my knowledge, comes from French Creole and thus does not fit into the title. By inference, I checked for the French word "séjour" which in fact means "stay or visit" and is one and not two words. It also has an accent.
For the general reading public without any knowledge of French, the title is thus misleading. For those with an imperfect knowledge of French, it would serve to misinform them further.
As a French enthusiast, I'm concerned about the inaccuracy of both the structuring of the title and its translation. Additionally, the last line, which serves to accentuate the supposed English meaning of the title, is thus unfortunate as the title does not in fact translate to beautiful day.
Notwithstanding, keep up the great work and keep the (accurate) French coming!
I would appreciate some feedback on my views.
Desrine Bogle (PhD)
Chair & Associate Professor
Department of Humanities
College of Humanities, Behavioural & Social Sciences
Northern Caribbean University
Mandeville, Manchester
Editor's note: 'Beau se jour' is the name of the property, given by the owners who explained that it is Trinidadian (French) creole. In fact there is a place in Trinidad, as well as in St Lucia named 'Beau se jour'.
That's not French!
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