What to blog about when I live such a quiet life?
You will see how quiet it is when I tell you that the most exciting thing that happened this week was getting an email on Thursday from Duolingo.
Two years ago (to the month) I was buffing up my French to go on a trip to France with Chrissie, and I lost marks when I translated 'pharmacie' as 'chemist shop.' I was so annoyed I emailed them to say that in the UK, 'chemist shop' is a perfectly acceptable translation of pharmacie. (I actually just say 'chemist' but I thought that might be too radical for the US-based Duolingo.)
Yay! I have changed the world!
Fortunately, Quakers don't have anything but names and dates on their headstones, so 'changing the world of Duolingo' will not be on mine.
The other bit of trivia I have to share is that I was upset to lose my favourite mask, made for me by my grandson, who will be 17 this month. I was upset because masks will be in vogue for residents of Hepworth Towers until, I'm guessing - well, as long as we still have a government that ignores the science - until next year at least. I needed a new one and bought two from Every Doctor UK, a doctor-led campaigning organisation fighting for a better NHS for every doctor and every patient.
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| Looking into sunshine Acrylic on canvas board, 37 by 55 cms |
5 comments:
For a quiet week, there’s plenty of content in this blog.
Firstly, I’d not heard of Every Doctor UK. Great idea to buy a mask from them. It’s Colin’s birthday in two weeks time and he keeps saying he doesn’t need anything. Do you think he’d appreciate a mask? 😂
Secondly, your painting is beautiful. You’ve captured the calm, cosy, welcome of that room.
Thirdly, your account of Dave’s ‘offer’ of a lift to Wensleydale made me laugh out loud.
Hope you’re feeling better, today, Sue, and enjoy your trip even if you are ‘dumped’ in beautiful Wensleydale.
Chris O x
I'm curious to know how Duolingo translated 'pharmacie'. I've followed some of their courses in both French and Spanish and found them OK.
Thank you. xx
I think their courses are VERY good. My complaint was that they were doing an American translation and marked some British English translations as wrong. It is so long ago I can’t recall what they translated it as - I think ‘pharmacy’ which is fine, but I think Brits are more likely to say ‘chemists.’ They would not allow me to translate it as such. So I think I then tried ‘chemist shops’ and they still would not allow it.
Thank you for all your encouragement, Chris.
As for the mask …I don’t want Colin blaming me for not getting a decent present! xx
Duolingo just asked me to translate J’achete deux pantalons.
I typed ‘I am buying two pairs of trousers’ and was marked as wrong, because Duolingo is American.
Their ‘correct’ translation was ‘I am buying two pants’ which surely should be ‘I am buying two pairs of pants’ if you call trousers pants.
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