Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦Feb 13
@stephanie tell me about it. I worked at Ministère de Justice for a while. Omg, the words they fabricated — to avoid using standard software terms 🤦‍♀️. And they pled ignorance when I used the English word by mistake. #rude
Show threadM. GrégoireFeb 14

@deborahh
I was working in an office in Longueuil one time, and I heard one of the senior engineers talking about his computer files: "Je dois backuper mes fichiers." Back-up-er — I was shocked.

@stephanie

Show threadDeborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦Feb 14
@mpjgregoire @stephanie granted. But if anglophone-me couldn't find the right word, and used backup ... I don't think you'd be rude.
Show threadM. GrégoireFeb 14

@stephanie @deborahh
Oh, I should have been clear, the senior engineer was a francophone — it wasn't a case of someone searching for an unfamiliar word in a second language.

@david_megginson

Show threadDavid Megginson

@mpjgregoire Yes, multilingualism is fascinating.

I had a francophone university friend who did his medical degree at U of T then went to practice in Quebec. He realized he didn't know many of the technical medical terms in French, and had to keep asking the nurses what the words were. 🙂

I imagine the same would apply, for example, to a francophone who did their computer science degree at an anglophone university like U Waterloo: they'd know all the English technical terms in computing, but not necessarily the French ones.

#language #multilingualism

Feb 14 at 12:17pmWeb