...though they may not make much sense to people not born and brought up in Britain, and not of my generation.
1. From The Financial Times
The EU’s final words to the UK as it departed the union after nearly half a century were “thank you, goodbye, and good riddance”. The misspoken farewell, spoken by the Croatian ambassador to her UK counterpart Tim Barrow last week, perhaps sums up 47 years of the Britons being lost in translation in Brussels.
English is one of the two main working languages of the EU, but its nuances can often be lost on the non-native speaker.
Richard Corbett, a former Labour MEP who served for 16 years in the European Parliament, recalls an infamous intervention from a French MEP who stood in the chamber to thank “la sagesse normande” — or the “wisdom of the people of Normandy”. The parliament’s translation service turned it into “all thanks to Norman Wisdom”.
2. A lovely story about the late and wonderful Nicholas Parsons, host for many years of "Just a Minute"
In a talk at the Victoria and Albert museum, Paul Merton recalled: ''Parsons was at the Edinburgh Festival and someone was talking to him about Richard Pryor, telling Parsons how funny he was but also about his crack binges, setting himself on fire, going completely off the rails etc'' Merton said: ''Parsons stood there listening in absolute disbelief. About an hour later he was overheard saying to someone else 'Have you heard what's happened to Richard Briers?He's gone completely mad!'''
1. From The Financial Times
The EU’s final words to the UK as it departed the union after nearly half a century were “thank you, goodbye, and good riddance”. The misspoken farewell, spoken by the Croatian ambassador to her UK counterpart Tim Barrow last week, perhaps sums up 47 years of the Britons being lost in translation in Brussels.
English is one of the two main working languages of the EU, but its nuances can often be lost on the non-native speaker.
Richard Corbett, a former Labour MEP who served for 16 years in the European Parliament, recalls an infamous intervention from a French MEP who stood in the chamber to thank “la sagesse normande” — or the “wisdom of the people of Normandy”. The parliament’s translation service turned it into “all thanks to Norman Wisdom”.
2. A lovely story about the late and wonderful Nicholas Parsons, host for many years of "Just a Minute"
In a talk at the Victoria and Albert museum, Paul Merton recalled: ''Parsons was at the Edinburgh Festival and someone was talking to him about Richard Pryor, telling Parsons how funny he was but also about his crack binges, setting himself on fire, going completely off the rails etc'' Merton said: ''Parsons stood there listening in absolute disbelief. About an hour later he was overheard saying to someone else 'Have you heard what's happened to Richard Briers?He's gone completely mad!'''
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