<p>^^ Yup. With an accent to match. From wikipedia:
Jacques Romain Georges Brel (April 8, 1929 – October 9, 1978) was a legendary Belgian French-speaking singer-songwriter, considered by many as a poet as well given the quality and evocative power of his lyrics. </p>
<p>He had some songs about Belgium and Belgians: Les Flamands (translated into “Marathon”) and Marieke.</p>
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<p>Yup, same with Rene Magritte. Besides the French fry thing that’s another gripe the Belgians have – that whenever some French-speaking Belgian becomes famous he’s always regarded as French in the mind of the public, once again robbing them of their proper national credit.</p>
<p>marite–it was supposed to sound visiGOTH-like. Not French. Darn.</p>
<p>Let’s see - the Visigoths were at least somewhat Germanic. So “marite” in German would be “mar-e-tay” or “ma-re-tay” as in German every letter tends to be pronounced, as far as my German will carry me.</p>
<p>Catherine Deneuve would translate, more or less, to Marlene Dietrich.</p>
<p>Wait, so if I go to Rome and break something, am I being Visigothic…Visigothian…Visigothesque? </p>
<p>Visigoth?</p>
<p>In English, anyway, the word is “clumsy”.</p>
<p>clum·sy /ˈklʌmzi/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[kluhm-zee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective, -si·er, -si·est.
<p>:D</p>
<p>If you were a Visigoth, then you weren’t a Vandal; but yes, you’d have wrecked mayhem in Rome.</p>
<p>I think the Visigoths did their fair share of fun stuff in Rome. The Vandals were so overrated.</p>
<p>Oh, and parent2noles-- nyah nyah.</p>
<p>“Let’s see - the Visigoths were at least somewhat Germanic. So “marite” in German would be “mar-e-tay” or “ma-re-tay” as in German every letter tends to be pronounced, as far as my German will carry me.”</p>
<p>I’m going to have to disagree on your pronunciation. The “e” at the end of a word in German is pronounced “eh/uh”, as in bitte. The “e” acts like a soft “a.” So in German, I believe Marite would be “mar-e-ta.”</p>
<p>It’s true that the Goths were a Germanic tribe, but so were the Franks and the Angles – and their modern descendants are the French and the English. So I don’t think we can use modern German as much of a Visigothic pronunciation guide any more than we can use modern English.</p>
<p>Sorry I missed this!</p>
<p>We have Asterix in five languages. I think if you go to the main Amazon U.S. site, you can get French Asterix for a lot less than buying them from the French site and shipping them here. There are lots of “marketplace” offers for French (and other language) Asterix books, too.</p>
<p>Interestingly, given the always-amusing Gallic chauvinism of Asterix, both Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo were first-generation Frenchmen, and the former hardly lived in France until he was an adult.</p>
<p>The other prototypically French pop culture product that is, in fact, Belgian: Tintin.</p>
<p>We went to the most wonderful French restaurant on the 21st, and I did converse a little with the waiter in French–I feel like I’ve done my part, even though we are very Irish!</p>
<p>A bit delayed, but we’re having dinner at a French restaurant tomorrow. I’m not very good at being French, though…my vocabulary est terrible and I don’t even have a mistress.</p>
<p>Regarding the tribes: there were Goths, Visigoths, and Ohmygoths.</p>
<p>I just realized, I <em>did</em> do something French on the 21st. I called the French restaurant to make reservations and, recognizing the name of the proprietor, addressed him by name and noted that it was our “anniversaire vingt-cinq” that we would be celebrating.</p>
<p>Congratulations, TheDad–to you and TheMom!!! We’ll be celebrating ours this year, as well!!!</p>
<p>What exciting memorable gifts & plans has any got in the works for the big 25? Silver seems so out-dated 
I am looking for ideas.</p>
<p>My H claims he took me on a European vacation. (We celebrated last year.) </p>
<p>(In case you don’t know me, I lived in Germany then.)</p>
<p>I ended up not having fries (of Belgian origin that we Americans call French Fries rather than pommes frites even though it’s not really French…) that day but later realized that I regularly speak French to my dog so I think that covers it.</p>
<p>Don’t do this (what H did for our 20th):</p>
<p>He woke me up dangling a set of keys in my face. I’m thinking “CAR?!” (We’d been looking for a car. . .) After letting me go on about a car, he finally admits that the keys are to a safe.
“But what do I need a SAFE for?–I have nothing to keep in a safe!” (no valuables of any kind). Then he said, “You do NOW!” and holds up a matchbook that says “DIAMOND” on the cover. “What? You didn’t get me a diamond, did you?!” H: “Uh, no. . . but the combination to the safe is inside this matchbook cover. . .” So I run to open the safe–and find it’s full of
chocolate. When I asked him where he ever got this “creative” idea, he said–he asked a co-worker for anniversary gift ideas saying, “The only thing my wife likes is candy, but then she complains that the kids eat it all.” So the co-worker said, “Well, she needs a SAFE place to keep it.”
Sigh. And the kids have already figured out 2 out of 3 numbers to the combination. . .</p>
<p>Anyway, in case you were wondering, a safe is not a very romantic anniversary gift. (It was a step up from the snap-together wooden dinosaur skeleton which H got me for another anniversary. I don’t recommend that, either).</p>
<p>Gee, 1982 was a very good year. H was talking about making plans to go somewhere—I reminded him we’d be romantically moving D1 into her dorm on our anniversary…</p>