BUSINESS ENGLISH PARIS: WORD OF THE DAY: Brainstorming
French translation: remue-méninges.
At Business English Paris, we focus a lot on just speaking in English with our students. When I speak with my students, I always like to throw questions up at them such as "do you like to have brainstorming sessions with your colleagues and what was the last brainstorming session you had?"
What surprised me most about the word brainstorming, however, is that the exact same word is used in French so my students are never quite as stormed by this "big" English word as I expect them to be. They are doing this more and more these days, you know. These busy, French professionals with whom I converse in English for a living (BUSINESS ENGLISH PARIS is my latest venture) are busy stealing English words! And turning them into French! They just absolutely hijack a lot of English words! Especially the teenagers. It is absolutely crazy!
When I point out that a lot of their words are really English they tell me that we do the same thing in English. We have hijacked a lot of French words. And touché. It's true. Ils ont raison. :) But still. It is amazing how many English words have made it into the French lexicon.
With "brainstorming," apparently french people resisted a little bit before they adopted the word into their vocabulary. They tried a few french versions of it. For example: remue-méninges. My students tell me that the official translation for brainstorming is "remue meninges." I can't even pronounce the word properly (my french is very bad). They tried this traduction but most young people preferred the English version "Brainstorming" so brainstorming stuck. I mean, if you look at searches for the two words, there is no contest as far as search results between "brainstorming" and search results for "remue meninges."
I think BRAINSTORMING is a great word for conversation. What was the last brainstorming session you had at work? Give me all the details please for our next conversation meet up.
Contact BUSINESS ENGLISH PARIS at businessenglishparisELG@gmail.com if you would like to take a conversation class with me. No contract, no obligation. Read here for more information about our most basic offer: Business English conversation at lunchtime.
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Business English Paris is a sister site of Jeannie LaCroix. Please visit our sister site where you can find curated products for busy professionals at www.jeannielacroix.com. Thank you in advance for your support
French translation: remue-méninges.
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What surprised me most about the word brainstorming, however, is that the exact same word is used in French so my students are never quite as stormed by this "big" English word as I expect them to be. They are doing this more and more these days, you know. These busy, French professionals with whom I converse in English for a living (BUSINESS ENGLISH PARIS is my latest venture) are busy stealing English words! And turning them into French! They just absolutely hijack a lot of English words! Especially the teenagers. It is absolutely crazy!
When I point out that a lot of their words are really English they tell me that we do the same thing in English. We have hijacked a lot of French words. And touché. It's true. Ils ont raison. :) But still. It is amazing how many English words have made it into the French lexicon.
With "brainstorming," apparently french people resisted a little bit before they adopted the word into their vocabulary. They tried a few french versions of it. For example: remue-méninges. My students tell me that the official translation for brainstorming is "remue meninges." I can't even pronounce the word properly (my french is very bad). They tried this traduction but most young people preferred the English version "Brainstorming" so brainstorming stuck. I mean, if you look at searches for the two words, there is no contest as far as search results between "brainstorming" and search results for "remue meninges."
I think BRAINSTORMING is a great word for conversation. What was the last brainstorming session you had at work? Give me all the details please for our next conversation meet up.
Contact BUSINESS ENGLISH PARIS at businessenglishparisELG@gmail.com if you would like to take a conversation class with me. No contract, no obligation. Read here for more information about our most basic offer: Business English conversation at lunchtime.
_________________________________________________________________
Business English Paris is a sister site of Jeannie LaCroix. Please visit our sister site where you can find curated products for busy professionals at www.jeannielacroix.com. Thank you in advance for your support
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