LL-L "Events" 2008.04.05 (08) [D/E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 05 April 2008 - Volume 08
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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: LL-L "Events" 2008.04.02 (07) [D]

 > From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
> Subject: LL-L "Events"
> Beste Roger,
> Een goede vriend van mij is de film [*Bienvenue chez les ch'tis*] gaan
zien en vond hem echt hilarisch. Ook in Frankrijk zou hij serieus scoren

1. I have seen the film this Saturday afternoon in the Brussels UGC.

The story is about a postman, lying for getting an assignment at the
méditerannean, and as punishment is sent to the terrible North. His wife is
staying home, and thinks her husband is suffering terribly in the barbaric
North. It's not that bad over there, but she doesn't believe him. Since her
compassion has a beneficial effect on their relation, he starts feeding her
belief it is terrible. Until the moment she comes visiting him in the North,
and finally finds the truth. But it all ends happily.

Actually it is the traditional scenario of the comedy plays often performed
by local people in village theatre.
It start with a lie for a small issue. For covering and maintaining the lie
complicated constructions are set up. But these create new problems..

Linguistically local people in the film talk with "*Picard"* coloration,
most important is the consonant shift of the French "si" into "chi":
"*le sien*" (belonging to him) becomes "*le chien*" (the dog).
This causes quite some misunderstandings, and when our postman tries to
integrate and imitates, he makes the consonant shift in cases where it is
not done locally, causing new misunderstandings.

A curious thing for me is when I hear people from *Holland *learning French,
I often hear them pronouncing similarely. (*sj *in Dutch is pronounced like
*ch *in French)

Belgians (as well Walloons as Northerners) are more easily recognized by the
way they pronounce the *W*.
Wallon is pronounced rather *Vallon* by the French
but rather in the direction of "*Ouallon*" by the Belgians (*Ou* standing
for the Dutch *oe* or the German *u*)

2. The film starts momentarely every hour in one of the underground movie
rooms of the GMC. The GMC is in the almost empty (because of closed shops)
shopping center "Toison d'Or". This is a bit curious. Just at the outside of
the Guldenvlieslaan (Av. Toisin d'Or), part of the little ring, there are
almost 3 adjacent shopping centers:
from West to East:
- the vibrant "Louize"
- the death "Toison d'Or" (except for the GMC)
- the "Ixelles" (Elsene)

3. The latter links the Elsenesteenweg with the Waverse steenweg. It's pure
"*Matonge*". All shops are African, I guess half of them are hairdress
shops, a lot others have traditional African clothing. I bought a "Bakolo
Miziki" CD at one of the shops, pure Congo music: a pretty and varied
rythmic music, and very articulated singing voices, stressing a bit like
children do.
http://www.answers.com/topic/bankolo-miziki-vol-2?cat=entertainment
http://www.sternsmusic.com/disk_info.php?id=ng048
I tried some food in an African bar-restaurant called "Beverly Hills" at the
corner of the Waverse steenweg and the Anoulstraat. It was very good.
I got *tilapia* fried with a tasty crusty skin, presented under a cover of
strips of sweet paprikas, some strips of hot pepper and little onion parts,
it all served with black-fried slices of banana.
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matonge
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matonge

Regards,
Roger
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