MetaTalk

If English isn't your first language, what is the language you are most fluent in?
posted by aniola on Oct 25, 2022 - 79 comments

I've installed a language learning extension in my browser called Toucan which changes an assortment of words on whatever page you're looking at into your target learning language -- in my case French -- with the idea that you will learn that vocabulary in the context of your primary language. But what's currently cracking me up is that when I open a page on Metafilter: communauté weblog, it often chooses to translate bits and pieces of peoples usernames. [more inside]
posted by jacquilynne on May 7, 2022 - 46 comments

Could we maybe cut down on French stereotypes? The same two canards about lack of military prowess and entrepreneurship may not come up daily, but they appear in comments on and off and they are tired, facile and not too welcoming. I'm not asking for a change in policy, but it would be nice if we could be a bit more thoughtful. [more inside]
posted by ersatz on Mar 5, 2013 - 246 comments

Does MeFi have a policy on non-English language posts? I thought it was odd to see a post that only French-speaking members could really understand or participate in since no English translation of the poem was given.
posted by timsneezed on Jun 17, 2012 - 130 comments

Isn't referring to French people as "frogs" offensive?
posted by Renoroc on Feb 5, 2012 - 49 comments

I've been looking for a MeFi post that talked about the French Revolution, but can't seem to find it.... [more inside]
posted by aielen on Oct 30, 2008 - 8 comments

Nous sommes tous en cela ensemble: Aeiou, 'the blog of flu,' is a new French community blog based on the 'celebrated Metafilter.' They also give you Aeiou in bad english, through le poisson. (via boingboing via ecuaderno via pointblog via chryde).
posted by carter on Mar 25, 2004 - 15 comments

Blog Always, You Interest Me (translated) - Even the French are in on it - La Libération weighs in on blogging.
posted by panopticon on Mar 18, 2002 - 6 comments

There will be a Francophone weblogger get-together to discuss ways of promoting French-language weblogs in Paris November 22. On va avoir un dîner pour débattre des opportunités de promotion des weblogs francophones, le 22 novembre. FAQ. [Also, there's a discussion, in French, of the proper terminology for weblogs and webloggers. On the table is "webillard" for weblog and "joueb" for blog, a distinction not really made in English.]

posted by Mo Nickels on Oct 22, 2001 - 7 comments

Is it appropriate to post non-English links to the front page? For the majority of MeFites, it's equivalent to a linkless post, no? Or worse: In this case, at least there was no warning until the very end of the comment, so I'm sure many wasted their time clicking a useless link. But hey, maybe everyone here speaks French but me.
posted by mw on Jun 12, 2001 - 26 comments

Does anybody know of any French Web logs? Not Metafiltre--there's only one!
posted by ParisParamus on May 25, 2001 - 4 comments

Re: The article in French, linked on the sideblog.

Don't take this as a perfect translation, I've only had 4 years of French (in an american public school, no less), but here's the first paragraph of that article.

Last February 28th, the earth rumbled in Seattle, USA. Even before an urgent dispatch came across the news wire services, a net surfer wrote on the american website Metafilter: "I'm sitting at work in the Real Networks building. We have just experienced close to a minute of jostling and shaking. There is now a six foot crack on the wall of my office. Looking around, nothing appears to have fallen over, but there are crowds of people on the sidewalks." This web surfer relayed the news, like every day on Metafilter, one of the most significant american "Web logs".
posted by pnevares on May 8, 2001 - 3 comments