I find French is one of the most long winded languages today especially as the modern names for technology tend to explain them rather than just name them.

My aunt and uncle lived on Jersey for many years by the way. One time I was on Guernsey I bought a lot of Sark Stone.

My family have been English for countless centuries, Jo, and I do love the language, it’s wonderfully versatile. But sometimes there are concepts or feelings which are hard to encapsulate in English (at least, not without using too many words via a rather circuitous route) … one might say that the Greeks have a word for it, the English a sentence, the Americans a paragraph of unintelligible technical vocab. 😀 But seriously though, when speaking with friends who are born into a different culture with a different mother tongue, sometimes I feel it would be so much easier to be able to explain something to them within their own linguistic framework, without the gap of translation (rather like glenda speaking in malaysian to bemused shop assistants).

Hrugaar is a Limey, maybe, Jo – but he has lived on a rock off the coast for an awful long while, which probably explains an awful lot…*g*. His visit to Malaysia has just come to an end. I hope I have made a birdwatcher out of him – I did my best anyway.

Ginie – by all means write here in French. I read it quite well, but speak and write it poorly, so I won’t try to reply in your own language. But thanks for saying such nice things – and I am very glad that you won a copy of Heart of the Mirage!

Yer a Limey Hrugaar, ‘ow cum you feel uncomfy wiv English?

I’m a Limey too by the way.

Jo’s question about readers’ varying perceptions and interpretations is an interesting one. Reader response and feedback is an important aspect of the writer’s work of communication – it is to some extent a measure of success, says something about the readers themselves, and can be by turns surprising, frustrating, encouraging, enlightening or even amusing. But I would seldom call it annoying … unless perhaps the reader/critic himself is in some way annoying (e.g. more interested in his own opinions and issues than what can actually be found in the text).

i want more french books of you !
until then i will have to read you in english, not so bad ^^

best in french the following words, as i feel uneasy sometimes to talk in english ^^

J’ai pensé au début que ce serait la même et inéluctable histoire, celle que l’on relit encore et toujours dans tous les livres de fantaisie. Mais j’ai lu et assez rapidement, j’ai été surprise à toutes les pages de découvrir les personnages, les thèmes abordés. Au bout de 20 pages j’étais accro et j’ai commencé à chercher qui avait écrit cette histoire et s’il y avait une suite de prévue ! Je ne suis pas déçue ! C’est vrai ce que dit cet article de monsieur Sambre, je trouve votre écriture surprenante et d’une grande fraîcheur !

merci encore !

Predicting the outcome of certain kinds of behaviour I find a lot easier than predicting where technology goes next!