I'm always fascinated by the vitality here in New York. The city is living at 200mph, people are working hard, sometimes cumulating jobs to earn a decent living and climb the social ladder.
The above ad was shot in the subway.
Would you imagine such an ad in France, "changing your life" by parking cars in Paris !?
Et imaginer une offre d'emploi en plusieurs langues est aussi incongrue en France !
Posted by: Yann | January 23, 2008 at 01:20 PM
New York est une ville officiellement bilingue, english/español !
Posted by: Michel de Guilhermier | January 23, 2008 at 02:42 PM
et de plus en plus de francais qui en veulent aussi, a NY !
Posted by: sebastien (ny) | January 23, 2008 at 03:52 PM
et de plus en plus de francais qui en veulent aussi, a NY !
Posted by: sebastien (ny) | January 23, 2008 at 03:53 PM
Notez aussi que la possibilité de faire des heures supplémentaires est un argument utilisé pour rendre le job attractif.
Alors qu'en France, on vous parle tout de suite de la manière dont sont organisées les journées RTT ...
Posted by: Le tribulateur | January 23, 2008 at 04:34 PM
Il n'y a pas besoin d'aller jusqu'à NYC pour avoir ce type d'autre. Ici, à Londres on a les même offres pour être chauffeur de bus (et le salaire affiché tiens compte des heures supplémentaires : £500 pw).
Posted by: Mathieu Seguin | January 23, 2008 at 05:48 PM
Would you imagine such an ad in France, "changing your life" by parking cars in Paris !?
You know, as a New Yorker living in the Paris region for 12 years now, I would like to think that I have learned NOT to say [referring to something I'd seen in the US] "that would never work in France" or "I'll never see that in France", simply because I've been proven wrong so often! Just about everything that starts in the US comes to France eventually, usually 5-10 years later:). And as a New Yorker (a la Woody Allen), it kills me to admit that many of those new things actually start in Southern California:)
About NY being a "bilingual city", I would disagree (N.B. I'm a translator and Spanish is one of my languages).
Yes, many of the ads one sees in NY's "subway" are in both languages, but
New Yorkers do have one thing in common with other Americans: no knowledge of or interest in other languages. So, the Americans reading those ads would be totally unable to understand the Spanish text. And the native Spanish speakers reading those ads might have a hard time reading the English text.
Posted by: Ken Fagan (traducteur juridique en private equity) | January 23, 2008 at 05:51 PM
Ken, sorry, but I must confirm that New York is officially a bilingual city indeed : all administrative documents must be written in both English and Spanish.
Posted by: Michel de Guilhermier | January 23, 2008 at 07:38 PM
Matthieu, yep, it's also true in London
Posted by: Michel de Guilhermier | January 23, 2008 at 07:45 PM
But is it a good thing? I mean, in the US, you have so many people that must work 3 to 4 jobs at a time to live a decent life. Most of the time, because of these situation, it is hard to climb the social ladder. Because you don't have a consistent job, and no way to really get opportunities out of it.
Working more is fine, but working couple of jobs offering not much is not a good thing in my opinion.
Posted by: Nicolas Schriver | January 23, 2008 at 09:13 PM
Hi Michel,
I'm happy to admit when I'm wrong:), but I just couldn't believe what you said, so I checked out NYC's official web site:
http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/?front_door=true
Try though I did I was unable to find a single word in Spanish, or even a reference to the Spanish language.
Anyway, pas grave/have a nice day:)
Posted by: Ken Fagan | January 23, 2008 at 09:26 PM
Like Ken, I am not sure that NYC is an official bilingual city.
To my knowledge and my research on this, the only official bilingual city in the US is Miami,FL.(What about LA, does somebody know?). And for having been living in NY for 6 months and living now in Florida, I can tell the difference. You may have a hard time to make you understand in English in the sunshine state!
Anyways, all the Spanish ads that we can see in NY translate the size and the weight of the Hispanic community in this city.
Posted by: Arnaud | January 24, 2008 at 08:38 AM
Ken, Arnaud, wanna bet something?
Posted by: Michel de Guilhermier | January 24, 2008 at 09:03 AM
As for the Paris metro, the closest thing to a bilingual ad of any kind is the
"Do you Speak English? Wall Street English" ad:).
France could do with a few more offices of Wall Street English:)
Posted by: Ken Fagan (traducteur juridique p/Private Equity) | January 24, 2008 at 09:22 AM
I'm not sure what I could offer you if I were to lose:)
Posted by: Ken Fagan (traducteur juridique p/Private Equity | January 24, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Pour parler d'une ville bilingue ou non, je vais apporter ma contribution.
A Miami, l'ensemble de la signalétique de l'aéroport est en anglais et en espagnol.
A New Orleans, c'est anglais et Français (comme Toronto d'ailleurs)
Mais pour avoir vécu à NYC 3 ans, j'étais passé à côté de l'aspect bilingue dans les papiers officiels. Par contre, l'environnement est extrêmement hispanophone. D'ailleurs, j'ai appris quelques bribes de phrases en étant là-bas. Bon, j'avoue, j'ai quand même plus perfectionné mon anglais ! :)
Posted by: Le Tribulateur | January 24, 2008 at 12:17 PM
C'est la blague de l'immigrant qui arrive à New York, émerveillé, enfin sur la terre promise, l'eldorado, et qui en dscendant de l'avion demande au 1er venu : "am I really in America".
Et l'autre qui lui répond : "Si señor !"
Posted by: Michel de Guilhermier | January 25, 2008 at 12:10 AM
I always notice the add in the Metro for LEARN TO SPEAK WALL STREET ENGLISH!
Hmmm...maybe it's time to take that down..
Posted by: parisbreakfasts | January 27, 2008 at 08:26 PM
IMO NYC is a multi-linqual city depending what zip you're in - Chinese, Russian,Arabic in any magazine store, Patisserie French in Astoria etc.
Posted by: parisbreakfasts | January 27, 2008 at 08:29 PM