I watched some documentaries about India and China on France 2's website, and other web documentaries about China on France 5*. I couldn't help sharing my impressions. The way French reporters pronounce Chinese names is just too hilarious. There are dozens of reportages, each with a different journalist, and not one of them knows the basics on how to read Chinese words. I am not talking about mistaken tones, that's too much asking for Westerners, but about how to read the pinyin romanization. That's the kind of knowledge one can acquire in the airplane before landing for the first time in China.
The idea is to open one's Lonely Planet phrasebook and familiarize oneself with the romanization system first before trying to remember the basic greetings or place names. Obviously a step that French journalists constantly skip. How ridiculous do they sound when they read 'Guangzhou' as if it was a French word, saying something like Gangzoo (to be read as an English word) because 'Gu' is a hard 'g' in French, 'ou' is 'oo' and they failed to learn that 'zh' is closer to a 'j' than a 'z'. I mean come on, Guangzhou is the fourth most famous Chinese city after Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong ! But why should they pronounce it right when French speakers regularly call Shanghai "Shan-gai" (with a nasalized 'an') and Hong Kong is 'on kon' (also nasalized). When their linguistic skills is so low, is it even useful to point out gross errors in less familiar names ? No, Xinjiang is not 'ksinyang' (with a nazalised 'ang' as in the French 'langue') but more like 'shin-dji-ang'.
The funniest part was to see the reporter at the end of each scoop commenting with a serious and formal air on his face as if he was a diplomat on a special mission, or at least someone that should be taken seriously. How are we supposed to do that when he says he is reporting from from province of Ksinyang ?
It's not just the pronunciation that discredit France TV's professionalism. The French always make a point in capitalising whole surnames, so as not to confuse them with given names (e.g. John SMITH). They do it for foreign names, but just as regularly with French names. Even in emails people will sign their own surname all in capitals. That's a French idiosyncrasy. Well, in all their documentaries the professional TV staff whose job it is to clarify to the French audience which name is the surname and which is/are the given name(s) constantly got it wrong, capitalizing all the given names ! Now that is useful, isn't it ? Why pay someone to make sure the TV watchers know what is the interviewee's family name, and mislead them every time !
The documentaries are not bad, but frankly, get professional and fire, or relocate or re-train those clowns that don't have anything to do in China with their current level of Chinese. Unbelievable...
* France 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all state-owned channels of the France Televisions group.
The idea is to open one's Lonely Planet phrasebook and familiarize oneself with the romanization system first before trying to remember the basic greetings or place names. Obviously a step that French journalists constantly skip. How ridiculous do they sound when they read 'Guangzhou' as if it was a French word, saying something like Gangzoo (to be read as an English word) because 'Gu' is a hard 'g' in French, 'ou' is 'oo' and they failed to learn that 'zh' is closer to a 'j' than a 'z'. I mean come on, Guangzhou is the fourth most famous Chinese city after Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong ! But why should they pronounce it right when French speakers regularly call Shanghai "Shan-gai" (with a nasalized 'an') and Hong Kong is 'on kon' (also nasalized). When their linguistic skills is so low, is it even useful to point out gross errors in less familiar names ? No, Xinjiang is not 'ksinyang' (with a nazalised 'ang' as in the French 'langue') but more like 'shin-dji-ang'.
The funniest part was to see the reporter at the end of each scoop commenting with a serious and formal air on his face as if he was a diplomat on a special mission, or at least someone that should be taken seriously. How are we supposed to do that when he says he is reporting from from province of Ksinyang ?
It's not just the pronunciation that discredit France TV's professionalism. The French always make a point in capitalising whole surnames, so as not to confuse them with given names (e.g. John SMITH). They do it for foreign names, but just as regularly with French names. Even in emails people will sign their own surname all in capitals. That's a French idiosyncrasy. Well, in all their documentaries the professional TV staff whose job it is to clarify to the French audience which name is the surname and which is/are the given name(s) constantly got it wrong, capitalizing all the given names ! Now that is useful, isn't it ? Why pay someone to make sure the TV watchers know what is the interviewee's family name, and mislead them every time !
The documentaries are not bad, but frankly, get professional and fire, or relocate or re-train those clowns that don't have anything to do in China with their current level of Chinese. Unbelievable...
* France 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all state-owned channels of the France Televisions group.