The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 15

15 "iu UU by Stephen Dawnss Using French Ever wondered why you've never won Tattslotto? RAY WATSON, a lecturer, in Melbourne University's statistics department, answers. is fun Commas, colons and their clan THE AGE, Tuesday, June 8, 1976 a slang rill There is textbook French and French French. Unfortunately for language student and tourists, Parisians love their slang. They also love arguing with one another and expect you, when you visit them, to join in the fun. In this article, MANUEL GELMlAN, foundation president of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers' Associations, hopes to help those about to visit the country of Gauloiies and croissants.

Neither the accents on many of the words quoted nor their pronunciation can be reproduced here. That's where your teachers or a week in Paris come in. Why gamblers die broke I Vt 1 suggest, too," for it is only an hour before that they find old Unser. Fritz in a vacant lot over near the railroad station with the Betsy he gets off Joe Palladino in his hand and' a bullet-hole smack-dab through his pimple. (Damon Rurtyon "All Horse Players Die "By the way," she says, "I remember more about that crazy Dutchman.

He is a horse player. I always figure he must die long ago and that the chances are he dies broke, too. I remember I hear people say all horse players die broke." "Yes," I say, "he dies all right, and he dies as you THE CHIEF aim of learning any language is to communicate. But how do you learn the witty and inventive slang Frenchmen (and women) insist on using? How do you hold a conversation with someone who loves using the hundreds of colorful Gallicisms that rarely appear in textbooks And how can you come back at a Frenchman who is aggressively argumentative in his very best argot (slang) and expects you to do as well In return I For basic vocabulary, Colin Thornton-Smith's Graded French Vocabulary Topics gives Invaluable help by collating the word-lists of Gougenheim, Vander Beke and myself. (By the way, neither Dr.

Thornton-Smith nor I advocate the coldly mathematical approach of Napoleon Bonaparte who planned, on March 7 1816, to learn English at SO words a day. Said Napoleon: "It is in the dictionary 40,000. Much of time to know It 120 Bouffe? and out-of-date slang can seem ludicrous. The very expression for "up-to-date" I found most used in France in 1965 was a la page. By 1971 it was dans fe vent.

What fascinating fun slang provides! The fabulous Freres Jacques delighted Paris audiences last year, disguised as shady financial manipulators, gloating over ie frte (dough), their whole song composed simply of innumerable colloquialisms for argent pognon, magot, sous, pese, hie. Then there Is "in" slang with undertakers currently using le dernier tango for And suburban Parisians sum up their day made unhappy by exhausting commuting with the expression: "Metro, faouot, dodo" (the underground railway, work and sleep). In fourth form in Melbourne we had to learn the irregular plurals of cal (wort), chacal (jackal) an(j pou (louse), as if we might need one day to discuss the lice on the warts of the jackals. My many visits to France have, I regret, never offered this opportunity. But grammar is still important.

You address your lawyer as cher maitre; don't call his female counterpart chere maitrease. Legume (vegetable) is masculine. But une grosse legume is a VIP. Some brief hints. Le petit coin is jokingly genteel for la toilette; clu'per means to "pinch" or steal.

Bouffer means to eat with gusto; tordant or marrant (screamingly funny) are very popular. Younger people cut sympathique (nice) and sensationnet to sympa and sensass. If the probability that A occurs is then the gambler's expectation (or mean profit) on one game adp-d(l-p) (al)d (P-Po) where Hence, the odds are fair if PPo since then the expectation is zero. If p) Po then the gambler's expectation is positive and the bet is said to be favorable to him. On the other hand, if PPo Then his expectation Is negative and the bet unfavorable.

Suppose that the game can be repeated. This is true for games with coins, dice, cards and for lotteries, but not for horse-races or football matches, in which, case we consider hypothetical repetitions. We assume then that the game is repeated independently times and that the gambler makes the same bet on each game. In practice, most gamblers take out a sequence of similar bets on similar games (usually with the TAB or Tatts) for which the odds change from game to game. Our assumption of identical bets on identical games is obviously a simplification, but the general pattern is the same, and the consequences for the gambler are the same.

(Continued next page) for senior students GENERAL MATHEMATICS tional on the information- available, and that can be done accurately only with a good deal of experience. Bookmakers have a mine of -information and plenty of experience. They are generally able to assess the probabilities fairly accurately, and hence set betting odds unfavorable to the gambler. MOST BETTING Is done within the following structure. A game (lottery, horse-race, etc.) is to take place.

As a result of this game, the event A may occur. Betting odds of a to 1 are specified for the event A. (Note that any odds can be expressed in this way: eg 5 to 2 2.5 to 1, 2 to 1 on 0.5 to 1). Then the gambler wagers that the event A will occur. If A does occur, then he wins $ad, while if A does not occur then he loses (and the banker or the bookmaker wins $d).

Strictly speaking, betting un the TAB or on Tattslotto does not have this structure since the payout Is not predetermined. However, it is usually approximately known, so that this structure can be used at least as an approximation in such cases. La Grande de Dieu or including aacre, you risk seeming a mufle (ill-mannered boor). The very common merde presents a unique case. In its literal meaning of "excrement" it must be handled, figuratively, with kid gloves.

But as expletive, expressing admiration, annoyance or indignation, I have heard it used by Cabinet Ministers, ambassadors and highly respectable ladies without embarrassment or offence. The tone means everything. To say "merde" is a standard way of wishing friends good luck before an exam or before going on stage at a premiere. The word has no English twin, and has none of the ugly crudity of its four-letter Anglo-Saxon equivalent. If you box well, risk silencing somebody with the tu form (contemptuous if used to others than relatives, animals or friends) in boucle-la (belt up), la ferme (close your trap) note, keen students, the unique position of the pronoun object or ta gueule.

Using gueule (the throat of an animal) compounds the insult. Incidentally, gueule de boia means a real hangover, but gueule cas-see is an affectionate term for a wounded returned soldier. If a masochist, use ta gueule to an armoire a glace (massive wardrobe) which means, colloquially, a formidable giant you'd employ as a gorilla (bodyguard) or videur (chucker-out). But, if you shut him up with ta Douche, bebe. t'auras dea fritea he'll laughingly dismiss you as a harmless vieux pepe (old codger), so old-fashioned is it.

help How easy with slanguage to put lea pieda dans le plat (your foot in it)! No family relationship is implied in calling a man une tante (a homosexual). Nor in replying et ta soeur 1 (and your sister?) which varies in meaning from "the same to you" to "go to being an equal and opposite reaction to the tone, meaning and manner of the comment it answers. You risk a slap using balser, usually not "kiss" (as textbooks taught you) but the most advanced sexual relations. Or filie which, more frequently than "girl" means one who fait le trottoir (walks the streets). This lady can be called the contemptuous pulain, insulting pute or amusing, delightfully learned pcrfpateticienne.

Don't dangerously confuse the friendly mec (bloke) with the despicable mac, short for maquereau, who lives off the pute's earnings. To save the effort of thinking you use chose (thing) for True, maciin or bidule mean 'thingummyjig" or (True and machin are used so much to signify anything and everything that they are often the first slang-words whose meaning newcomers to France want to know.) Ah bon I simply means "Is that so don't feel hurt, when you've announced that your business has crashed, and the apparently heartless response is: "Oh goodl" Avoid using slang Just to show off or seem "with You can easily seem smug, pedantic or stilted. Of all human functions language gets sclerosis the easiest. you There Is still the problem, however, of learning the countless colloquial words used in everyday speech. A basic mastery of vocabulary greatly facilitates intelligent guessing a tremendous help In learning many of them.

The rest can be so easily memorised; an enjoyable task because they are so much fun to use. Here are some popular words you'll need in France for everyday living: flic (policeman, but don't use it to his face), salut (hi I), collant (panty-hose). You'll want to understand terms of approval: chouette (beau, chic) and of disapproval: chiche (mingy), moche (shabby), degueulassa or infect (lousy). Dingue fou (mad), but while a prlx fou is a "mad (high) sales at des prix dfngues are at a "mad (low) The Frenchman, demanding and impatient, uses many expressions for being fed-up. J'en ai raa le bol, J'en ai pardeasua la tete, and J'en ai mam all add up to "I've had a Cretin (Idiot): salaud (dirty rat) and salope (dirty bitch), coming from sale (dirty), are obviously uncomplimentary.

But the apparently innocent type and individu frequently become insulting as in sale individu or even Quel type As to expletives, mince alors I zut alora I fairly mildly express astonishment or indignation. But by using religious terms such as nom OCCASIONALLY a book is published that deserves to become a classic. A Survival Kit for Writing English is one of them. It is among the simplest and clearest aids to good writing available. It is the sort of book that has been needed for a long time.

Its commonsense rules of writing are the flesh on a skeleton of delightful, good humor. I put it with Gower, Fowler and Strunk in the soundness of its advice and above them in its wit. The kit's author, Ray Bailey, lectures in English at the Western Australian Institute of Technology. He bases his text on the premise that the meaning of what we write is controlled largely by punctuation. Examples of how thoughtless punctuation can distort meaning are on almost every page.

Mr. Bailey could probably be accused of pedantry about commas, colons and their clan. But in being pedantic he simplifies the sort of maze those who punctuate arbitrarily or according to ear would have us negotiate. And that is a good thing. He uses new names "control unit" and "support unit" for cob-webbed concepts (subject, verb and subjunctive clauses and phrases).

They are apt names, and give the author's attack on grammar a simple and contemporary appearance. The text has the virility of Niagara Falls. The "dash" must be used sparingly in punctuation. says Mr. Bailey, because it has "as much subtlety as a four-inch naval A sentence that is clear when spoken is quite often ambiguous when written because writing cannot "gesticulate, grin, scowl, show its teeth, mutter under its breath, waggle its eyebrows, wink or stamp its Good advice abounds: "A good punctuator is not an automaton but a thinker: He punctuates according to And: "The dictionary you need is not cheap, but you are spending money in a good cause.

If you are tempted to buy an inexpensive pocket dictionary, go ahead but buy it as a second dictionary and carry it about with you in case of Examples of bad writing are clearly labelled "wrong" and an effective use of two body-type colors gives the message more punch. Longman Australia hope to begin publishing the kit next month. At $2.95, it will be ridiculously cheap for a good book and ideal for its market of senior-school students and undergraduates. A 1 chapter on how to present an essay for marking will be particularly valuable for them. Examiners' report piTY THE poor students of HSC -1 English literature.

Their examiners, stung by the controversy which erupted earlier this year over the way the subject is marked, have given warning that they will stand no nonsense in November. Last year's papers "on the whole were much more dull and conventional, dutiful and prepared" say the examiners in their recently-released report on'1975 candidates. There were "disappointingly few simply pleasant, enjoyable, live- ly papers," they say. One examiner opioned that the "final impression was of a grey terrain with mediocrity the dominant You see, what the examiners want are answers that show a "personal response" to the question. They don't want students to "play safe' and retreat into "safely-memorised But, on the other hand, they can "generally recognise wilful eccentricity, showing off.gushing the symptoms of self-con- scious liveliness and artificial interest The examiners tcan also "easily recognise the candidate who is merely doing what he imagines is expected of him-.

another mortal sin, apparently. So what the quaking, 17-year-old literature students of Victoria have to do from 2.15 p.m. to 5.15 p.m. on November 18 is steer a middle path between "playing safe" and "gushing" over the books, plays and poems on this year's course. Easv F.

R. Leavis and his colleagues in literary criticism do it all the time. The examiners' report has left many teachers particularly less-experienced ones confused over how to advise their students. My belief is that HSC English literature should be scrapped until the markers sort out more specifically what they want from candidates. NEARLY everyone likes to take a chance once in a while.

This is especially true of Australians. We have an enormous variety of things to bet on every day, and bet we do, with vast amounts of money. It is quite obvious that gamblers don't win: as is indicated by the rich bookmakers and the huge profits of Tatter-sail's and the TAB. Let's investigate mathematically the consequences of gambling and define more precisely what the average gambler can expect On almost any television show, the laws of probability receive more violent treatment than the villains. We repeatedly see the unusual or the unexpected, until it becomes the norm we seldom see what would happen in a world like the one we live in.

Rare events are newsworthy, and so the newspapers report anything extraordinary. Again a biased view is the result We're encouraged to expect the improbable, and we lose perspective of what is likely and what is not The teenagers complaint "Nothing ever happens to me" Is hardly surprising in this context. Our judgment where small probabilities are concerned is very poor. The probability scale Illustrates this point Many gambling games involve the use of mechanical apparatus coins, dice, cards, roulette, lucky wheels and lotteries, including Tattslotto. Assuming that the apparatus Is fair, then symmetry considerations can be used to evaluate probability.

The probability of any event A is then evaluated by enumerating the possible out-, comes and calculating the proportion of them that result in the event A. For example, if a fair coin is tossed 10 times, there are 1024 possible outcomes of which result In five heads and five tails, so the probability of obtaining five heads and five tails in 10 tosses of a fair coin is 0.246. However, in gambling games like horse-racing, the probability is unknown. One can only assign value to the probability condi- ACTIVITY IDEAS FROM BIRTH TO TEN YEARS each. MA 1S too late to enrol for STUDIES Ca eat can mean numberless things as statement or question from "Is it OK?" to "I've done Suspect faux amia, French and English words looking deceptively alike.

Vn box is your private parking space under a block of flats, or the dock where you may appear if you don't heed my warnings. Vn break (station wagon), aelf (self-service restaurant), snacfe (snack-bar), tube (best selling pop record) are now standard terms. Vn puzzle can mean only a 'jigsaw puzzle" the rage in France today. And, in French, "walkie-talkie" is talkie-walkie. So you've leamt your colloquialisms.

But there Is still the problem of pronunciation. In French early syllables and awkward ne's, l's and e's are often almost dropped. Je ne eaia pas frequently becomes ah-aala pas, ne suia pas Sh-suis pas, il (', and quelque que'que. And then intonation: Ca va? Out, ca va can mean, "How are you?" But Cd va, Ca va said irritably can mean "OK, OK, I've got the Mercf, with negative intonation or gesture, always means "No, thank Good luck in France If things' go wrong you can always excuse yourself with the opening "I'm a bloody Australian" of Alan Seymour's The One Day of the Year. It comes out in Jean Goldman's fine translation as J'suis un bon sang d'Australo.

Child's Play Schedule for second term Next Week Australian History: Children of the Land Selectors. June 22 Commercial and Legal Studies: The Judge as Law Maker. June 29 Biology: Aborigines and Australia's Environment. July 6 English: The Seven Book Groups. July 13 Australian History: Henry Lawson and Australian Nationalism.

July 20 Commercial and Legal Studies: Alternatives to the Jury. July 27 Geography: The Yarra Drainage Basin. August 3 General Mathematics: History of the Calculus. August 10 Australian History: Life in the 1930s Depression. August 17 Biology: Animal Behavior.

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FORM ScfrCOl Phcraphlc Contest 1975 (Block School Csption for photograph. certify thai, to trig boat of OTUVsW FULLTIME PART-TIME COMCSF0N0ENCE Dagrsee Orolomss rn Business theology. IfWfonm.nl Arts Complete Ce erJucatienal ScheeUng Oredee IV (primary to HSC All Runnels College outlet (Trrnwiilina Sheilhand Secretarial Reception! Art end Ceils Pemnna Sculpture tleaet Wntma. Wlndete OtflMinp Lemttcepe Oettfemng Oreismthing Oesign Menigtment Selee Marketing Personnel sue Institute Eisminaiion Preparation Entrance C. immanent PMO Police Numng Sorees Government PuMy etrloel eeMertri Proper etnnt Study Mettwtfe Spaed Peeping Foreign tenguegee Rovinon courees end Suppternentorv etermnetiene tor those-who need to complete achoot cetMtatea Forms III VI Constat KEITH HOLLINGSWORTH 1 sofa St laat Prncnmoe).

ltll Pttnn. (to 044 less Una) Coaching eveSaSIa en ALL sutieoto. photograph ta the work 61 thg above mentioned pupil TaactWs gignsture Please attach this entry term firmly to tht photograph and send to "The Age Msmtve Photo Comsat. Hythe Friendly Way Co Pictorial Editor Boa 257C. HTPIH ClOtt ON TNI 319 7394,1 f'.