UNIVERSITE PARIS DIDEROT
UFR EILA LICENCE LEA C48AN36TRA
Thème page 5
Les jeunes des quartiers aisés plus avinés
Young people from wealthy/well off areas drink more/get drunk more/go in for more binge drinking/ Binge drinking hits posh youth[1]
According to a survey conducted/carried out in 2005 by Escapade Paris which has just been released, young people living in the South-West of Paris/south-western part of Paris/the French[2] capital (6th, 7th, 14th, 15th, and 16th arrondissements/districts)are (found to – Laure Lepoivre![3]) drink twice as often[4] as those in the North-East/ north-eastern part (3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 18th, 19th, 20th). This is because it is a wealthier population/ they are wealthier/come from wealthier/well-to-do backgrounds, and they go out more often[5]. Not many of them/few[6] of them drink every day (are daily drinkers[7]), but many do from time to time (are occasional/casual drinkers). “Young people have changed their drinking habits/practices (young people’s[8] drinking habits have changed)”, says[9] (not tells!) Albert Herszkowicz, an assistant medical inspector for the regional department of health and social questions (Drassif)[10]. “They drink once a week/on a weekly basis, and it’s[11] often a binge / and they drink until they’re drunk/but then they drink to get drunk[12]/drink to the point of drunkenness/intoxication (they go in for binge drinking at the weekend…?)”
The most frequent occasion for binge[13] drinking[14]/alcohol abuse/abuse of alcohol is (at) student parties organised by the grandes écoles, the elite schools[15]. Thissocial drinking (fashionable[16] alcoholism?) is encouraged by the presence of open bars which the local studentscannot (seem to) resist/find it hard to resist[17]. “Boys and girls behave more similarly in Paris/the Paris region/here than in the rest of France/ there is less difference between male and female behaviour[18] in Paris than in the rest of France/the girls behave more like the boys in Paris than in the rest of France”, notes[19] Albert Herszkowicz. He adds[20] that the alcohol industry is promoting[21] aggressive marketing practices by giving their products/wares away during these parties. “It’s a marketing ploy which is designed to win over new consumers”, he remarks, critically/denounced.
General comments
Alternative translations
Alternatives are given above. However, I request that you decide on one translation in your personal work. If you hesitate in your homework you can always put a note to express the reasons for your hesitations.
Full sentences
Make full sentences.
The stylistic effect of sentences without verbs (style Libé) is unusual in English. It sounds incomplete, not “in”. There are several of these in the article, and they should be rendered in English by sentences with a conjugated verb.
Adjectives
Adjectives can be used without nouns to refer to groups of people : the old, the young, the rich, the poor, the unemployed. Note that this is not possible for most adjectives (foreign, happy, disgusting, occasional…). There is no –s to mark the plural. This is not a convenient construction to translate les jeunes, as there is another adjective (aisé), so young people is to be preferred. Note too that youth as a noun can be used as a collective noun in a very formal context: the youth of the nation; in this usage, it is uncountable. As a countable noun (a youth) is a rather old-fashioned way of saying a young man. Final remark: youngsters and teenagers seem a bit too young in the context of this article, as they are going to the grandes écoles.
Order of adjectives
Adjectives of place close to the noun; evaluative adjectives – good, bad, etc. further away:
prosperous Paris/Parisian neighbourhoods
Comparison of equality
-she’s as tall as her sister
- carried over to comparisons of inequality:
- she’s twice as tall as her mother
- this parcel is three times as heavy as the first one.
[1]The last alternative is more typical of the popular press, as it is more casual in style. The choice would have to be made with regard for the newspaper you are translating for.
[2]Remember that you are translating this article for people outside France.The French capital is thus more informative than simply the capital (of what country?).
[3] What does the conditional mean in French? It means that this is what the report says, not what the journalist necessarily thinks. “Conditionnel de prudence”; English does not use the conditional in this way. If it is really necessary to make it clear that this is not what the speaker/writer says, English uses round-about constructions such as : it is claimed that,allegedly…
[4]une consommation in a bar is a drink. Here it is easier to translate the sentence if you turn the deverbal noun (consommation) into the corresponding verb : drink. In addition, consumption is a synonym of tuberculosis. You can say a consuming passion, but not a consuming habit, unless it means a habit that absorbs one totally.
[5]hang out more: modern slang. I wouldn’t use it in a newspaper article. Perhaps a question of generation.
[6]Few is more formal than not many. Note that a few emphasises that there are some, though not many, whereas few underlines the negative, just as un peu and peu.
[7]Regular drinkers is possible, but steady drinkers implies that they can hold their drink.
[8]A genitive is possible here, as the noun is an animate. It is not possible for inanimates. Remember that the genitive singular is marked by an apostrophe before the ‘s; a plural after s’.
[9]The present is usual here, as it is an echo of an interview made at the actual time.
[10]Whether you keep the direct speech or transform it into indirect speech depends on the policy of the newspaper you are translating for. Some newspapers reserve direct speech for the actual words used, and as you have translated, this is not the case. This would mean that you would have to reword, for example: Dr A. Herszkowicz, an assistant medical inspector for the regional department of health and social questions (Drassif), explained that the drinking habits of young people has changed, and that they now binge drink on a weekly basis.
[11]You are quoting direct speech, so you may use contractions.
[12]drunk: many synonyms: intoxicated is a rather official one. drunken is used in front of a noun : a drunken sailor; but the sailor is drunk. Alcoholic is used as an adjective and a noun for someone who has a dependence on alcohol. You cannot use it for the alcoholic industries* - the alcohol industry.
[13]abuse : usually verbal abuse (‘injures’); alcohol abuse (singular)
[14]C’est au cours des soirées étudiantes: c’est puts the emphasis on the student parties; English does not use «presentatives» like this, but simply puts the stressed words at the beginning of the sentence, or in a stressed position. Then it is sentence stress which takes over.
[15]There is no equivalent of the grandes écoles in English-speaking countries, and no easy way to render the idea. One solution, suggested here, is to use the French expression and give an explanatory phrase, such as prestigious /elite institutes (of higher education). The idea of prestige, and elite is important, to tie in with the idea of alcoolisme mondain.
[16]Mundane is a faux ami : it means ordinary, dull (i.e. of this world, rather than of the spiritual world)
[17]Resist takes a direct object in English : you resist something.
[18]Behaviour is uncountable in non specialist English.
[19]Notice is a verb of seeing, and not a verb of speech, so it cannot be used here. Note can be used of speaking though.
[20] English has no rhetorical device which corresponds to the French form … et de So just start a new sentence.
[21] Or: has developed: we need more information. Is this policy of plying young people with alcohol already an established (though inofficial) policy on the part of the alcohol industry (in which case has developed is required), or is it being put in place now (in which case is promoting is required). The present simple could be used with such expressions as “they go in for such practices as…”