French to English translations [PRO] Bus/Financial - History
French term or phrase:irréductibles gaulois
Here's an interesting way to describe your co-workers.
This is from an article about a Branch Manager who is retiring and about the atmosphere he created at the workplace.
"L’agence de XXXX a longtemps donné comme image celle d’« un village d’irréductibles gaulois ». Sans doute pour l’esprit familial qui y régnait d’une part. « On a passé de bons moments ensemble surtout au tout début lorsqu’on se retrouvait chaque fin de mois pour faire la facturation à la main ! » Mais aussi pour le fonctionnement général de l’agence. « Nous n’avons jamais fait de MacDo… que de la bonne bouffe ! », ironise-t-il. « Nous avons rendu service à tous les clients quels qu’ils soient et nous avons gardé le contact avec eux-mêmes lorsque nous savions qu’ils n’avaient pas de chantier en cours ». Une recette qui a fait ses preuves pendant toutes ces années. A la disponibilité et à la mémoire qui sont indispensables selon (manager), il faut ajouter le respect des délais dans le travail, les livraisons… et le tour est joué !
Explanation: Any Frenchman knows this is a reference not to actual history, but to its popular rendition through Asterix and his village.
Asterix the Gaul is the first volume of the Asterix comic strip series, ... No, four — for one small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix_the_Gaul
Unless you can assume your average reader is as familiar with the stories as the average Frenchman, you might need a translator's note.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 35 mins (2009-08-14 15:45:00 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
The more I think about it, the more I think you should leave Asterix out of it. He's fine when the document is Franco-French, but it might not be good to insist on their Frenchness when addressing an international audience. The ref. to McDo might be glossed over too. Something about "defending the best of French values and attitudes" "not going for the easy option of fast food outlets", etc. might do the trick. Positivize the Frenchness if it must be accented.
Thanks for your help here! I was unfortunately ignorant of all things "Astérix," so thanks for the enlightenment. 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
FWIW, I would go with Bourth's answer as it is definitely the translation repeated in each of the books - which I did have to hand in fact. You could say "...Asterix's village of indomitable Gauls..."
It's an obvious reference to Astérix. I haven't got a copy of an English one to hand but if I remember rightly it's one of the first sentences in each of the stories so there's bound to be an "official" translation.
