Being a fan of the least-effort-expended absorption method of learning I was listening to France Info, a French radio station, on the internet the other night. I hoped I would magically become fluent while listening to the radio and simultaneously doing evening server work. My understanding of what was being spoken was limited, in fact it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say my French is dire.*
It struck me that the French people in this discussion programme had a peculiar interest in British late twentieth century comic magicians, in particular they kept talking about Ali Bongo.
Ali Bongo was a magician who was active from around 1960, he was a member of the Inner Magic Circle and had been the Magic Circle Magician of the Year in 1972. He had worked as a consultant on many television programmes and had had a very successful international career. He died in 2009.
I was greatly amused to believe that there was such depth of interest in the deceased theatrical deceiver that it could prompt thirty minutes of continuous discussion, and continued to be amused for some time.
It wasn’t until a day later, on hearing the news in English, that I discovered the reason for this apparent Bongo fury. A completely different Ali Bongo had become president of Gabon in 2009 and had just been re-elected, and his re-election had prompted violence including some deaths.
This shows just how rubbish my French is and sheds a different light on 'false friends'.
* Yeah, that's rubbish, sorry.
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