French Kiss by Ryan Bartlett

[Paul]

Extraordinarily sweet.

http://awesomedude.com/ryan-bartlett/french-kiss/french-kiss.htm

[Nigel Gordon]

This is a touching and delightful story.

[Lugnutz]

Very nice. And Google translate to the rescue. It's amazing where you can find someone.

[Cynus]

Read it and loved it. My three years of French from way back in middle school came in handy. I was able to piece together a lot of the French from the few words I recognized before I got to the description of action, but some of the longer paragraphs were far more difficult for me to understand. It made me want to go back and study again.

[Guest RBartlett]

Read it and loved it. My three years of French from way back in middle school came in handy. I was able to piece together a lot of the French from the few words I recognized before I got to the description of action, but some of the longer paragraphs were far more difficult for me to understand. It made me want to go back and study again.

Originally I wrote the French lines in English but put them in italic's to denote the difference. Ken over at the Readers Ranch liked the story and used the translator in Word to change it to French. I think he was right, it works better in French, but I've also been scolded by some French speakers because the translation could use some work. Oops, what can I say, I took German in school.

Thank you, Cynus, and everyone else for taking the time to give it a read. I wrote this piece specifically to compete against your Summer Smiles in the Readers Ranch Summer Story Contest so I'm really glad you enjoyed it!

[Rutabaga]

Originally I wrote the French lines in English but put them in italic's to denote the difference. Ken over at the Readers Ranch liked the story and used the translator in Word to change it to French. I think he was right, it works better in French, but I've also been scolded by some French speakers because the translation could use some work. Oops, what can I say, I took German in school.

Thank you, Cynus, and everyone else for taking the time to give it a read. I wrote this piece specifically to compete against your Summer Smiles in the Readers Ranch Summer Story Contest so I'm really glad you enjoyed it!

Yeah, there are some pretty significant boo-boos in the French. I should have realized that something like Google Translate was at work. It was very easy to tell what was being conveyed, and frankly, if someone spoke to a native French speaker with those sentences, the French speaker would understand perfectly what was being conveyed. So no harm done. So what if the verb souhaiter means "wish" in the sense of "I wish you a happy birthday," they would get that you meant "wish" as in "do you wish to get a cup of coffee?" even though it would be more conventional to say something like "tu veux un café?" or "voudriez-vous un café?"

In any case, a very sweet story that makes me want to go back to Paris (although perhaps not in the heat of summer).

R

[Bruin Fisher]

Lovely short story, thanks for writing it!

[Chris James]

Love these sweet stories... I say well done. No matter about all the French translation business, they don't like anything in English so why cater to their language? Paris always seems to be celebrated in romance stories and so this is a fitting setting for yours. Thanks for bringing us your talent.

[Merkin]

I say yea for real photographic equipment and actual sketch-pad sketching and let's throw away those awful cell phone cameras.

[Guest RBartlett]

I say yea for real photographic equipment and actual sketch-pad sketching and let's throw away those awful cell phone cameras.

Amen! I hate cell phones! I wish we could uninvent them.

[The Pecman]

I liked it! That kid needs to learn French, and fast. I can only kiss in French.

I had to live in Italy for three months a few years back, and I only learned enough Italian to curse at bad drivers, tell the cab driver how to get me to and from work, and how to order a reasonable meal. In six months, I'm certain I could've gotten a date...