{"id":737,"date":"2010-05-25T05:19:02","date_gmt":"2010-05-25T05:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=737"},"modified":"2017-10-19T10:27:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T08:27:16","slug":"portable-disasters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/portable-disasters\/","title":{"rendered":"Portable disasters"},"content":{"rendered":"

J\u2019ai perdu mon portable<\/strong> !\u00a0<\/em>I lost my cell phone\u00a0!<\/p>\n

I know, quel d\u00e9sastre<\/em>. J\u2019essayais des jean chez Levi\u2019s <\/em>(I was trying on jeans at Levi\u2019s) et quand je suis sortie, je voulais appeler mon ami\u2026 et je fouillais dans mon sac et je n\u2019ai rien trouv\u00e9\u00a0! <\/em>(and when I left, I wanted to call my friend\u2026 and I searched in my bag and I found nothing\u00a0!) How do you say\u2026 heartbreak? (Cr\u00e8ve-coeur, apparemment.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Heureusement<\/em>, replacing my phone will be much easier this time than when I lost mon portable<\/em> in Paris. It was only a few weeks after arriving, and the language barrier was almost comical. You know those automated phone trees where you say what you want, and the robot recognizes it and says, \u201cAre you looking to replace your phone?\u201d and you say \u201cOui!\u201d <\/em>and everything\u2019s great? Well, they don\u2019t speak American accent. C\u2019\u00e9tait difficile<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Of all the stress of Paris, replacing my phone was the only experience that made me pleurer comme un enfant<\/em> (cry like a child). Je ne veux pas que \u00e7a vous arrive<\/em>, so let\u2019s learn some vocabulaire de portable<\/em>.<\/p>\n

D\u2019abord, choisir un mobile<\/strong><\/em> (first, choose a phone). Cell phones and health care are the only things that are actually cheaper in France than in the US, so go wild. Cela dit<\/em> (that said), you may first need to decide whether you want un forfait<\/em><\/strong> (an annual plan) or if you\u2019re going to use une carte pr\u00e9pay\u00e9e<\/em><\/strong>. A prepaid card lets you buy minutes as you need them, without committing to any period of time. Different op\u00e9rateurs t\u00e9l\u00e9coms<\/em><\/strong> may give you other options, but those are standard choices.<\/p>\n

If you choose un forfait<\/em>, decide what you will do most with your portable<\/em>. Cherchez un offre ou un \u201cexclu\u201d <\/em>(find an offer or an \u201cexclusive\u201d) with a combination of SMS<\/em> <\/strong>(text messages) and minutes d\u2019appel<\/em><\/strong> (call minutes). If you are buying minutes, bonne chance<\/em>. I think I spent more on minutes than le loyer <\/em>(the rent) while I was trying to get a new forfait<\/em>. Des cartes pr\u00e9pay\u00e9es<\/em> are disponibles<\/em> in any kiosque de presse <\/em>or \u00e9picerie<\/em> (newsstand or grocery store).<\/p>\n

This is all the boring stuff about having a phone. The fun part is what you do when you\u2019ve dried your tears and left France Telecom (Orange.fr<\/a>). Have you ever had your friends switch your phone into Korean, just to mess with you? Then you\u2019re navigating blind to try to reset the language back to something decipherable? That\u2019s good practice for un portable fran\u00e7ais<\/em>. I swear I learned to write in French because I didn\u2019t know how to turn off French T9. As long as my text predictor was en fran\u00e7ais<\/em>, English was more of a hassle than it was worth.<\/p>\n

Donc voil\u00e0, vous \u00eates pr\u00eats \u00e0 acheter un portable\u2026 comme moi je ferai demain\u00a0!<\/em> (So voil\u00e0, you\u2019\u00a0re ready to buy a cell phone\u2026 as I will do tomorrow!) J\u2019attends moins de drame cette fois-ci<\/em> (I\u2019m expecting less drama this time). But maybe the store clerk will still be un beau-gosse <\/em>like the guy at Orange\u2026 je vous raconte <\/em>(I\u2019ll let you know).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

J\u2019ai perdu mon portable !\u00a0I lost my cell phone\u00a0! I know, quel d\u00e9sastre. J\u2019essayais des jean chez Levi\u2019s (I was trying on jeans at Levi\u2019s) et quand je suis sortie, je voulais appeler mon ami\u2026 et je fouillais dans mon sac et je n\u2019ai rien trouv\u00e9\u00a0! (and when I left, I wanted to call my…<\/p>\n

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