Hello Dear Readers! Great News! Today is the unveiling of our very first Guest Post!
This guest post was written in response to a post that appeared awhile back concerning the unhappy task of trying to answer the questions from Lesson 32. You can refresh your memory here.
Lesson 32 was inspired by this 1956 Instructional English book that I found at the thrift store.
Anyway, our first guest blogger is Loop Withers from the UK, who writes an engaging, informative blog often filled with a delicious creamy nugget of Benchley-esque wit called Roadwax.
A Horrible Artist’s rendering of Loop Withers
Loop was kind enough to send me his thoughts on the matter of Lesson 32 from a British perspective.
Dear Ms Linda Vernon-Humor,
I was recently re-reading your fine post entitled: “Answering the questions from lesson 32″.
However, what I choose to do in my spare time is entirely my own affair.
My endless reading and re-reading of “Answering the questions from lesson 32″ has finally caused me to understand why I do so. The post always unlocks a tangential thought in my mind that I feel I should now share with you.
We British always feel the need to purchase ‘English-French/French-English’ phrase-books. It helps us conquer our inner fear that one day, we might be stopped on the streets of Paris and asked an earnest and sincere question by a passing and clearly agitated local inhabitant. It is vital for us to feel that we can reply with absolute certainty, despite not knowing what we have just said.
I have acquired many of these phrase books and I now have a fine selection, dating from the 1900′s to the present day. They make fascinating reading, not least because the phrases included by the publisher tell their own story.
As the decades pass, the same questions become couched in different terms. The most notable is to be found under the eternal heading: “Finding Accommodation”.
The passing of the years tells its own story. I record it for you below (with a bit of poetic license):
1903 Edition: “These rooms are too small. I require adjoining rooms for my family and my staff”
1913 Edition: “I require adjoining rooms for my family and my butler”
1919 Edition: “I require rooms for my family and my driver”
1926 Edition: “We require a family suite and also a single room for our governess”
1936 Edition: “Do you have two adjoining rooms for myself and my wife?”
1946 Edition: “Do you have a room with a double bed?”
1955 Edition: “How much is a room with a double bed?”
1958 Edition: “Do you have a less expensive room?”
1963 Edition: “Is car parking included in the price of the room?”
1968 Edition: “Is there a cheaper hotel nearby?”
1972 Edition: “How much is a room with two beds?”
1978 Edition: “Where is the campsite?”
1985 Edition: “Is there a less expensive pitch further away from the toilet block?”
1990 Edition: “Is there a cheaper campsite nearby?”
1998 Edition: “Is there a campsite nearby that has an available pitch?”
2001 Edition: “I do not understand. You confirmed our reservation by email”
2008 Edition: “Is it safe to sleep in the truck park overnight?
…Loop
And there you have it Dear Readers! Wisdom from our Very First Guest Blogger, Loop Withers! Thank you so much Loop! It’s people like you who make this world a better place, one accommodation (and guest post) at a time!
And may all your lessons be Lesson 32, Dear Readers!
Until next time . . . I love you
C’est bon.
That was great!
So glad you liked our UK friend. He’s got a Unique Kind of perspective as it were!
So how long after reading this did you realize you and Loop had been separated at birth?
Haha! About an hour, just like glasses!