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Tourism - les mots justes
Notes and queries Tourism
les roots justes
It is easy to overlook the Importance of terminology and vocabulary in tourism Several aspects come immediately to mind. In research, it is important for the researcher to employ precision in using concepts and terms, and there must be some level of agreement among the research community about what certain terms mean, otherwise testing of results and comparison of data become difficult For the manager and those working m the industry, there must be a level of understanding about what terms and phrases in other languages mean, otherwise the consumer may be misled about what he is buying or be dissatisfied with the product. This becomes important also at the governmental level, where there are international agreements about standards or supranational bodies to manage and regulate parts of the i n d u s t r y - wars have been caused because of one word in a treaty having a different meaning or interpretation in its translated form.
Neologisms Lastly, tourism can be a prime mover in the introduction of new words and new terms into the host country's vocabulary - - some would feel to the detriment of national cultural and linguistic traditions. At its most trivial level, it can cause humorous misunderstandings that are part of the tourist "experience" familiar to most travellers in other countries Tourism can undoubtedly have adverse social and cultural impacts on the host community, and not all welcome the development of the polyglot mishmash of words familiar to many tra~ oilers. Toumsm 34anagement has
Tourism Management June 1982
recently called for a more ngorous approach to this problem among the educational community. But perhaps the problem is too entrenched, and tourists will continue to indulge m "l'apresski", "'le night-club", "'animation on-oo et disco-dancing", "'la playa topless", and ubiquitous Big Macs. The French government tned to stern the tide of "frangla~s"-the growing infiltration of AngloAmerican expressions, particularly among the vocabulary of the young - - w~th a national decree of 7 January. 1972 which was intended "'enrxchlr la langue fran~alse". This decree set up a number of commissions In various areas of interest and included a Commission on Tourism Terminology Perusal of this year's French language holiday brochures reveals how difficult a task this Commission has undertaken, struggling against a phenomenon that dates back at least to the side-effects of the
Entente Cordiale. There is almost a whole British Industry devoted to the comic aspects offranglats, popularized notably by Miles Kmgton. That this Is not a recent phenomenon was demonstrated by a string of letters to The Times, one of which recalled an Incident at an Oxford college in the early 1950s when Professor Tolkien (famous for The Lord of the Rings) entered a class of his students bearing a new briefcase. This caused great
Booknotes British Tourism Yearbook 1982, compiled and edited by Janet Housden (Sutton. UK, IPC Consumer Industnes Press in association with the Tourism Society, London, 1982), 82 pages. £7.50 This Is the first edition of an o~e~lew of tourism m Britain, aimed maml? at mlddte and semor management m the
discussion among the class, and Tolklen. always conscious of his image, described it as "'trOs snob, presque cad. vraiment businessman" - - a case, perhaps, of Englais The French Commission on Tourism Terminology, at a recent meeting on 7 January. 1982, adopted a list of about 40 terms which make up its first contrabution to enriching the French ~ocabulary on tourism. These are to be submitted to the High Committee for the French Language, the supreme body charged under the 1972 Decree with studying and recommending measures necessary to safeguard and expand the French language. But there must be a limit to the extent to which government measures can bring change in this area The nature of International tourism as an mdustrs' and as an activity may be such that government's ability to influence linguistic and cultural phenomena deriving from tourism growth is severely circumscribed One recalls the incident of the British motorist touring in the South of France whose windscreen-wipers stopped working, and who encountered the language barrier when trying to explain the problem to the local garage mechanic. Searching through his English-French phrasebook, the tourist managed to mutter something about "the pare-brise essuyers being cass~s", but this got him nowhere Finally, after much gesturing and pointing, the language barrier ~ as overcome: "'Aah", declared the garage mechanic, "'los windscreenwipers sont kaput!"
David Green tourism sector, and pard) at researchers and the like. it replaces (and expands on) the Tounsm Society's tv, o Handbooks The first section ~s statisticalfour pages of figures and text, summanzmg residents' and overseas tourists' holidays in the UK, and where the Bntlsh take forel~ holidays, usually for t980 and 1981.
129
les roots justes
It is easy to overlook the Importance of terminology and vocabulary in tourism Several aspects come immediately to mind. In research, it is important for the researcher to employ precision in using concepts and terms, and there must be some level of agreement among the research community about what certain terms mean, otherwise testing of results and comparison of data become difficult For the manager and those working m the industry, there must be a level of understanding about what terms and phrases in other languages mean, otherwise the consumer may be misled about what he is buying or be dissatisfied with the product. This becomes important also at the governmental level, where there are international agreements about standards or supranational bodies to manage and regulate parts of the i n d u s t r y - wars have been caused because of one word in a treaty having a different meaning or interpretation in its translated form.
Neologisms Lastly, tourism can be a prime mover in the introduction of new words and new terms into the host country's vocabulary - - some would feel to the detriment of national cultural and linguistic traditions. At its most trivial level, it can cause humorous misunderstandings that are part of the tourist "experience" familiar to most travellers in other countries Tourism can undoubtedly have adverse social and cultural impacts on the host community, and not all welcome the development of the polyglot mishmash of words familiar to many tra~ oilers. Toumsm 34anagement has
Tourism Management June 1982
recently called for a more ngorous approach to this problem among the educational community. But perhaps the problem is too entrenched, and tourists will continue to indulge m "l'apresski", "'le night-club", "'animation on-oo et disco-dancing", "'la playa topless", and ubiquitous Big Macs. The French government tned to stern the tide of "frangla~s"-the growing infiltration of AngloAmerican expressions, particularly among the vocabulary of the young - - w~th a national decree of 7 January. 1972 which was intended "'enrxchlr la langue fran~alse". This decree set up a number of commissions In various areas of interest and included a Commission on Tourism Terminology Perusal of this year's French language holiday brochures reveals how difficult a task this Commission has undertaken, struggling against a phenomenon that dates back at least to the side-effects of the
Entente Cordiale. There is almost a whole British Industry devoted to the comic aspects offranglats, popularized notably by Miles Kmgton. That this Is not a recent phenomenon was demonstrated by a string of letters to The Times, one of which recalled an Incident at an Oxford college in the early 1950s when Professor Tolkien (famous for The Lord of the Rings) entered a class of his students bearing a new briefcase. This caused great
Booknotes British Tourism Yearbook 1982, compiled and edited by Janet Housden (Sutton. UK, IPC Consumer Industnes Press in association with the Tourism Society, London, 1982), 82 pages. £7.50 This Is the first edition of an o~e~lew of tourism m Britain, aimed maml? at mlddte and semor management m the
discussion among the class, and Tolklen. always conscious of his image, described it as "'trOs snob, presque cad. vraiment businessman" - - a case, perhaps, of Englais The French Commission on Tourism Terminology, at a recent meeting on 7 January. 1982, adopted a list of about 40 terms which make up its first contrabution to enriching the French ~ocabulary on tourism. These are to be submitted to the High Committee for the French Language, the supreme body charged under the 1972 Decree with studying and recommending measures necessary to safeguard and expand the French language. But there must be a limit to the extent to which government measures can bring change in this area The nature of International tourism as an mdustrs' and as an activity may be such that government's ability to influence linguistic and cultural phenomena deriving from tourism growth is severely circumscribed One recalls the incident of the British motorist touring in the South of France whose windscreen-wipers stopped working, and who encountered the language barrier when trying to explain the problem to the local garage mechanic. Searching through his English-French phrasebook, the tourist managed to mutter something about "the pare-brise essuyers being cass~s", but this got him nowhere Finally, after much gesturing and pointing, the language barrier ~ as overcome: "'Aah", declared the garage mechanic, "'los windscreenwipers sont kaput!"
David Green tourism sector, and pard) at researchers and the like. it replaces (and expands on) the Tounsm Society's tv, o Handbooks The first section ~s statisticalfour pages of figures and text, summanzmg residents' and overseas tourists' holidays in the UK, and where the Bntlsh take forel~ holidays, usually for t980 and 1981.
129