Friday, June 11, 2010

French to English: Countries, Part 3

I've been swamped with client work, but that's no excuse to be away from my personal blog this long.  I have not posted anything since the 20th of May - mea culpa - but much as I love blogging, I gotta put food on the table as well.  Ah, the heartaches!  Wish I had two brains and one more pair of hands.  These extras would allow me to do everything I want to do in a day.  But as they say, be careful what you wish for.  I don't want to wake up one morning and see how deformed I've become!

As I complete this final series on countries, I have two bits of trivia to share with you:  there is no country that begins with the letter "X".  If you chance upon an island - unnamed and undiscovered - and you can lay claim to it, why not give it a name that starts with X?

Second bit of trivia:  did you know that there's a country called Nieu?  I shouldn't say "country", it's really an island and it's just three hours away from New Zealand.  On the official web site, it reports that are  less than 90 hotel rooms and there are times in the year where there are more whales than humans.

I have never heard of Nieu until I did research for this posting.  Nieu is not to be confused with Nieu-Bethesda which is in Africa.  The Nieu I discovered is in the South Pacific Ocean and is also known as the Rock of Polynesia. It is bordered by New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga and Cook Island.  It associates freely with New Zealand and is somewhat "governed" by New Zealand.  I think I'll put this island in my "countries to visit before I die" list.  I have always dreamed of visiting Australia and New Zealand anyway so why not do a side trip to Nieu?  Maybe it's the best place to "renew" one's energies!

Here is your final batch of French-English country names:

FRENCH
ENGLISH
NiouéNiue
La Corée du NordNorth Korea
la Papauasie-Nouvelle-GuinéePapua Nwe Guinea
la PolognePoland
la RoumanieRomania
Sainte-Christophe-et-Nièves (masc.)Saint Kitts-Nevis
Saint-MarinSan Marino
l'Arabie Saodite Saudi Arabia
l'Écosse (fem)Scotland
la SerbieSerbia
les Seychelles (fem)Seychelles
l'EspagneSpain (fem)
la SuèdeSweden
la SuisseSwitzerland
les pays de GalleWales

If you're as curious as I am about Nieu, please visit:  http://www.niueisland.com/about/
There's a brochure and a map which you can download.

Where are you heading to this summer?

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