What the foreigners are saying

Ever wondered what those what those quaint foreigners are really warbling on about when news teams are reporting in voice-over on their life and times? There may be more to it than meets the eye. Take the report on French TV news last night covering the British election campaign. A fairly nondescript overview of the situation in the country, with a few talking heads in Brixton and one or two toffs at a foxhunt in the shires. Yet as one particular twill-and-tweed beclad huntsman led the camera around the dog pen area, and the French reporter droned on about issues economic with the huntsman's words muted down in the background, those of us with English as our mother tongue could just about make out what the chap was saying: "...and these dogs are the females: in English we call them 'hot bitches'." Went totally over the heads of the newshounds, both in the recorded report and back live in the studio. Absolutely priceless!