About

Me and my Big Plan

My name is Phillip, but you can call me Phill, most people do. I’m twenty and have now survived two whole years at the University of Warwick.

I’m studying French and German Studies and can’t imagine being anywhere else, however as part of the fun, this year I’ll be taking a language assistantship in a school in Alsace-Lorraine. So if 100 miles from home seemed like a long way, another six hundred miles seems a little scary.

Quiproquo

‘No’, you cry, ‘That’s not how you spell that wonderful Latin expression.’ And you would be right, so it is therefore a happy coincidence that I have little interest in Latin, and as a French and German student elected for a French word which succinctly describes my life: misunderstanding. The « Larousse dictionnaire de Français compact » has this to say:

quiproquo [kiprɔko] n.m. (du lat. quid pro quo, une chose pour une autre) [pl. quiproquos]. Erreur qui fait prendre une chose, une personne pour une autre : Les pièces de feydeau sont riches en quiproquos (syn. malentendu, méprise).

That’s to say it’s an error by way of taking a person or a thing for something else. And let’s face it, wouldn’t that let confusion reign supreme…what an insight into my world!

Header image credit to on1stsite(away for the weekend)