Introduction and caveats

We are now entering the final phase of the course, two modules designed to help you apply what you have learned so far to specific areas: the language of business, science and technology in this module, and the language of the humanities and social sciences in the next.

If you have worked carefully, you now know quite a lot about how to read a text in French. You are now ready to begin to apply this knowledge to a richer range of texts. However, that being said, there are several caveats you should keep in mind in what follows. They will provide a guide and help to prevent discouragement. After all, these are still early days, and you should not expect to read like a native speaker just yet. Here they are:

• the following texts are drawn from specialized areas of study. Not everyone has a background in all these areas, even in their first language, so keep your expectations moderate.
• most of the areas we will be exploring between now and the end of the course have a higher proportion of technical terms. As we will see, an online dictionary will help in some cases.
• remember to focus on practicing your reading skills and to begin to assemble, on paper or online, a 'linguistic notebook' where you jot down the strategies that work, the words and structures that you remember, and the particular problems you come across.

So, with those caveats, let us begin.

The languages of business

The field of business is a vast one, covering many domains, including:

• accounting and finance: the representation of and reporting on the financial history, state and prospects of an organization
• management: the tools used to help an organization best achieve its goals
• marketing: the representation of an organization's products and services and the attempt to convince others of their value

These fields are far too varied to permit any in-depth coverage. What is presented here should be seen as an initial point of contact with some typical texts in each of these three areas, with some general principles which might help if you read further after this course.

A financial overview

It is typical for organizations to produce regular reports (annual or quarterly) on their activities of the previous period, including accomplishments, risks, and plans for the future. These annual reports are often divided into three major components: a general overview and review of the year, some detailed financial reports, often in tabular format, and typically very detailed notes to the financial statements, including the results of an external audit. To understand them in detail requires specialized training. We will limit ourselves to several texts designed to give a flavour of what such reports contain.

The typical overview

The typical overview may vary depending on how the organization has done, but it often includes a restatement of the organization's goals, the challenges they have faced, the results they have attained, and the strategies in play for the future. As an illustration of that sort of document, consider the following excerpts from the Bombardier financial report for 2014. Use the reading strategies we have seen to determine the meaning of these passages, then mouse over the bar labelled Translation to check your understanding.

En 2014, Bombardier a continué de mener L’évolution de la mobilité avec de nouveaux produits, de nouvelles commandes, de nouvelles livraisons et de nouveaux marchés géographiques. Ce fut une année de changements doublés d’une attention plus grande portée à nos clients et une exécution rentable. Cela nous a amenés à restructurer nos activités aéronautiques et de transport sur rail. Aujourd’hui, alors que nos nouveaux produits approchent de leur mise en service, notre essor gagne en vigueur ainsi que notre détermination et nos efforts axés sur le respect de nos engagements, comme promis.

Translation

In 2014, Bombardier continued to drive The Evolution of Mobility with new products, orders, deliveries and geographic markets. It was a year of change coupled with a sharper focus on customers and profitable execution. This led to a restructuring of both our aerospace and rail transportation businesses. Today as our new products approach entry-into-service, momentum is building. So is our determination and our focus on delivering as promised.

Note the use of positive language (essor, the repetition of nouveaux/nouvelles) and language dealing with planning and execution of projects (changements/évolution/détermination/efforts). Such language is frequent in reports of the sort.

We will now see a passage from the same document which offers a bit more detail. It uses a question and answer format, where Q stands for question and R for réponse. As before, do your best to establish the gist of the passage, and then mouse over the Translation bar to check your understanding.

Q. Qu’est-ce qui a marqué 2014 selon vous ?

R. Deux choses me viennent immédiatement à l’esprit : nos produits et la réorganisation de nos activités aéronautiques et de transport sur rail. Nos activités ont continué d’évoluer avec de formidables nouveaux produits sur le point de passer en production. Notre portefeuille de produits existants nous ouvre de nouveaux marchés prometteurs. Enfin, avec notre structure allégée, nous devenons une entreprise plus agile et axée sur l’essentiel : nos clients et le respect des jalons de nos projets.

Nous nous sommes structurés autour de quatre principes directeurs — mettre davantage l’accent sur nos clients, être agile, penser mondial et être imputable, tout cela dans notre quête incessante de création de valeur. Aujourd’hui, chez Bombardier, il y a un objectif qui prime sur tous les autres : mieux exécuter et améliorer nos marges, autrement dit devenir une entreprise hautement performante à tout point de vue et en tout temps.

Translation

Q. Looking back at 2014, what stands out for you?
A. Two areas are top of mind for me: our products and our reorganization in aerospace and rail transportation. Our businesses continued to evolve with exciting new products about to come on line and our existing portfolio taking us into promising new markets. With our streamlined structure, we’re becoming a more agile organization that’s focused on what counts: the people who buy our products and delivering on our project milestones.
We’ve aligned ourselves around four guiding principles —a focus on customer impact, agility, a global mindset and accountability—all in the relentless pursuit of value creation. Today there is one overriding objective at Bombardier: execute better and improve margins, in other words, become a true high performance organization.

Some financial data

The concepts and language of accounting are both complex and precise. It is not the objective of this module to provide more than a taste of their format in French. That being said, we will provide two examples here. As you will see, one of the advantages of accounting documents is the repetition of identical or similar elements.

Here is a first example, a summary of Bombardier's activities in the one of its areas of focus. See if you can determine which one, then try to guess the meaning of each of the lines in the table. To help you, note that the acronym RAII stands for Résultat avant charges de financement, revenus de financement et impôts sur le résultat.

When you have come to a conclusion about the meaning of the table, mouse over the middle of the translation block to see the English equivalent from Bombardier. Use these comparisons to create a mini bilingual dictionary. You will use this dictionary in a moment.

Translation

Now, use what the dictionary you have just created to establish the meaning of the following table, which describes the corporation's second area of focus. As before, mouse over the middle of the translation block to check your understanding.

Translation

Auditors' statement

Each financial report includes a statement from the auditors who have examined the statement to determine whether it is an accurate representation of the enterprise's financial situation. These auditors' statements tend to follow a similar model in each case. They also use some of the terms we have just established. Look at the example below and see if you can determine this model, then mouse over the translation to check your understanding.

RAPPORT DES AUDITEURS INDÉPENDANTS AUX ACTIONNAIRES DE BOMBARDIER INC.

Nous avons effectué l’audit des états financiers consolidés ci-joints de Bombardier Inc., qui comprennent les états de la situation financière consolidés aux 31 décembre 2014 et 2013 et au 1er janvier 2013, et les états consolidés du résultat, du résultat global, des variations des capitaux propres et des flux de trésorerie pour les exercices clos les 31 décembre 2014 et 2013, ainsi qu’un résumé des principales méthodes comptables et d’autres informations explicatives.

...

À notre avis, les états financiers consolidés donnent, dans tous leurs aspects significatifs, une image fidèle de la situation financière de Bombardier Inc. aux 31 décembre 2014 et 2013 et au 1er janvier 2013, ainsi que de sa performance financière et de ses flux de trésorerie pour les exercices clos les 31 décembre 2014 et 2013 conformément aux Normes internationales d’information financière, publiées par l’International Accounting Standards Board.

Translation

INDEPENDENT AUDITORS’ REPORT
TO THE SHAREHOLDERS OF BOMBARDIER INC.
We have audited the accompanying consolidated financial statements of Bombardier Inc. which comprise the consolidated statements of financial position as at December 31, 2014, 2013 and January 1, 2013, and the consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, changes in equity and cash flows for fiscal years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, and a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory information.
...
In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Bombardier Inc. as at December 31, 2014, 2013 and January 1, 2013, and its financial performance and its cash flows for fiscal years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013 in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

Management and the memo

One of the central documents used in managing an enterprise is the memo. Sometimes written to a single individual, sometimes to a group, and sometimes to all members of an organization, the memo provides a means of disseminating information and requesting behaviour. In French, a document like this is called a une note or une note de service. A typical note de service will include information on who is sending it, to whom it is addressed, what it is about, and usually a date and a signature.

Here is a typical example of a note de service (source: Banque de dépannage linguistique: Office québécois de la langue française). Try to determine its meaning, then mouse over the Translation bar to check your understanding.

NOTE DE SERVICE

DESTINATAIRE : Le personnel professionnel

EXPÉDITRICE : Sophie Morin, adjointe au directeur

DATE : Le 16 mai 2016

OBJET : Rappel concernant la prise de congés annuels

Je vous rappelle que les congés annuels doivent faire l’objet d’une planification à l’intérieur de chaque service, ainsi que d’une autorisation individuelle préalable.

Vous pouvez vous reporter à votre convention collective et à la directive générale qui en traite pour obtenir plus de détails sur les règles des congés.

Toute demande particulière doit être soumise au ou à la gestionnaire du service et recevoir ensuite l’approbation de la Direction des ressources humaines.

Merci de votre collaboration.

Sophie Morin

Translation

MEMO
TO: Professional staff
FROM: Sophie Morin, Assistant to the Director
DATE: May 16, 2016
RE: Reminder concerning annual vacations
I would like to remind you that annual vacations must be planned within each service, including prior individual authorizations.
You may consult your collective agreement and the general policies on the issue to obtain more details on the rules that apply to vacations.
Any exceptional request must be submitted to the service manager and be approved by the Human Relations Director.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sophie Morin

Advertising language

The objective is advertising is to attract the attention of potential customers, in the hope that they will purchase some product. Advertising uses a variety of devices, including humour and striking images and situations. The use of humorous language often means that an advertisement which contains it must be read at several levels simultaneously. The following example illustrates this:

Look at this ad and try to think about what the words in the main title could mean. When you have finished thinking about it, mouse over the Explanation bar below to see some detailed comments.

The language of science

Scientific language is composed of three main components: general scientific words to describe the processes of scientific study, specialized terminology particular to each field, and a syntax designed to remove the personal element from a text by replacing personal pronouns like I and we with more neutral forms. The following image illustrates this interrelationship of the three factors.

Consider, for example, the following short passage about treating materials containing clay (source: Thiry et al., 2013) Note the differences in colour of various seequences of the text. Sequences in blue are elements of general scientific language that might be found in many different areas of study, from minerology to psychology. Sequences in orange are terms specific to this specific domain being described here, including particular actions and instruments. Finally, sequences in pink are syntactic structures designed to avoid naming the person doing the work. They include the infinitive (il faut procéder), pronominal verbs (cette opération se fait) and use of subjects which are not the people involved in the operation, but rather the elements in play (l'échantillon peut être broyé).

After you have spent some time studying the passage, mouse over the Translation bar to see its meaning in English.

Broyage préliminaire

Pour les échantillons durs, il faut procéder à un broyage énergétique qui réduit l’échantillon en fragments millimétriques. Cette opération se fait avantageusement dans un broyeur à mâchoires qui réduit l’échantillon en fragments millimétriques. Après cette opération, l’échantillon peut être broyé pendant quelques minutes dans un broyeur à mortier... (Fig. 1).

Translation

Initial pulverization
For harder samples, it is necessary to begin by energetic pulverization to reduce the sample into millimetre-size fragments. This operation is best performed in a clamp grinder which reduces the sample into millimetre-sized fragments. After this operation, the sample may be pulverized for several minutes in a mechanical mortar mill... (Fig. 1)

Remember, this is specialized language. The goal here is not to turn you into a geologist, but rather to help you see the variety of elements in a scientific text. Don't be discouraged if the text isn't entirely clear.

It should also be clear that at least for the technical terms, you will need a good dictionary. One of the best free online sources is the Termium Plus terminology database managed by the Canadian Translation Bureau. Click on the link and enter some of the terms in blue to see what you get as translations into English. Notice that the translations are divided into domains, so make sure you look for the equivalent in the proper domain.

Popular and technical texts

Texts in science and technology vary depending on their target audience. Texts designed for public consumption (in French, this is called la vulgarisation) tend to use easy to understand language, to define many terms, and to present mostly simple facts. Texts aimed at specialists (like the one we have just seen) tend to use a more domain-specific terminology and a more scientific syntax. It is a valuable skill to learn how to distinguish the two. To help you see the difference, read the two following texts, consulting the Translation as required, and try to determine

• which is aimed for general consumption and which is technical
• what domain each is talking about
• the general meaning of each text
• the specific terms that will need looking up in Termium.

The search for life on Europa (Source: Futura-Sciences)

Recherche de la vie sur Europe

Bien qu’elle se situe cinq fois plus loin du Soleil que la Terre, Europe possède les trois facteurs intrinsèques à l’apparition de la vie, à savoir de l’eau à l’état liquide, une chimie organique et une source de chaleur ! L’eau est apportée par l’océan que l’on sait présent sous sa surface et qui contiendrait plus d'eau liquide que tous les océans de la Terre réunis. Quant à la chaleur, elle est induite par les marées internes générées par le champ gravitationnel de Jupiter. Ces deux paramètres laissent à penser qu’une chimie prébiotique a pu s’y développer et que des molécules organiques provenant des évents hydrothermaux y prolifèrent.

Sans surprise, les priorités scientifiques de la mission sont de démontrer l’existence de cet océan et de niches biologiques et déterminer l’habitabilité d’Europe. Elle devra également remonter autant que faire se peut l’histoire de sa géologie et recenser de futurs sites d’atterrissage.

L’intérêt d’étudier Europe est bien plus grand qu’il y paraît. Partant du principe que les géantes gazeuses sont la norme dans le bestiaire des planètes, on suppose que ces satellites recouverts de glace sont aussi fréquents que ces planètes. Pour de nombreux astronomes, cette Lune est représentative de mondes qui, avec leurs océans souterrains, pourraient constituer l'habitat le plus fréquent dans l’univers. Bien plus fréquents que le sont les planètes de type terrestre, qui nécessitent des conditions bien plus difficiles à réunir pour permettre à la vie d’émerger et perdurer.

Translation

Although it is situated five times farther from the Sun than Earth, Europa possesses the three essential factors for the appearance of life, that is: liquid water, organic chemistry and a source of heat! The water is provided by the ocean that we know is present under the surface, possibly in quantities exceeding all the oceans on Earth combined. As for heat, it is produced by internal tides generated by Jupiter's gravitational field. These two factors make it possible to think that a prebiotic chemistry might have developed and that organic molecules from hydrothermic vents are numerous.
Unsurprisingly, the scientific priorities of the mission are to demonstrate the existence of this ocean and of biological niches and to determine the habitability of Europa. The mission should also shed light, as far as possible, on the geological history of Europa and to determine potential landing sites.
The interest in studying Europa is much greater than appears at first sight. Starting from the principle that gas giants are the norm among the classes of planets, we can suppose that satellites covered in ice are as frequent as these planets. For many astronomers, this Moon is representative of the worlds which, with their subterranean oceans, may constitute the most frequent habitat in the universe. Much more numerous than terrestrial-type planets, which require the conjunction of much more difficult to combine factors in order for life to emerge and continue to exist.

A study of the effects of ultrafiltration on white wine (Source: Bakardjiski et al., 2015)

Dans cette étude on a utilisé quatre vins blancs de cépages Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Muscat et Misket rouge. Ils ont été sélectionnés à partir de différentes régions viticoles bulgares et soumis à une ultrafiltration à travers une membrane de polyacrylonitrile avec un seuil de coupure de 10 kDa. L'ultrafiltration a un effet faible sur l’acidité titrable, pH, cendres, extrait sec et plus important sur les composés phénoliques et la couleur du vin. Un effet plus considérable est enregistré pour les polysaccharides et les protéines dont les valeurs varient entre 60-90% et 73-87% respectivement. Une relation inversement proportionnelle entre le flux et la concentration en substances de haute masse moléculaire dans le vin est établie. Le taux de rétention en protéines est le plus élevé, suivi par les polysaccharides.

Translation

In this study we used four white wines from Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Muscat and Red Misket. They were selected from different wine regions of Bulgaria and subjected to ultrafiltration through a polyacrylonitrilic membrane with 10 kDa molecular weight cut-off. Ultrafiltration has a weak effect on the titratable acidity, pH, ash, dry and most importantly on the phenolic compounds and wine color. A greater impact is recorded for polysaccharides and proteins whose values vary between 60-90% and 73-87% respectively. An inverse relationship between the flux and the concentration of high molecular weight substances in the wine is observed. The protein retention coefficient is the highest, followed by polysaccharides.

So which of the two text is designed for popularization, and which is a scientific text? Mouse over Answer below to see the correct answer.

Summing up

You should now have the sense that you are beginning to understand the following elements of the language of business and science in French:

• the basic elements of a financial report
• some basic elements of administrative communication
• the interplay of terminology, general scientific language and syntax in scientific documents written in French
• the use of online terminology databases
• the difference between the language of popularization and the language found in scientific documents.

Use this knowledge to explore additional texts in French. A number of these documents will exist in both French and English. Notable examples include:

• financial reports produced in Canada: most are bilingual
• Wikipedia articles on scientific questions, which often exist in multiple languages
• government documents produced in Canada, especially at the federal level

In the next module, we will turn to the language of the humanities and social sciences.