Bonne Journée..Bon Courage...Re-Bonjour...But the most fruitless and irksome must be 'ça va?'
Three months 'at the office' and nothing has ever come out of this question. No one has ever replied negatively to it, I am quite sure not even the frenchman lying on his deathbed would do. Quite frankly, the question just irritates me;'ça va et toi?'. It is an automatic response, hence no-one is consulting themselves whether they are okay or not, hence the question is simply superfluous. Also people tend to hae walked out of sight before I can reel off my extensive list of problems - 'ça va PAS'.
Its like 'Bonne Journée', I couldn't really give a damn whether Mr and Mrs Jean Luc have a nice day or not, yet if i want them to leave reception, I crack this one out. One of the hardest parts of being a french receptionist is knowing which greeting to use at the end of the conversation:
Bonjour.....Bonne matinée....Bon Appétit (if lunch/dinner is approaching)...Bon après-midi.....Bon fin d'après midi....Bonne soirée.. Bon soir.... Bonne nuit. phew!
I often get 'Bon Courage spat at me. There is no real translation for this in english other than 'keep going..be brave! Quite ironic, I am sitting at the reception, I am not climbing Mt Everest. Or 'Bonne Chance' when I am attempting to find the latest lost item. In fact, in my CV top of my extra curriculum activites should be losing/looking for items. The question which grates me the most is: where did you last have them? These six words make no logical sense, if I knew that, I would not be in this situation. Keys should come with tracking devices, then again, maybe I would be found drinking vodka in street corners if this were to be true.
BONNE JOURNÉE!
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