# dépaysement



## zowiof

Hi all of you

Here is the french sentence:

A l’ombre des bouquets de palmes, le dépaysement est garantit dans cette oasis sereine 

And my try

In the shadow of the palm clusters, exoticism is guaranteed in that peaceful haven (I'm doing a description of a hotel)

But I'm not quite sure about "exoticism" . Could someone help?


*Moderator note: *multiple threads merged to create this one


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## nopal

Bonjour Zowiof
http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/exotic
*of the palm clusters ?*


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## FRENFR

Positively, dépaysement = change of scene.

In the shadows of the palm clusters, a change of scene is guaranteed in THIS paceful haven.

Why are you translating into your second language by the way? 

To be honest, the translation you have done and I have corrected is not reall English.. too franglais. I'd say:

We guarantee you a change of scene in this peaceful haven (during your stay at this peaceful haven), hidden/situated/tucked away in the shadows of the palm clusters/palm-tree surroundings...

How about that?

palm clusters is bizarre, but I don't think people looking at the leaflet are going to start have conversations about word usage, when it's clearly a lot of palms in a short area, despite whether it sounds strange or not. Just my opinion.


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## edmason

Please could someone help me translate 'dépaysement' in this context. It's from page 121 of La femme rompue by Beauvoir (a novel written in diary format so it is very descriptive). THe character Monique  is in a deserted town, lying on the grass listening to Mozart, smoking  and then reading.  A lorry comes to collect something from a building.  It then reads:

 Rien d'autre n'a dérangé le silence de cet après-midi: pas un visiteur.  Le concert [Mozart] fini, j'ai lu. *Double dépaysement*; je m'en allais très loin, au bord d'un fleuve inconnu; je levais les yeaux, et je me retrouvais parmi ces pierres, loin de ma vie."

I wouldn't like my guesses to colour your judgements and advice, but I think it suggests "I was entirely disoriented" or "Very disoriented, I travelled far away, to the shores of an unknown river..."

Crit much appreciated.


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## clairet

then "doubly disorienting" makes sense - she finds herself first (via Mozart) by an unknown river and second "among these stones, far from my normal life".


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## BAlfson

20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words from Around the World
 
D’après l’article, il n’aurait pas d’équivalence en anglais. Je n’en trouve pas – et vous ?
 
Cheers - Bob


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## hampton.mc

I am not sure I understand your question. You are looking for one exact equivalent word that could be used in the same different contexts?


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## Suehil

I think he is looking for a translation of 'dépaysement'. 

The nearest I can get is 'uprootedness'.


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## amg8989

*Dépaysement*= _homesickness_, no??

._."I'm homesick for the US"
.."I'm homesick for England"_
etc..


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## hampton.mc

change of scenery , exile, disorientation... depending on context


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## BAlfson

Can you use it in a phrase when it means homesickness?


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## hampton.mc

J'ai le mal du pays.


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## BAlfson

Yes, that's where I get stuck. How does _dépaysement_ feel different from _mal du pays?_

Par exemple: comment serait "Il ressentait un dépaysement" différent que de dire “il ressentait un mal du pays.”


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## hampton.mc

DÉPAYSER, verbe trans.
A. Transporter quelqu'un hors du pays, du lieu où il est ordinairement implanté.
B. Au fig. Déconcerter quelqu'un en le transportant dans un cadre inhabituel, en modifiant ses habitudes.


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## Nicomon

Bonjour,

Il me semble que "_homesickness_", se traduirait plutôt par « _mal du pays_ » ou _nostalgie_, non? 

_Uprootedness = déracinement_ 

*Termium* suggère "_urban alienation_" pour traduire « _dépaysement urbain_ ». Mais _alienation_ (tout seul) ne pourrait pas traduire _dépaysement_

En français, un quasi synonyme de _dépaysement_ (dans le sens que l'article donne = se se sentir dépaysé) serait _inadaptation_. 
Et en anglais, _maladjustment..._ mais ce n'est pas ça non plus.  Il y aurait aussi _disorientation_, mais le mot existe en français aussi.  

En effet pas facile...

*Edit :*  Trop lente à répondre. Je n'avais pas lu les posts # 5 à 9.


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## Suehil

To me they are quite different:
'Dépaysement' is the feeling of not belonging, of being in the wrong place.
'Mal du pays' is missing your home.


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## BAlfson

Thanks, I mean B. Now in one word or two without giving the definition?

I agree, Suehil and Nicomon.


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## hampton.mc

So you can be "dépayser" without being homesick. You might like being "dépaysé" e.g. "Ce dépaysement m'a fait un bien fou" but you never enjoy being homesick


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## amg8989

feeling of being _disjunct_ ???


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## BAlfson

I'm thinking maybe "alienation" could work.  For example how would you translate, "He felt a sense of alienation in his new environment; none of the people dressed like at home, the birds sang differently and he knew they all thought the same of him."

Cheers - Bob


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## Jeanbar

Suehil said:


> To me they are quite different:
> 'Dépaysement' is the feeling of not belonging, of being in the wrong place.
> 'Mal du pays' is missing your home.



Le dépaysement, ce n'est pas çà: c'est un changement de cadre sans le malaise de se sentir étranger en dehors de chez soi.


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## Nicomon

Le TLFI donne tout de même aussi cette définition : 





> *B.−* _Au fig._ Désarroi d'une personne placée dans un cadre inhabituel, un milieu inconnu, une situation inattendue.


 
Je mets ci-dessous les résultats d'une recherche (plusieurs sites) qui vaut... ce qu'elle vaut. 

*Dépaysement*
Culture shock without the shock, the loss of familiar markers when travelling abroad. A feeling often sought as part of *escape from routine*.

1. French word derived from ‘pays' (country), signifying the state of being outside of one's homeland.
2. (Figurative) Being in a state where all around seems *foreign; feeling alienated*. 

It is well-known that North African immigrants experience “*dépaysement*” a type of *defamiliarization, alienation*, as a consequence of living in a hybrid cultural environment that contains contradictory, even mutually exclusive elements between the culture of their origin, and that of their residence.

Lévi-Strauss recommends to anthropologists the concept of *dépaysement. Alienation* from one’s own enculturation as a recipe for objectivity in the appreciation of others. Ethnocentric bias can have invisible wavelengths. 

*Suggestions trouvées sur un site de traducteurs (deux contextes)*
*- unexpected, unusual, exotic, change of scenery, new horizons*
*- dislocation, alienation, unbelonging*


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## grammar2011

Bonjour!
 
Je suis en train de lire une revue au sujet du quartier chinois à Londres mais j’ai besoin d’aide avec cette phrase ici :
 
'ici le dépaysement est presque total tant les devantures arborent des décorations d'un autre continent.'
(ici = Chinatown/ le quartier chinois)
Je comprends l’idée, c’est le fait que ce quartier est très asiatique, il a l’allure d’un autre continent.  Je pense que mon problème majeur est la traduction de ‘presque total tant.’ Est-ce que quelqu’un peut me donne une bonne traduction ?   
Ma tentative:
‘in Chinatown, the change of scenery is extreme to the point where every shop window displays the decorations of another continent.’ 
Merci beaucoup J


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## Interprete

Bonjour
Il y a une virgule après total
Tant conveys the idea of because+ so much
So: The change of scenery is almost complete because every shop window displays so much of the decorations of another continent.
Or something along those lines, the most important being to include the idea of 'because' and 'so (much)' somewhere in the translation.

A better way of phrasing it could be: Every shop window displays the decorations of another continent, so much so that the change of scenery is extreme. That would be the exact equivalent in my opinion, in French you just turn it around and use "tant" (cause) instead of "so much so that" (consequence).


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## Ouitecheude

Interprete said:


> A better way of phrasing it could be: *Every shop window displays the decorations of another continent, so much so that the change of scenery is extreme* . That would be the exact equivalent in my opinion, in French you just turn it around and use "tant" (cause) instead of "so much so that" (consequence).


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## grammar2011

Merci beaucoup, je trouve que 'tant' est un mot très difficile de traduire :$


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## WillHelpIfICan

The store signs, designs and banners in Chinatown will make you feel so much like you truly were on another continent altogether.

or

Chinatown's store designs and banners make it clear that we truly are on another continent altogether.


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## EXPRESSions

[...] If you are trying to convince people to visit this hotel, you better darn well sell it to them, creating an alluring image in their mind's eye:

A relaxing change of scene is assured during your stay at this peaceful oasis, tucked away in the shade of the lush palm groves...


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## Salvatos

Je crois que dans plusieurs cas *Escapism* (_évasion_) pourrait rendre un sentiment suffisamment proche.


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## Nicomon

Perso, je comprendrais _escapism_ comme _échappatoire / fuite de la réalité _ou comme tu l'as écrit... _évasion. 

_Je n'associe pas ce mot à_ dépaysement _qui, selon le contexte, peut être ou positif ou négatif. 
Il n'est pas rare, d'ailleurs, qu'on voie dans un même texte _évasion et dépaysement_.


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## UBJ43X

Maybe "culture shock" would work for dépaysement?


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## Uncle Bob

UBJ43X said:


> Maybe "culture shock" would work for dépaysement?



As usual it depends on context. "Culture shock" wouldn't work in a travel brochure (unless its for masochists).


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## serenainthesky

Hi! I am looking for a neutral translation of dépaysement. I had found displacement, but it sounds too negative and change of scenery seems to lighthearted. I am talking about a sociologist that was the daughter of dilpomats and experienced a sense of "dépaysement", but not as a migrant would feel. Can someone help? Thank you!


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## EXPRESSions

As the daughter of diplomats, she often felt a sense of alienation in a new culture.
As the daughter of diplomats, she often felt out of place in a new setting.


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