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How a French scholar was treated at US airport

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Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#21

Post by nraynaud »

skocznymroczny wrote: post #14
geggam wrote: post #5

How is it the same people working for one president less than 60 days later act so different ? or are they ?

Probably it's been like that always at the US border, it's just now it's popular to showcase such stories as an example of "look what Trump did to our country". I heard of horror stories at the US border way before Trump took office.

I guess there is a self selection bias in the people who apply to work in the DHS, ICE and CBP in particular, and now they are given a political validation to their instinct.

But it's clear, my personal close call at the US border was under Obama, and that I am far from calling him someone in love with justice.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#22

Post by schtitt »

geggam wrote: post #5

How is it the same people working for one president less than 60 days later act so different ? or are they ?

No, they're not different. Every time I am visiting the states I have to go through the extra process of interviewing (due to things that happened a long time ago), and every time I am struck by how it seems like they're actively attempting to dehumanize the persons who are there. The border control is actually the #1 reason I am considering never visiting again. Though, as the original author, I love the US, so it's difficult.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#23

Post by nom »

pwdis_password wrote: post #17
nom wrote: post #2

I'm not even half through this article but I felt an urge to say this: The automatic french-english translation is so good, I didn't even notice it at all. Good work, google! Edit: now that I'm aware that the text I'm reading is a translation, I see the errors. I guess my brain just filtered it out. Still awesome though!

Well, to be fair, the language used is rather simplistic. The vocabulary itself is of a higher level, but the grammar is really basic from the start to the end. Most of the article is also pure description and not a thesis or something. I guess all that helps a lot the automated translation tool.

Good to know, it makes a lot of sense. What do you think, was it written by a non-native speaker or is it comparable to something you find in a french newspaper?

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#24

Post by dagenleg »

skocznymroczny wrote: post #14
geggam wrote: post #5

How is it the same people working for one president less than 60 days later act so different ? or are they ?

Probably it's been like that always at the US border, it's just now it's popular to showcase such stories as an example of "look what Trump did to our country". I heard of horror stories at the US border way before Trump took office.

That's one of the good things about this whole media campaign against Trump. The media is throwing everything they can find at him and in the process expose a lot of heretofore ignored problems that have been festering for years. Maybe something will finally change?

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#25

Post by Arnt »

skocznymroczny wrote: post #14
geggam wrote: post #5

How is it the same people working for one president less than 60 days later act so different ? or are they ?

Probably it's been like that always at the US border, it's just now it's popular to showcase such stories as an example of "look what Trump did to our country". I heard of horror stories at the US border way before Trump took office.

Obama didn't get blamed for such things because he clearly didn't want them to happen. They happened, can't tell how often, but he didn't want or intend that. I didn't have the impression that Dubya wanted to harass random foreigners either.

Trump, OTOH, is the kind of person who wants to throw out all the Yemeni in case one of them is another Timothy McVeigh.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#27

Post by staticelf »

I am about to visit the US soon. I am planning not to bring my personal phone and computer. It feels like I am going to visit China, not the US.

I would probably not personally pay for a trip to the US now.. I don't want to pay a lot of money in order to be rejected at the border.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#28

Post by masklinn »

d--b wrote: post #20
nom wrote: post #2

I'm not even half through this article but I felt an urge to say this: The automatic french-english translation is so good, I didn't even notice it at all. Good work, google! Edit: now that I'm aware that the text I'm reading is a translation, I see the errors. I guess my brain just filtered it out. Still awesome though!

Beware the translation in some places. Google translates: "Une policière engueule une femme dont le garçon de trois ans court dans tous les sens" into "A police officer beats a woman whose three-year-old runs in all directions". The actual translation is: "A female police officer shouts at a woman whose 3-year-old is running all over the place"

> The actual translation is: "A female police officer shouts at a woman whose 3-year-old is running all over the place"

"Berates" feels much closer than "shouts at", "engueuler" is not just general shouting there's a strong component of scolding to it.

Also "policewoman" if you want to carry gender across the translation, but I'd say "police officer" is just fine, french requires gendering, english does not.

Re: How a French scholar was treated at US airport

#29

Post by nom »

d--b wrote: post #20
nom wrote: post #2

I'm not even half through this article but I felt an urge to say this: The automatic french-english translation is so good, I didn't even notice it at all. Good work, google! Edit: now that I'm aware that the text I'm reading is a translation, I see the errors. I guess my brain just filtered it out. Still awesome though!

Beware the translation in some places. Google translates: "Une policière engueule une femme dont le garçon de trois ans court dans tous les sens" into "A police officer beats a woman whose three-year-old runs in all directions". The actual translation is: "A female police officer shouts at a woman whose 3-year-old is running all over the place"

Wow you are right. Given your example, Google Translate doesn't recognize the gender of the police officer at all. It didn't even get "sens" correct, it translated it to "means" instead of "direction" until I told it the correct translation.
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