Paris Meetup Saturday June 25

Memo that everyone ignored or hilariously misinterpreted last time because I mumble horribly, so this time I'm posting it in advance: My preferred pronouns are gender-neutral. (Your favorite set, or Spivak pronouns, or "they" in unambiguous contexts.) I insist on them in few circumstances, which LW meetups aren't part of. If you don't want to bother with them (gender-neutral French is awkward), male pronouns will be happily tolerated.

Longs meetups are more fun (at least I enjoy them more), so I suggest that we should either finish late (last time lasted past 1 AM, but almost everyone left earlier) or start early.

Walking around seems to get less fun as group size increases - it encourages independent one-on-one conversations.

[-]David_Gerard14y00

Well, Wikipedia wasn't helpful ... how do you do gender-neutral pronouns, etc. (particularly the etc.) in French?

[-]MixedNuts14y40

As far as I can tell, you don't! The handful of genderqueer people I know accept both sets, and switch (not mid-sentence, but within the course of a single conversation) when referring to themselves.

As Wikipedia says, you can use both forms in writing ("Il/elle est étudiant(e)."), but I have no idea how you're supposed to say it, and anyway it doesn't solve the problem of gendered language.

The only suggestions I've seen for real gender-neutrality are:

Use "y" as a gender-neutral pronoun, from (somewhat archaic) corruptions of other pronouns ("Je lui ai dit" (I told him/her) becomes "J'y ai dit").
End words that end in "é" (masculine) and "ée" (feminine) in "ey" for gender-neutrality. This covers a lot of adjectives, but not all.

Neither have caught on anywhere.

[-]Morendil14y20

I liked the idea of the Café des Techniques at Musée des Arts et Metiers. Even if we don't have international visitors this time around it makes for a nice and topical meeting point.

[-]Andy_Kwok14y00

I kiffe

[-]Emile14y00

I second that.

[-]bogdanb14y00

Thirded :-)

[-]Andy_Kwok14y00

Bonjour Everyone,

How about the Pere populaire

http://www.resto-de-paris.com/les-peres-populaires-buzenval/restaurant/paris

If you want to walk, no particular suggestions but as the group seems to be a small one, why not stay in one place for a starter?

[-]MixedNuts14y00

as the group seems to be a small one, why not stay in one place

Are you saying that walking is better in large groups than in small ones? My experience says the opposite. (Walking favors small conversations, sitting favors large ones.)

[-]Andy_Kwok14y10

Hi MixedNuts,

We can walk or we can sit.

I'm proposing but eventually all of you will be deciding.

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2 Paris Meetup Saturday June 25

by Emile

7th Jun 2011

1 min read

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8Upcoming meet-ups: Bangalore, Ottawa, Edinburgh, North Carolina, Paris, Logan, Irvine

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Paris Meetup Saturday June 25

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[-]Morendil14y30

OK, so the official time and place for this meetup appear to be:

2pm on Saturday the 25th
at Café des Techniques at Musée des Arts et Metiers

Agenda TBD :)

[-]Emile14y00

I added it to the sidebar

[-]MixedNuts14y20

I'll be there.

Longs meetups are more fun (at least I enjoy them more), so I suggest that we should either finish late (last time lasted past 1 AM, but almost everyone left earlier) or start early.

Walking around seems to get less fun as group size increases - it encourages independent one-on-one conversations.

[-]David_Gerard14y00

Well, Wikipedia wasn't helpful ... how do you do gender-neutral pronouns, etc. (particularly the etc.) in French?

[-]MixedNuts14y40

As far as I can tell, you don't! The handful of genderqueer people I know accept both sets, and switch (not mid-sentence, but within the course of a single conversation) when referring to themselves.

As Wikipedia says, you can use both forms in writing ("Il/elle est étudiant(e)."), but I have no idea how you're supposed to say it, and anyway it doesn't solve the problem of gendered language.

The only suggestions I've seen for real gender-neutrality are:

Use "y" as a gender-neutral pronoun, from (somewhat archaic) corruptions of other pronouns ("Je lui ai dit" (I told him/her) becomes "J'y ai dit").
End words that end in "é" (masculine) and "ée" (feminine) in "ey" for gender-neutrality. This covers a lot of adjectives, but not all.

Neither have caught on anywhere.

[-]Morendil14y20

I liked the idea of the Café des Techniques at Musée des Arts et Metiers. Even if we don't have international visitors this time around it makes for a nice and topical meeting point.

[-]Andy_Kwok14y00

I kiffe

[-]Emile14y00

I second that.

[-]bogdanb14y00

Thirded :-)

[-]Andy_Kwok14y00

Bonjour Everyone,

How about the Pere populaire

http://www.resto-de-paris.com/les-peres-populaires-buzenval/restaurant/paris

If you want to walk, no particular suggestions but as the group seems to be a small one, why not stay in one place for a starter?

[-]MixedNuts14y00

as the group seems to be a small one, why not stay in one place

Are you saying that walking is better in large groups than in small ones? My experience says the opposite. (Walking favors small conversations, sitting favors large ones.)

[-]Andy_Kwok14y10

Hi MixedNuts,

We can walk or we can sit.

I'm proposing but eventually all of you will be deciding.

Moderation Log