very professional correspondence

Mr. Jalabert,

I wanted to tell you it's possible that I can not come in tomorrow - like Simone, I gotta go get my residence card. I do not know how long it will take, but if it's very long I'm not going to come. Thank you for your understanding.

I also have questions about the writing assignment that you submitted for foreign students. I spoke to my manager and she said there is no need for me to do, but if I decide to do to have more opportunity to improve my score, do you explain some details of duty, as possible topics and how many pages you want to write?

Sometimes (often) when I write emails in French, I use Google Translate to make sure I'm actually saying what I intend to. While this generally reassures my confidence in my own language skills, it also frequently makes me question the skills of the people who are responsible for these translations.

useless questions for Philippe, translated

"Philippe, how do you say 'raccoon' in French?"

"What?"

"They're animals. I don't know if they only exist in the US or what. They have... Wait, how do you say 'tail'?"

"...What?"

[vague pantomime]

"Oh! Queue!"

"Right. They're animals with a long tail, shaped sort of like this, with lines on it."

"Les ratons-laveurs? They smell bad, and they wash their food before they eat it?"

"Uh, maybe. They have hands, like people. And they look like they're wearing masks."

"Yes! Ratons-laveurs. You know, because they're like rats, but they wash their food. We have them in Europe, mostly in Germany I think. Only in places where there's a lot of water."

"Oh. You see them everywhere in the US. They get into people's trash cans and stuff... Actually, I forget why I asked this question in the first place."

There you have it, America. In France, raccoons are called "little washer-rats."