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RMNTN
May 22, 2015 19:12
8 yrs ago
French term

le mur

French to English Other Education / Pedagogy
This is for a school in Africa. It gives a short list of essential school infrastructure "(classrooms. toilets, le mur, la cour, etc)". Presumably, the mur is the playground wall. But why would it be considered essential? And how might this link to a previous mention of "seccos" which were fencing rods apparently used in the actual construction of the school hut itself.

Am I totally missing the point?

Don't all children love being in school :-)

TIA
Proposed translations (English)
3 +3 the enclosing wall

Discussion

DLyons (asker) May 24, 2015:
Thanks Barbara and Nikki.
Nikki Scott-Despaigne May 24, 2015:
the wall I think there are two strong arguments in favour of "the wall". One, the French states just "le mur" and secondly, none of the surrounding context gives any information enabling the wall to be qualified in any particular way with any certainty whatsoever.
B D Finch May 24, 2015:
Compounds The compounds I've seen in W Africa were formed by buildings facing towards an inner courtyard on three or three-and-a-bit sides. All or part of the fourth side (usually the side with the door to the street), could be a wall rather than a building.
DLyons (asker) May 23, 2015:
@all Thanks for your help. Towards the end of the document they mentioned possible improvements and one of them was "Clôture de la cour de l’école". It seems that this is desirable, rather than essential, which lends weight to Barbara's reading.

As Thomas suggests, I'm just going to use "wall" - it's fairly peripheral anyway to the subject of the document, which improvement in educational outcomes.
Thomas T. Frost May 22, 2015:
The wall If the client can't be more precise, you could also just leave the ambiguity in the translation as "the wall".

Proposed translations

+3
5 mins
Selected

the enclosing wall

As what contains the whole complex, is the way I read it.

That would be the wall I would consider essential.

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Note added at 19 hrs (2015-05-23 14:22:08 GMT)
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Or maybe "the surrounding wall".
Peer comment(s):
agree Thomas T. Frost : Probably, but I don't see how we can be certain. "Mur d’enceinte" is used in this Unicef document: http://www.unicef.org/honduras/Child_Friendly_Schools_Manual...
11 mins
Thanks, and yes I agree with you and the asker that the original text is rather vague in regard to this term.
agree Ingeborg Gowans (X) : Yes, as schools there are most likely in a compound; but more context would have been helpful
1 hr
Thanks, Ingeborg. Yes, I think, too, that the school must be inside of a compound.
agree heidi (X) : or 'boundary wall', perhaps?
16 hrs
Thanks, heidi.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks Barbara."
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