"We need our allies around the world also to talk to the EU and say, 'Britain has made you a fair and reasonable offer'," said Liam Fox. I spend a lot of time in my seminars explaining what Brits mean by "reasonable" and "fair" asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Inter…
Fox also said ""Do they want to have an agreement that is based on trade, prosperity and jobs, or do they want an agreement that is based on the ideology of the bureaucrats in Brussels?" Presumably first option is "reasonable and fair" in Fox's view. 2/
Makes me realise, when Brits say "reasonable and fair" it is very much in the eye of the beholder, if it is not rules based. If you try translating "reasonable" into Japanese or French (as Barnier is probably trying to do), you hit problems 3/
French is my third language, after English and Japanese, so I am aware of "raisonnable" as a translation of reasonable but had a gut sense they could be faux amis. Found this excerpt which explains why books.google.co.uk/books?id=t20zo… 3/
As Anna Wierzbicka points out in that book, "reasonable" in English has another sense of "not being excessive" (as in Fox implying with his jab at Brussels ideology and bureaucracy that they are "unreasonable") whereas in French it mainly means "justifiable" 4/
So if Fox is trying to say the EU is unfair and excessive, chances are Barnier hears this as "you have not justified your position to us, given us your reasons" to which he must think, "then you have not been listening" - whilst at the same time catching the pouty child tone. 5/
So when explaining British concepts of "reasonable" to Japanese people, (and I'm not sure I've explained it to enough business people that Fox's audience in Japan will get it!) I say there are three meanings 6/
Meaning 1 of "reasonable" is the dictionary translation "gohriteki" which means rational in Japanese. Meaning 2 is the one Anna Wierzbicka was looking at compared to French "raisonnable" - as in "a reasonable price" - not excessively expensive or cheap. 7/
Meaning 3 of a British "reasonable" is more like "raisonnable" in French - which is "you have satisfactorily explained the reasons to me" 8/
As for "fair" when used by the British... Well, it should mean the rules are the rules and they apply to everyone. And it is intensely irritating to other countries when Brits claim to have some kind of unique ownership of this value 9/
But just as Brits say "that seems reasonable", when they accept an explanation, when they say "fair enough" or "fair play" they don't just mean "you stuck to the rules", there is more of a moral judgement being made 10/
Like Anna Wierzbicka did with "reasonable", it's worth reversing "fair" to the negative to see the true meaning. When Brits (and whiney children) say something is "unfair", they mean you seem to be out to attack me personally and particularly over everyone else. 11/
To which Barnier could quite "reasonably" (hah, see what I did there) that he didn't see any other EU member trying to leave the EU, and if they did, they would be offered exactly the same choices. 12/
I don't give much hope for Britain becoming Great and Global if it is so cloth eared about how others hear or don't hear what we say. I sometimes think being native English speakers is more of a handicap these days than an advantage.
