French Uni Vocab Year 1

Vocab on Standard of Living and the Environment

Revenus

Income

Niveau de vie médian

Median standard of living

Seuil d’entrée

Entry threshold

Masse salariale

Wage bill / Total payroll

Transferts sociaux

Social transfers (welfare benefits, government aid, etc.)

Quartiers prioritaires de la politique de la ville (QPV)

Priority urban neighborhoods (government-designated disadvantaged areas)

Moyens supplémentaires

Additional resources

Protection sociale

Social protection (welfare, healthcare, benefits, etc.)

Agence nationale pour la Rénovation Urbaine (ANRU)

National Agency for Urban Renewal

Assimilation

Integration

Idée reçue

Preconceived idea

Grands ensembles

Large housing estates (social housing blocks)

Caricature médiatique

Media caricature (stereotypical media portrayal)

Un puits sans fond

A bottomless pit (something that keeps consuming resources endlessly)

Politique de la ville

Urban policy (government policies targeting disadvantaged neighborhoods)

Quartiers difficiles

Disadvantaged neighborhoods

Précarité

Insecurity / Economic instability

Mixité sociale

Social diversity / Social mix

Vivre-ensemble

Social cohesion / Living together in harmony

Repli communautaire

Community withdrawal / Self-segregation

Pouvoirs publics

Public authorities / Government

Assistanat

Welfare dependency (often used pejoratively in French political discourse)

État providence

Welfare state

Cotisations

Contributions (social security payments, etc.)

Plus on dépense… plus ces derniers semblent s’enfoncer…

The more we spend… the more they seem to sink… (Expresses a paradox)

Les milliards n’ont cessé de pleuvoir

Billions have kept pouring in (Metaphor for continuous public funding)

Une colère sourde

A suppressed rage

Rien n’y fait

Nothing works / changes

Tonneau des Danaïdes

Bottomless pit

Peine perdue

A lost cause / A waste of effort

S’enfoncer

To sink further

Vie aux crochets de

Living off the

Quartiers populaires

Working-class neighborhoods / Inner-city areas

Plan banlieue

Urban renewal plan

Unité urbaine

Urban unit

Enfermement

Isolation

Assistés (implied in context)

Welfare-dependent populations

Pouvoir d’achat

Purchasing power

Démagogique

Demagogic (appealing to emotions rather than facts)

Élu municipal

Municipal-elected official

Ministre de l’Intérieur

Minister of the Interior (in charge of police and security)

Grenelle des quartiers

Major government conference on urban policy (reference to historic ‘Grenelle Agreements')

État de sécession de la jeunesse

State of youth rebellion

Interpellation

Police questioning / arrest

Contrôle au faciès

Racial profiling (literally: ‘facial checks’)

Défenseur des droits

French Human Rights Ombudsman

Lancer un appel

To make an appeal / To issue a call for action

Une petite musique qui monte

A growing sentiment

Le pays groggy

The country left stunned

Une rage de justice

A furious demand for justice

Délaissés

Neglected (pl)

Planter le dernier clou dans le cercueil

To hammer the final nail in the coffin

Banlieue pavillonnaire

Suburban residential area (with houses and gardens)

Logements en hauteur

Tower blocks

Connotation péjorative

Negative connotation

Ascension sociale

Social mobility

Main-d’œuvre issue de

Workforce from

Besoin conjoncturel

Short-term economic need

Politique publique du logement

Public housing policy

Programme de rénovation des cités HLM

Public housing estate renovation program

Impulsion gouvernementale

Government initiative

Démarche politique forte

Strong political approach

Transformation du regard

Shift in perception

Dépeindre

To depict

Retranscrite

Portrayed

Codes sociaux

Social norms

Sortir de terre

To spring up

Endosser

To take on

Changer de cap

To change course

Colorée

Vibrant

Une jeunesse sur son 31

Youth dressed to the nines (well-dressed and confident)

Un territoire en marge

A marginalised area

long métrage

feature film

sombre dans

plunges into

en quête de

in search of

mise à l’épreuve

put to the test

salue le/la

praises the

échiquer (nom)

spectrum (noun)

immonde

vile

dépolitisation

depoliticisation

au profit de

in favor of

plans séquences

long takes (film technique)

clipard (argot)

bad music video director (slang)

bourré de

full of

se déchirent

tear each other apart

ébranler

to shake up

Montrer du doigt

to point the finger at

Faire un cadeau à quelqu’un

to do someone a favour (often sarcastic, meaning to play into their hands)

aborde, sans manichéisme

addresses (the topic) without black-and-white thinking

empaillés

stuffed

objets de culte

religious objects

extirpés du sol

extracted from the ground

prendre la parole

to speak up

engloutissant

swallowing up

s’inscrire au

to fit into

commissaire

curator

de bout en bout

from start to finish

devoir de mémoire

duty of remembrance

discours de

narrative of

bloc opératoire

operating room