One of the first things I learned at the Alliance Française was that the French are notorious for their use of acronyms. This seemed strange to me, because I had always thought that the French were all about the beauty of their language.
Not that they aren't, but acronyms pepper their speech and writing. One of the most famous newscasters here is known by his initials, PPDA. There are so many other examples I could give to make my point, but I'm really tired and don't much feel like spending half an hour explaining. I will say that every teacher in the country knows what the B.O. is, and I'm not talking about their scent after a hard day of teaching, either.
So today I went to the post office (I mean the P.O.) to give them a letter I'd received. No one by that name lives here, and I said as much to the worker behind the glass.
She took the letter (ironically enough from La Poste itself, from their financial services branch), scribbled on the bar code at the bottom of the envelope, and said in a self-satisfied manner, "Ça, c'est un NPAI." It took a lot for me not to laugh out loud. NPAI (say it with me, En Pa Ay Ee) means "N'habite pas à l'adresse indiquée."
Oh hell, I might be too tired to explain why the lady at the post office made me laugh with her official NPAI label. It was just funny, that's all.
Now let's see how funny you can be. I dare you to come up with a phrase for the "acronym" in the title of this post. I'll go first, but it might suck: Furry Rodents Are Not Carrying Ebola.
Your turn now.





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