[Bungleau]

I've been to Paris perhaps a dozen times, and it is my favorite city. I also speak French rather well, which makes it a bit easier for me too.

And Paris is different from Grovers Corners, USA. That shocks and surprises a number of Americans, I believe; I've seen it. Those who can accept that it's different seem to enjoy it, while those who don't seem to talk about how unfriendly the French are.

As for dubbing or subtitling films, humor is by far the hardest thing to move between languages. Situational humor (slipping on a banana peel) is fine, but contextual humor -- like my Grovers Corners comment above -- only works if you know the context. My old French professor from University (a French-raised Hungarian) enjoyed the Robin Williams film Birdcage; some of the jokes didn't make sense to him, such as (while looking at books in the living room) "Oh, look, a full set of Nancy Drew" -- Nancy Drew is a low-level mystery series aimed at youths and young teenagers, and not something that adults would typically put in their living rooms.

And plays on words -- they just don't translate well. Usually that's because they also require some contextual humor to make it work, and you can end up spending five minutes explaining a ten-second punchline.

After getting out of university, I used to translate during business meetings. Nothing more exciting than half the room laughing uproariously while the other half suddenly stares at you and expects you to let them know what was so funny. Doesn't help if you're laughing, either...