Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Learn to play soccer young!


Here is a very popular game in France... We call it a "baby foot" (yes, we often create faux English words to make things sound more fashionable!) and there used to be one in every single café throughout the country. Now they have been replaced with arcades games or pinballs... I found this one at Paris Plage and loved it because it's particularly small (a baby baby foot in other words...). And I love the energy in this photo too.

19 comments:

  1. It looks like a miniature foosball table. Give that boy a Boston Red Sox cap!!

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  2. Over here we call it foosball. I loved it as a teenager.

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  3. Fun for the kids! As MK said, here it is Foosball.

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  4. I love the energy here too—and the angle! And "baby foot" sounds so much cuter than "foosball."

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  5. Very popular here too.

    We call it "To To".

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  6. Given how small it is, I presume goals must be scored very easily!

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  7. Paris Plage is going on? I've heard nothing about it this year for some reason. Could it be the weather? The economic crisis? Or just that I don't get out very often? Probably the latter. Anyway, I had to look twice to see how small the table is.

    Maybe next year they could try installing this bigger version, or better yet, the human version!

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  8. Great shot and funny game ! I used to play to this game with my brother when I was younger and I sometimes play it again with my children when I am on holiday and find one!
    "Soccer" is an interesting word : hard to pronounce when you don't really know how to say the double 'c'! I often hesitated between the sound 'k' or 's' because in French the double 'c' is pronounced like 'ks' as well as in English sometimes with for example 'accident'! Anyway, now, I know : it is 'soccer' like 'locker' and not 'soccer' like the sound 'c'.
    I know this comment is a personal one, I'm sorry ;-)

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  9. Cute! We do call it foosball and for a semester in university, I had a friend who would call me and proclaim that he had a foosball need. So, he would come and get me and we would go to this dive of a place and play foosball for a few hours. I never won, even when he played with only one hand! Good times though!

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  10. Great angle :) Reminds me of my boys playing this, we had a similar table when they were small.

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  11. @Michael. Yes Paris plage is still on LOL! But you're right, it's no longer an event. We've gotten used to it.
    The real Paris plage is where I am at the moment: Trouville/Deauville LOL

    @Flore. Actually both pronunciations are OK. Some people say "Sokker" some "Soccer" with a soft "c". Ir depends on the regions/the people/the nationality I suppose? Any Anglo-Saxon can enlighten us here?!

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  12. I've never seen one this small, or as long as the one Michael posted! Just the standard ones.

    Tall Gary, my grandmother has one of those for each of her children and grandchildren. I'm not sure where that tradition started.

    Eric and Flore in America we pronounce soccer as rhyming with locker. And in America and in English in general we have a lot of words that do not follow phonics. Do not be embarrassed if you cannot pronounce something...America as a whole does not pronounce "sorry" or "been" correctly, and then teases Canada for pronouncing it the right way!

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  13. Thank you Eric. I did not know, ... of course. I really appreciate any kind of informations in English. I'm taking your advice as if it came from an English Native Speaker, of course.
    Well, you sound in a really good shape. Good for you. Enjoy Trouville plage. My children spent a week there with my parents lately. They love the area, of course.
    Three times that I'm saying of course. I think it is time for me to stop boring you ;)

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  14. Oooh Jennifer, I haven't seen you before posting, thanks a lot! Very much appreciated.

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  15. Never seen one so small!
    In italian you could call it a "mini biliardino" !!

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  16. It's not "soccer", it's football.

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  17. I love soccer. I use to play that game when I was younger.

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