In Love Actually , Jamie (Colin Firth), an English writer, and Aurélia, a Portuguese housekeeper, fall in love after seeing each other every day...even though they don't speak the same language. We thought that this kind of pretty story only existed in movies, but no, as American journalist and author Mac McClelland and her now husband Nico Ansel, French sports coach, prove to us today. In an article published in the Washington Post, Mac McClelland tells us how they fell in love…thanks to Google Translate.
It was in 2010 that our two lovebirds met, in a hotel in Haiti, in Port-au-Prince. Nico was then working as a Blue Helmet (but only spoke 2-3 words of English) and Mac was sent there to report on the earthquake. In the lobby of this hotel, hardly had they exchanged a few words (or rather a few gestures) than their hearts began to beat! There he is leading her into a corner and there is the first kiss.
The next day, she wakes up with a brief email from Nico, which he wrote using Google Translate. But since Google Translate isn't perfect, it's led to some funny mistakes, like when, wanting to compliment her on her "charm", he uses the word "hornbeam". white).
After several exchanges of emails, they spend a night together. And there, the next day, he writes to her that it is better that they do not see each other again. Anger ! Mac replies with a swear word, which Nico then types into Google Translate:"That's not a good word on Google Translate!" he writes apologetically, explaining that the problem isn't that he doesn't like her...but rather that he has no right to leave his unit except for "professional reasons. "and so he's risking his job.
There, she goes back to San Francisco, he to France. Despite the distance, they continue to write to each other and one day even decide to communicate by "video chat". In front of their screen, they exclaim while looking at each other, read aloud the other's sentence, the translation, then start laughing, exclaiming or frowning. They do this for several hours at a time, for months, leaving room for other comical translations.
Seven months later, they meet again. A year and a half after they met, Nico moved in with her in San Francisco and a few months later, they were married! The irony of fate is that a year after the nuptials, they are forced to move, after a Google employee bought the apartment they were renting from the owner. An event not easy to digest for the couple... But the lovebirds were able to comfort themselves... without needing many words for it.
