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cheese boy

French translation: p'tit gratiné

21:34 Dec 4, 2022
English to French translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
English term or phrase: cheese boy
Hello,

This phrase is used in Trevor Noah's book "Born a Crime". I've picked a passage to translate from his book for my class. The passage talks about how people living in townships of South Africa have a nickname for those that live on the richer side of the townships. They're not considered as poor as everyone else so they are nicknamed "cheese boys". This is because cheese also happened to be one of the most expensive things to come by in the townships. Having cheese in your food, even in your fridge, is a symbol of wealth for the kids. I'm trying to translate this phrase in French but it's really hard. I am a college student so my target audience is young adults in from age 18 and older. I'm also trying to target French speaking youth from West Africa (Senegal, Benin, Ivory Coast...).

This is a passage from the book:

"Cheese on a sandwich, cheese in your fridge, that meant you were living the good life. In any township in South Africa, if you had a bit of money, people would say, “Oh, you’re a cheese boy.” In essence: You’re not really hood because your family has enough money to buy cheese."

My first attempt was "un petit fromagé", but my professor believes I can come up with better and suggested "un fromageon". Fromageon is cheese that comes from an ewe, and after doing some research, I found that it tends to be more expensive than cheese from a cow.

Would this work or do you have any suggestions?

Thank you!
JKNTAYA
United States
French translation:p'tit gratiné
Explanation:
Hi!

Ha, Trevor Noah, I love that guy, so funny and witty!

As a French native, I'd build something around the notion of "gratiné", which means "covered with grated cheese (and grilled in the oven)". "Gratin" is also a slang word for the privileged ones ("Le gratin de la société", literally "the ones with a cheese crust on", "the upper crust"). For cheese boy I'd say "le p'tit gratiné" (little boy with a cheese crust on, "p'tit" being an affectionate way to say "petit") or simply "le gratiné".
Selected response from:

Isabelle Rodriguez
Sweden
Local time: 04:46
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +2p'tit gratiné
Isabelle Rodriguez
3gamin riche
AllegroTrans


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
p'tit gratiné


Explanation:
Hi!

Ha, Trevor Noah, I love that guy, so funny and witty!

As a French native, I'd build something around the notion of "gratiné", which means "covered with grated cheese (and grilled in the oven)". "Gratin" is also a slang word for the privileged ones ("Le gratin de la société", literally "the ones with a cheese crust on", "the upper crust"). For cheese boy I'd say "le p'tit gratiné" (little boy with a cheese crust on, "p'tit" being an affectionate way to say "petit") or simply "le gratiné".

Isabelle Rodriguez
Sweden
Local time: 04:46
Native speaker of: French
PRO pts in category: 8
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thank you so much for this suggestion! It really fit the frame in terms of what I was looking for and was still humorous to keep in contact with the tone of the book. My professor was very pleased with this suggestion, and I'm pretty sure I'll be getting a good grade! Merci encore et bonne journée :)


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Anastasia Kalantzi: Absolument d'accord. (un p'tit peu d'humour!) https://www.myburger.fr/chronique-872-p-tit-gratine-mcdonald...
18 hrs
  -> Merci merci !
agree  writeaway
1 day 17 hrs
agree  Jocelyne Cuenin
1 day 17 hrs
disagree  Daryo: "le gratin (de la société)" = everyone gets it // "le gratiné" in this meaning? - not convinced at all.
2 days 21 hrs
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1 day 3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
gamin riche


Explanation:
familier, péjoratif Gosse de riche(s) : enfant d'une famille fortunée, plus ou moins gâté.




AllegroTrans
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:46
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 9

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Isabelle Rodriguez: Sure, in the end we talk about privileged people, but we lose the concept of "cheese" that the sender tries to keep.
15 hrs
agree  Daryo: certainly not wrong, as "cheese" is very likely to be the most ordinary food for most of the readership, with no connotations whatsoever of "luxury/better standard of living".
1 day 19 hrs
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