记者来鸿：人在法国 '有后门' 一样重要

choi

修·斯科菲尔德, 记者来鸿：人在法国 '有后门' 一样重要. BBC Chinese, Mar 4, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp ... _france_piston_help

, which is translated from

Hugh Schofield, How It Helps, in France, to Have a Bit of 'Piston.' BBC, Feb 23, 2016.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35631986

Note:
(a) The English surname Schofield is "name from any of various minor places, in Lancashire and elsewhere, named from Middle English sc(h)ole hut + feld."

(b) "There's a great French word 'pistonner' - from piston, a noun that English shares with French. Basically, 'pistonner' means to give someone a leg-up. If you say you've got 'du piston,' it means you know somebody in some position of influence, who might be inclined to help you."
(i) French English dictionary:
* pistonner (vt; [French] piston +‎ -er): "to pull strings (apply influence)"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pistonner
(ii) English dictionary:

piston (n; French, from Italian pistone, both being noun and meaning "piston" in English)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piston
(iii) "du piston"

The "du piston" and "des pistons" are both correct in French, when piston means, in English, either a piston or connection.
(A) French English dictionary:
* piston (noun masculine; plural: pistons):
"1: piston
2: colloquial contact, connection  <Pour trouver un boulot par ici, il faut avoir des pistons. To get a job round here you need connections>"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/piston

The alternative "avoir du piston" is perfectly alright. (The French verb "avoir" is "have.")
(B)
* du
"1: contraction of de + le (of the)
2: contraction of de + le, forms the partitive article.  The partitive article signifies 'some,' but it often is not translated in English, Dutch, or German."
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/du
* French articles and determiners
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_articles_and_determiners
(section 1.3 Partitive article)


(c) "I need to introduce you to a man called Pascal Cherki. Pascal Cherki is my MP in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, and until a few months ago he was my mayor. * * * In France, he's [Cherki's] a frondeur. If you know your French history, you'll remember that the 'fronde' was the long revolt against the crown during the boyhood of Louis XIV."
(i) Pascal (given name)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_(given_name)
(male; Pascal derives from the Latin paschalis or pashalis, which means "relating to Easter," from the Latin term for "Easter", pascha)

, whose accent is on the second syllable.
(ii) Fronde
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fronde
(section 1 Name)

(d) "my daughter Ruby * * * She's studying Russian, and she needs to spend six months in Tomsk. * * * First port of call was the town hall, or Mairie, of the 14th * * * Back at the guichet in the Mairie, the blank stare of the petty bureaucrat, 'Mais on fait pas ça nous.'  'Sorry, not our job.' * * * With practised indifference, two sets of desk-wallahs were ping-ponging us one to the other"
(i) Tomsk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomsk
(ii) French English dictionary:
* mairie (noun feminine): "mayor’s office, town hall"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mairie
* guichet (noun masculine): "counter (at post office, bank etc)"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/guichet
* mais (conjunction): "but"
* pas (adv): "not"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pas
(iii) For "Mais on fait pas ça nous," see next posting.
(iv) wallah (n; etymology: Hindi & Urdu)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wallah

(e) "Sharky didn't blink. A biro and a piece of paper, a scribbled email address - which I contacted the next morning * * * But then I think, 'Baah - what counts is the result.' "
(i) biro (n; etymology)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/biro

, where the "i" is pronounced the same as that of ice, according to www.m-w.com.
(ii) bah (interjection): "used to express disdain or contempt"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bah

choi

It takes me three hours to figure out the grammar, syntax of "Mais on fait pas ça nous."

(1) French English dictionary:
* mais (conjunction): "but"
* fait (verb): "third-person singular present indicative of faire [do]"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fait
* pas (adv): "not"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pas
* ça (pronoun; shortened form of [pronoun] cela that): "that, it [examples show ça may be subject or object]"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ça
* nous
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nous
* ici (adverb): "here"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ici
* nous (pronoun; from Latin [pronoun] nos we):
"The plural personal pronoun in the first person:
1: (subject pronoun) we
2: (object pronoun) us, to us"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nous
   ^ In grammar, "us" is "direct object," and "to us," "indirect object."
* entre (preposition; from Latin inter): "between, among"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/entre
* voilà (verb; etymology): "Here is"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/voilà


(2)
(a) The Twilight Zone Series: Living in Belgium, Part 1. Language and Other Musings, Mar 16, 2015
http://languageandothermusings.c ... -in-belgium-part-1/
(" 'Euhh, non, on fait pas ca ici (No, we don't do that here),' the receptionist replied")

The posting is removed; only sippets are left in Google's search return and the quotation above is one of the two.
(b) French Conversation – How To Use The Awesome Pronoun ON. Speak French Fluently,
www.fluentfrenchnow.com/french-c ... awesome-pronoun-on/
("Replacing 'tu' [你; 仅主词 subject only] and 'vous [你們; 主词, 受词 both subject and object]' * * * This use for 'you' is very common when giving instructions or orders. * * * [eg] On fait pas ça ! (Don’t do that.)" )

Please read the first half of the lesson in addition.
(c) Together with (b), you can easily understand this.

fait pas ça (phrase): "don't do that, don't do this, doesn't do that)
context.reverso.net/traduction/francais-anglais/fait+pas+ça
(among tons of examples is "On ne se fait pas ça entre nous. We don't do that to each other."

Check out the definition of "nous" in (1).

(d) here's to us (adv): "à la nôtre"
Collins English French Electronic Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-french/here's%20to%20us

two other examples to say the same (ie, here's to us):

But here's to us, through thick and thin, peter out and peter in.        Mais nous voilà, bravant vents et marées, rentrant et sortant.

Here's to us, top of the world.                                                                À nous. "Plus haut que tout !"

* Peter out
www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/peter-out.html

is a phrase. "Peter in" was made up by this person, whoever wrote it.

(e) Another example of nous as indirect object.
(i) Paris Belongs to Us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Belongs_to_Us
( (French: Paris nous appartient, sometimes translated as Paris Is Ours) is a 1960 French mystery film")

(f) After you read (b), you may ask why "fait" -- "third-person singular present." See (1).
(i) French/Grammar/Pronouns
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/French/Grammar/Pronouns
(section 2 The pronoun on: * * * "note that even though on always takes a third-person singular verb, it takes plural adjectives (« On est américains », "We're American"). Also, note that the other forms of nous (direct object, indirect object, and disjunctive)")
(ii) French personal pronouns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_personal_pronouns
(section 2 Subject pronouns, section 2.1 On: "The subject pronoun on (from Old French [h]om, homme man, from Latin homo human being) * * * To replace the subject pronoun nous in informal speech. In this case, on takes plural adjectives, even though it always takes a third-person singular verb") (brackets original)

(g) I simply can not find in the Web the translation of "on fait pas ça nous" per se., though I am sure it is not incorrect (I find some, not a whole lot of, examples of the exact, entire quotation, many of which comes from this BBC report republished elsewhere).

My educated guess of literal translation is as follows: you do not do that to us.
(h) Guess what. My supposition comports with French syntax. See French grammar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_grammar
(section 10 Word order: Subject + Main verb + Object ("ça" here) )