To re-enter the translation discussion ...
Language is often quite flexible, and requires context and inflection to discern its particularly-intended meaning. The BEA transcripts give us neither. We don't know the precise context in which these phrases were uttered -- because the preceeding and trailing conversations are not provided; and because we only have the BEA text and not the actual CVR recording, we don't have the tone and inflection.
Once (or if) the full CVR is made available, then we may better know exactly what these pilots really meant or were doing when they said these things. Of course it is also possible that the BEA selected its particular English translation because it thought that its selected words conveyed better the complete nuance of the conversation (for which they know the context and inflection) than the would be conveyed by a literal translation of the French.
But I will note that it would be hard, on the basis of the BEA listening to a CVR, for it to conclude that the captain "attended" the briefing if he said absolutely nothing.
