I've never really told anyone off in French yet but of course I've often wanted to. I just knew if I did I'd probably sound like my husband when he tries to immitate American cursing and says "I fick you!" which I can only imagine him using one day when he's angry at the beach in Florida in a Speedo and some 300 pound right wing, shit kicker in a Miller High Life t-shirt is on the receiving end of that expletive. I dread that day.
My friend Dee has cursed a few times in French and she has the amusing stories that often go with bilingual cursing. One in particular is pretty funny and illustrates my point well. She had gone camping in the mountains with her boyfriend to climb La Tournette, a really difficult climb which takes all morning and requires lots of rest the night before. To her frustration though she couldn't fall asleep because the crazed, beer drinking party animals in the next tent were whooping it up celebrating their recent climb that morning. She was finally so fed up and angry that she unzipped her little tent, stuck her head out and screamed a Jane Birkinesque"taissez vous sil vous plait!" ... or in other words would you guys please shut up! It set everyone off giggling because apparently you can't really use s'il vous plait with taissez vous like you can in English. I guess it's a little like saying "fuck off please!" She had to spend the entire weekend being pointed and snickered at by this little crew of revellers and she felt like a complete moron.
So, I came across these very funny videos made in the hilarious vein of language teaching tapes which show you all the right words and just how to use them. The quirky, cute narrater, Colbert-Gertrude Lafoisson gives you the lessons you need for your next visit to Monoprix or La Poste or that woman whose dog just peed on your Lancel breifcase on the metro. As you will see there is hope for us all if we just practice a leetle.
By the way make sure you watch more than the first minute because they start off like perfectly normal language videos before he starts the real lessons.
10 comments:
LOL!!!!!!!! Those vidoes are a riot! I use putain when I hurt myself or get frustrated with something. And when we are at a football game, we all use enculé quite a bit!
Those were hilarious. Thanks. :)
Hhahahahahahahahahh! This is just what I needed after a very sucky day. I've got the cursing thing down quite well in french. I especially love...Va te faire foutre. My french husband loves much less that I maitrîse this phrase. hahahaha too bad for him.
Do you sense my repressed anger ce soir? Oops, mais des fois cette vie en France est bien dur.
Alas I know all the words but I don't have enough practice saying them to make them sound believable.
You need to practice, then. Cursing in French is so very satisfying.
Sorry about my weird comment, but I was having a really bad day. I got to use all the words in the video that day.
No need to explain Meredith. We've all been there.
It's "taisez-vous", actually. It means the "S" is pronounced like a "Z", got it ?
Oops anon you're absolutely right. Thanks for the French lessons ;)
As a teacher I get plenty of opportunities to tell people off in French. I guess that means the language has really sunk in...
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