Be French: be fresh & swear

STAGE 1 - Be Fresh

Yes, be fresh this week-end & check out the Meadows Festival. I know I will. There are lots of things to do, including face painting (ooh, I have dreamt of being a lovely, delicate fairy - well... at least indulge me for one day.... OK fine! a couple of hours on Saturday will do!!)

Oh & do check out the jewelry stands - somewhere in their midst hides a French speaker (sorry K. - just had to out you, I'm afraid!!)

STAGE 2 - Cleansed by the Meadows fun, be foul

Do not fool yourself. If you are ever to drive in France, OK, fine - in Paris, (please, please, please, do check out that film! It takes a while (yeah, fine - a lot of efforts) to download, but is VERY worth it! - Paris at high speed...), you really should know the basics. I know there is the international language of obscene signs, but still...

In any case, swearing in another language is definitely fun. For one, you don't really relate to what you're saying (a syndrom also known as: it's not my language, therefore it does not really exist), so that you can say the most incredible horrors, and still feel good about yourself (after all, you are mastering the language!)

On Tuesday night, I had the (almost) best experience in teaching (no, I am not saying more, that would be telling - yes, you Aberdeen people do know...).
- Anyway
We had been happily (well, I had been, by any account) looking at the joy of French pronouns, when suddenly the word 'merde' came into the (otherwise civil) conversation - well, it was all about the fact that TV was 'merde'. Or rather merdique, as I pointed out.
My dismay (I am, after all, a respectable teacher) was suddenly replaced by delight, when I suddenly looked back in a second on my illustrious career, and recalled a whole lesson spent studying the worst swear words ever to enter the French language (yes, & in those days, it was for a full 2 hours!).
Soooo. I happily obliged the (annoyed) happy students, with a full lesson around 'merde'. And all its derivatives. Merdique. Emmerdant(e). Emmerdeur/Emmerdeuse. Emmerder.

And we all considered how much easier to remember French conjugations would be if you learnt your reflexive verbs using 's'emmerder' instead of 'se réveiller' (to wake up).

Imagine:

1. je m'emmerde - I am f****ing bored
2. tu t'emmerdes - you are f****ing bored
3. il s'emmerde - he is - f****ing bored
4. elle s'emmerde - la dee da
5. on s'emmerde - ditto
6. nous nous emmerdons - ploum ploum
7. vous vous emmerdez - sha la la
8. ils s'emmerdent - etcera
9. elles s'emmerdent - etcetera
   

"And now, we are going to see the negative..."

• je ne m'emmerde pas - I am not f****ing bored
• tu ne t'emmerdes pas - you are not f****ing bored
• la-dee-da, I won't bore with the rest,
• I guess you know the gist...

Where does it stop? Forming questions... The past... The future...

It's so endless....

Oh, it would all be sooo easy!....

Interested in slang? - look no further...

Oh, and while we're at it, I had forgotten but I need to offer 5 lucky people the chance of an interview from me - same rules apply from the 'interview from Anne' below... If by chance you don't have a blog, then I will be able to post your answers right here... Hey - this is an offer that cannot be refused!!!

www.premiereclasse.co.uk