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[CFHollister]

Originally Posted by Cooney

Meanwhile, certain expressions that are very nasty in French sound completely mundane in English. Do not, for example, tell a Frenchman to "go see his mother."

I'm sure that in context they are just as provacative as English profane expression, but directly/literaly translated, I've found most non-English curses to be rather tame compared to their English equivilents. I've also noticed a higher propensity to use animals idiomatically outside of English (at least that's the way it seems to me).

[fsquared]

Originally Posted by Toc De Mac

As in, "Va voir sa mère?"

I've never heard of this one before. What does it mean?

Same in Bulgarian..."maika mu stara" (his old mother) is very nasty.

Actually, I suppose it's same for some speakers of English too, with the right intonation, e.g., something like "yo' MAma".

[Joey_adore_Jung]

damn damn and damn again won't let me do any of it, i've tried everything.

[fsquared]

Originally Posted by CFHollister

I'm sure that in context they are just as provacative as English profane expression, but directly/literaly translated, I've found most non-English curses to be rather tame compared to their English equivilents. I've also noticed a higher propensity to use animals idiomatically outside of English (at least that's the way it seems to me).

Curse words are by their nature "wired" by context and cultural taboos; they never sound quite so bad in a non-native language or to non-native speakers. Non-native speakers of English don't feel the same "flush" of impropriety when they said "f*ck" or "sh*t".

Originally Posted by joeyhehe

damn damn and damn again won't let me do any of it, i've tried everything.

Where are you going? Are you going to mylene.net? The first link in this thread has been broken almost the whole time.

[espire]

Originally Posted by Cooney

Putain and Merde both vary greatly in intensity depending on the circumstance, and "baiser" can mean "to kiss" or "to outdo" as much as it means "to fuck" or "to give a blowjob."

Meanwhile, certain expressions that are very nasty in French sound completely mundane in English. Do not, for example, tell a Frenchman to "go see his mother."

I was speaking with my French teacher about the seldom use of baiser - the reason was just as you said, because baiser is far more crude, to the point where her primary and secondary schools did not allow any mention of the word. You could also never visiter quelqn, only visiter chez quelqn, as a direct visiter was used to describe what prostitutes do.

[CFHollister]

Originally Posted by fsquared

Curse words are by their nature "wired" by context and cultural taboos; they never sound quite so bad in a non-native language or to non-native speakers. Non-native speakers of English don't feel the same "flush" of impropriety when they said "f*ck" or "sh*t".

True. It was about the time I started to realize how temporally and socially constructed taboo words are in socio-linguistics that I stopped "giving a shit" about not using curse words myself. From a totally objective perspective, the whole idea taboo words starts to seem really silly; esp. when they are used in the interjuctural rather than trying to intentionally offend or shock. I'm sure if some of my students heard me outside the classroom, there would be a few sets of wide eyes ().

[Toc De Mac]

Originally Posted by espire

I was speaking with my French teacher about the seldom use of baiser - the reason was just as you said, because baiser is far more crude, to the point where her primary and secondary schools did not allow any mention of the word. You could also never visiter quelqn, only visiter chez quelqn, as a direct visiter was used to describe what prostitutes do.

This is all very interesting. I suppose you could also say "rendre visite à qqn."

On the same note, I believe that if you mean to say "girl," then you cannot simply say "fille" but you must include some type of adjective such as "jeune fille" or "petite fille." If not, it can, I believe, be interpreted to mean a prostitute.

I was also fairly surprised when my teacher said "Je m'en fous," which I thought was a bit harsh, but apparently not.

[Cooney]

Originally Posted by Toc De Mac

I was also fairly surprised when my teacher said "Je m'en fous," which I thought was a bit harsh, but apparently not.

Yeah, when I first started learning French back in middle school, I was told that was a very nasty phrase indeed. I later discovered it's a bit more widespread than all that :-P Alizée uses it herself in the second "1 heure avec" when she's making the guy eat the Japanese snacks and he's protesting that he's had enough.

[Roman]

Originally Posted by espire

I was speaking with my French teacher about the seldom use of baiser - the reason was just as you said, because baiser is far more crude, to the point where her primary and secondary schools did not allow any mention of the word. You could also never visiter quelqn, only visiter chez quelqn, as a direct visiter was used to describe what prostitutes do.

Uh, so what's the alternative to baiser? If I use Babel Fish, for example, it uses baiser as a noun and embrasser as a verb. Are you just talking about using it as a verb or what?

I guess it's a good thing that I discovered the proper way to say "I visited my grandparents." is "J'ai rendu visite à mes grand-parents." (or something like that) rather than using visiter, the verb. The explanation I got though was that visiter is used for visiting places, but rendre un visite (essentially) is used when saying you're visiting people. I wonder if that is another one of those weird situations where a connotation that was originally implied has totally overtaken the language, like how American's can't say bitch with a straight face when referring to a female dog (unless maybe it's two breeders talking to each other), but it's still perfectly acceptable among the British.

Originally Posted by CFHollister

...the whole idea taboo words starts to seem really silly...

Unfortunately, things are what they are and as you indicate, you don't go using it in class. You may very well actually not discriminate against others who use such language, but others will discriminate against you. While I understand what you're saying, I feel, however irrationally, that I'd rather not hear Alizée start cussing it up, for example. - Like Mylène with her f* this f* that songs. Sarah McClochlan tried going edgy doing that in one song. I don't it worked out. Also, some people can just get away with it while others can't.

So, to get back on topic. That Jamais Plus is a real ear worm, eh? You know, the kind of song that gets stuck in your mind and keeps playing over and over.

[espire]

Originally Posted by Roman

Uh, so what's the alternative to baiser? If I use Babel Fish, for example, it uses baiser as a noun and embrasser as a verb. Are you just talking about using it as a verb or what?

When using kiss as a verb, embrasser is usually the better choice. A more friendly or loving kiss (rather than a sexual one) can be a bisou.