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Short swearing lesson
Sep. 27th, 2004 09:25 amDisclaimer: I'm about to use some foul language. If you don't like it, don't look.
So over on Weez.blog I found this entry in which she talks about (enter drumrole) the f-word. It all started with one of her sons calling the other a "fucking asshole". Lectures follow: "Why do you say that? Why shouldn't you say that? How come you say that? How do you feel when you say that?"
It made me think about a situation we have at school with the p-word, which stands for putain. For those of you that aren't very well with the French ways of cursing, it simply means whore. Problem is that most of the kids have forgotten where it came from and they use it every time something doesn't go according to their wish. Like someone saying "Damn!" or "Shit!" or "Crap!" they'll yell "Putain!" and we teachers have to make sure they don't do that anymore. So a number of them actually ends up saying "Puree!"1 or "Punaise!"2 but the rest just keeps on swearing. It's rowing against the stream, me thinks.
Actually there are two other, related, curse words that I find more disturbing. First the constant use of fils de pute for every person that lays something in your way. It is generally translated as son of a bitch, but literally means son of a whore. There are other ways and words to say to someone he did something wrong. Second the yells of "Ta mère!" (or "Sa mère!" when the person isn't present). It only says "Your mother!" doesn't it? It doesn't if you know its origins lie in "Ta mère est une pute!"3 The kids at school don't know this. They even find it quite amusing when I tell them that. "Oh miss," they say, "you're using the words yourself." To which I can only reply that I'm trying to show to them what they are actually saying.
I admire Weez for being able to lecture her boys so calmly about it. At school it's easy to give a punishment and then you'll know they won't do it around you anymore. But trying to explain why you don't want them to say it and making sure they respect you enough to actually have some impact with your dissapointment is way harder.
1 Mashed potatoes
2 Drawing pin
3 "Your mother is a whore!"
So over on Weez.blog I found this entry in which she talks about (enter drumrole) the f-word. It all started with one of her sons calling the other a "fucking asshole". Lectures follow: "Why do you say that? Why shouldn't you say that? How come you say that? How do you feel when you say that?"
It made me think about a situation we have at school with the p-word, which stands for putain. For those of you that aren't very well with the French ways of cursing, it simply means whore. Problem is that most of the kids have forgotten where it came from and they use it every time something doesn't go according to their wish. Like someone saying "Damn!" or "Shit!" or "Crap!" they'll yell "Putain!" and we teachers have to make sure they don't do that anymore. So a number of them actually ends up saying "Puree!"1 or "Punaise!"2 but the rest just keeps on swearing. It's rowing against the stream, me thinks.
Actually there are two other, related, curse words that I find more disturbing. First the constant use of fils de pute for every person that lays something in your way. It is generally translated as son of a bitch, but literally means son of a whore. There are other ways and words to say to someone he did something wrong. Second the yells of "Ta mère!" (or "Sa mère!" when the person isn't present). It only says "Your mother!" doesn't it? It doesn't if you know its origins lie in "Ta mère est une pute!"3 The kids at school don't know this. They even find it quite amusing when I tell them that. "Oh miss," they say, "you're using the words yourself." To which I can only reply that I'm trying to show to them what they are actually saying.
I admire Weez for being able to lecture her boys so calmly about it. At school it's easy to give a punishment and then you'll know they won't do it around you anymore. But trying to explain why you don't want them to say it and making sure they respect you enough to actually have some impact with your dissapointment is way harder.
1 Mashed potatoes
2 Drawing pin
3 "Your mother is a whore!"
