Klarinet Archive - Posting 000498.txt from 2001/05

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] French Idioms
Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 18:53:35 -0400

When I first moved to France in 1962, my French was not yet fluent, and
I did not know the idioms. So I asked a colleague at work how one
addresses a policeman (should the occasion arise).

As a joke he said, "Toujours, on dit, "un poulet." In effect he had
told to call the policeman a chicken which is roughly equivalent to
calling a cop a pig in America. But I swallowed it.

Two days later I was lost in St. Cloud and I saw a cop. "Bonjour M. le
poulet. Je me trouve perdu et je cherche directions aux metro."

What I said was, "Hi chicken. I'm lost and looking for the metro."

I almost wound up in jail.

MVinquist@-----.com wrote:
>
> There's an even worse idiomatic trap in French than "embrasser." If you're
> visiting a family and the little daughter comes into the room, you are
> perfectly idiomatic and proper if you say "baise moi" ("kiss me"). You're
> also perfectly idiomatic, but highly improper, if you ask her to "donne moi
> un baiser," which means not "give me a kiss" but "give me a [particular act
> of oral sex]."
>
> Avec les sinceres amities.
>
> Ken Shaw
>
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--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
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