I have what I'm sure is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit France this coming summer with a program for my University. It's a 6 week program, and it costs about 3,000 dollars. I'...
Ok anyone go to France? I need help I definitely want to go to Eiffel Tower, but I want to see everything like the palaces and stuff. I also need a hotel convienetly located and some resteraunts? <...
We are driving to Spain this weekend, and were supposed to be stopping off at a massive flea market in Normandy, Les Andelys. My friend, whose house we were going to stay in overnight has let us down ...
What colors or pairs of colors do you think of when you think of the Eiffel Tower or Paris, France? What fonts do you think appropriately fit it? Serif? Sans serif? Any kind of patterns? Thank ...
I am British and am going to France next month and am hoping to get a job in Paris. Whilst i do not speak French fluently i am trying to learn. How easy would it be for me to get a job in Paris and ...
I'm going to Paris in November and want to know if Disneyland Paris is worth seeing. I hear many different accounts. How is the food? How are the rides? I've been to Paris before and I want ...
There are many expressions which invoke a nationality other than the speakers when describing something that is considered immoral or improper. Condoms, for example, are called by the English "French letters" and a mean person a "Dutch Uncle."
Such expresions begin as a form of insult directed at the nationality named.
If one takes swearing as an immoral or improper act then describing such language as "French" is a typical attribution to a foreign nationality of an impropriety.
Over time such expressions tend to simply become part of the language and the original ill intent is forgotten or overlooked.
Other theories exist for this particular expression. One posits that it represents a desire on the part of the speaker to pretend, in a humourous manner, that the improper word they used is really not English,
There is also the rather interesting theory that this expression originated in the 1950's when America was being particularly strait laced and American intellectuals actually did curse in French. I find this a bit difficult to believe since, in the 1960's, I lived in New York, spoke French, hung out in Greenwich village, and don't once recall hearing anyone using this phrase which I associate more with middle brow mid westerners and southerners than bilingual intellectuals.
kaysayswhat
It's like saying it doesn't count because it's not your real language. I think it's kinda stupid. Oh well...
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