Freep-ish woman on subway to french-speaking girl: "you will learn english

[KurtNYC]

I'm riding home last night and this little girl, carribean, maybe 5 years old is chattering away in French. To her mother, to me, to this woman blocking the door. I don't know any of these people and I haven't said a word in any language yet. So doorblocker-woman says to her (slowly as if the girl will magically understand English if she speaks it slow enough): "You will go to school someday and learn English...."

Girl to her mother with concern: "Pourquoi cette femme ne parle francais?" why is that woman not speaking french?

Woman continues: "If you want a job on Wall Street, you will need to learn english."

Girl playfully shakes her head "no" and kind of shrugs.

Doorblocker woman turns to me for my reaction, and I'm thinking 'this is new york, the girl can speak any language she likes and what's it to you?' I hate it when people are obnoxious to little kids so I couldn't resist at that point. I speak to the girl (and her mother): "Cette femme ne parle pas francais. triste, oui ?"

"oui"

Then we all looked at the woman like she was crazy.

[mnhtnbb]

1. C'est ca!

[noneofmybusiness]

2. tres bien

[MadMaddie]

3. Ha...ha...that's great....the Freeper is too lazy to learn any other

language...it used to be that one is worldly knowing more than one language...but not in today's Twilight zone.......

[IronLionZion]

15. actually it's cool to be ignorant

they laugh at you for knowing anything about anywhere including US history (Louisiana purchase anyone?) and are always ready to call you "stupid" if they disagree with you.

[MadMaddie]

40. You are right....but you know I have been getting that my whole

life from realatives from so called friends.....stupid Freepers don't even register with me...

Typical neocons they project on others what is wrong with them...

[Kurovski]

87. History? Hell, most of them don't know what's going on right now!

In their own country!:-)

[SharonAnn]

123. 2 languages is bilingual, 3 is trilingual, only 1 means you're an American

[Bill McBlueState]

4. what a nutjob...

For example, how did she conclude that a little girl wants to work on Wall Street, as though that's what everyone aspires to at that age?

[jpak]

5. Tu est un Skunke des Pew!

:evilgrin:

[Generic Brad]

95. Is that similar to that classic Monty Python line from the French guy?

"I fart in your general direction"?

[Skittles]

6. "How about YOU learn to speak like a decent human being?"

THAT is what *I* would have said.

[moc]

7. Bahahahaha! That's great! I would have loved to see the look

on that woman's face. How did she react?

Bravo!

:rofl:

[KurtNYC]

19. When I started in in french the little girl looked at her

mother like 'see. everyone normal speaks french'

Door-blocker woman just kind of froze. It was like she was in the Twilight Zone. Like her worst fear was coming true -- no one was speaking English (in America dammit).

[moc]

22. Oh, that is priceless! Thanks so much for the details!

:toast:

[immoderate]

39. Kurt, did the door blocking woman work on Wall Street?

The world wants to know.:shrug:

--IMM

[KurtNYC]

56. I don't think so

It was a northbound local 1 train which I got at 42nd, she got off at 72nd -- from Wall Street she could have taken a 2/3 express. But mostly just the way she was dressed. Not sure why she mentioned Wall street per se other than that being the stereotypical high dollar job.

[pitohui]

107. she was being kind

she wanted to give the child something to aspire to

she wasn't being hateful actually

this story is sad on so many levels

you should write it up without comment and publish it somewhere

[Cassandra]

79. That's just exquisite!

Great story. My French is staggeringly bad from disuse.

Don't forget what Dubya said, "The French have no word for entrepreneur." ;-)

[gratuitous]

8. hee, hee, hee

Je préfer mon thé que des cendre. Miaou!

[K8-EEE]

9. K&R!! C'est magnifique!

Hahahaha....

[raccoon]

10. You done good!

How do you say "bully" in French? That's what that woman was.

[KurtNYC]

25. Cette femme est 'freep-iere'!

Yeah, those types always act like they are doing someone a favor, they speak with that tone like 'let me enlighten you...' And the fact that she was going to tell this little girl how to live her life right in front of her own mother was infuriatingly creepy.

[raccoon]

45. And their tone implies, "I am smart and you are stupid."

Freepiere, de veras! (to mix languages, LOL)

[Infomaniac]

89. La mujer esta muy loco.

Well done, Kurt. I find it incredibly creepy that the woman intruded on a conversation between a parent and her child. Not to mention just plain rude.

[pitohui]

108. you don't know her culture

perhaps in new york it IS rude, it WOULD be rude in appalachia

but in louisiana where i live it would not be rude, it would be polite to just chime in, it would be the thing to do

that was the hardest thing in the world for me to learn when i moved down here, that you are supposed to just chip into strangers' conversations, but that's the way it is

who knows where she came from, maybe she's a refugee/evacuee and was taught you chip in and make a conversation even when you don't know dick what you're talking about?

assumptions were made on ALL sides here

[Infomaniac]

126. I live in NYC

Both KurtNYC and currently I live in NYC; although we both have lived in other places. You learn very quickly about the unwritten rules of traveling on public transportation. It's a given that one does not engage people on public transportation on anything more substantive than the weather or the condition of the roads. In certain situations, like the commuter buses from the outer boroughs or NJ, it's considered rude to even talk on your cel phone (never mind your fellow passengers) because sleep deprived commuters are trying to catch a few ZZZZs between work and home. When in Rome learn to do as the Romans... There are also more polite ways to insert yourself into a conversation than evidenced by this woman's behavior but that's a whole 'nother story.

[ElboRuum]

35. En Francais...

Bully = "Brute".

[raccoon]

46. Thank you! nt

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Vous etes magnifique!!!

[xchrom]

12. Touche!

[YOY]

13. I've had a similar experience

Except the Freepish was bitching about Spanish speakers and I replied to him in Russian: "I speak seven languages asshole. I use any one I want."

[Fierce]

14. Molotsy'!

nt

[YOY]

98. 'Na tui pozhalysta!"

I ya muzhina. Pishi s muschkom rodom!

[Occulus]

51. Seven?

Which ones?

And a question: I've always wanted to learn a second language- or more- and, oddly, I've always been able to puzzle out simple Spanish when I read it (I can't speak it at all, though).

What techniques are the most useful when learning how to read/speak another language? Like I said, Spanish seems to be likely the easiest for me to learn.

[0rganism]

72. best way to learn is immersion

Seriously. Go live in a non-English-speaking country for a year or so without isolating yourself from the locals, you'll start speaking and understanding the lingo long before the spine breaks on your phrasebook.

Smaller doses of immersion can supplement standard education, tho. Four years of high school Spanish had me reading and hearing Spanish pretty well, but I couldn't really speak it on the fly. At the end of my senior year, I went on an extended tour of Spain with the teacher and some of the other students. After four weeks in Spain I was speaking fluently, with a Castillian accent.

It disappears just as quickly; by the end of that same summer, I'd pretty much lost my fluency, and after a year of disuse, about half my vocabulary.

Younger kids have an inherent advantage in learning by immersion. If she stays in the US, the little girl in Kurt's story could be speaking excellent English in a year or two. Their brains are fresh and flexible, opposite of freeptard woman.

If immersion isn't in the cards, there are other ways to approach it, like the multimedia instructional stuff you can run on a computer, or taking a class at your local community college. If you have friends who are fluent, ask them to talk with you and guide you on rattling off some of the simpler phrases. Be sure to supplement your studies with regular doses of media in your language of choice, be it radio or newspaper or whatever. In the case of Spanish, it's easy: you can probably find a radio station or two and maybe a TV station that broadcast in Spanish in your area. Listen in, and don't even try to keep up at first, just get used to hearing it. Spanish is a fast and efficient language, try to get a feel for the rythm of how it's spoken. If you can find a Spanish TV station, turn on the captioning to practice your reading, too. Also practice reading aloud from articles and texts when you can, whether or not you understand all the words. Just aim for a steady delivery, and go back later to look up words you didn't understand. With Spanish, you'll have a huge learning advantage, because its rules of phonetics are relatively straightforward and it's very common in the Americas.

Anyway, that's my take on it.

[YOY]

96. Well...

Swedish, Russian, Bulgarian, Some German, Some Danish, Some Spanish, and English.

That's me tooting my horn...

[pitohui]

109. spanish and japanese are phonetic

if you're a tone deaf traveler start w. them -- i'm a high functioning autistic traveler and i do best w. them

the best way to learn is to practice with a native speaker who resists breaking down into english, but if you don't have that, audiotapes can at least let you limp along


i understood nothing said in french or german if the person speaking don't want me to and i think i never will but you prob. don't have my challenges

[YOY]

117. Actually, German is about a phonetic as they get

You say it like you see it.

They grammar is a bear as are the cases and knowing which verbs are Masculine, Feminine, or Neutral. I always end up asking native speakers "Der, Die, oder Das" when learning a new noun.

Many of the words resemble words used in English (close cognates) like Schriebe (scribe/write).

[Katzenjammer]

55. Molodets! (nt)

[YOY]

99. Spasibo

n/t

[BreweryYardRat]

65. Should've mixed English and Russian.

Called him a goat's pizda.

It's one of exactly two Russian words I know.

[YOY]

97. Or I could have told him to

"Yub your Mats" or "Go na hui"

(And for all you French speakers 'hui' does not mean 'seven' in Russian...and there is a reason why we smile everytime you say it.) :crazy:

[ElboRuum]

103. Not sure of the 'spelling'

That wouldn't be a little part of "I di na hui", would it? If so, I understand the grinning.

[YOY]

104. A little tough in latin letters, but it's one word (idti)

'Idti (to walk/go) na hui'. (on a c**k) You can put a 'pa' before 'idti' as as well to make it a better command (I think...)

You can also say 'Pashol пошел(male target)/Pashla пошла(female target) на хуй ( na hui. ' 'Pashol ti' works better as a less offensive (but still not nice) manner.

[fudge stripe cookays]

16. "Cette femme est une grande cochon." n/t

[coalition_unwilling]

37. ROTFLMAO (not sure how I'd translate that anagram into francais)

[AspenRose]

43. Ha ha ha ha

My french is rusty but I knew what that said :D

[CarlVK]

17. I despise language bigots like that bitch

It's one of my pet peeves. The key to our betterment is to embrace languages rather than demonize them. Monoglot societies are retarded ones.

[StraightDope]

18. "Sad, yes?" Muy triste, ciertamente.

Es la razon porque yo hablo espanol... a todos de las opportunidades. La idioma ingles es de gran util, pero el mismo no tene la originalidad de expression de la idioma espanola.

Pardon the lack of accent marks and the tilde over various "n" letters. Damnable English keyboard!

[dipsydoodle]

20. Every nation has its

cows. You met one last night. Someone should have said to her in French " what is it a about shut the fuck up" you can't quite grasp.

No one should ever give children a hard time.x(

[KamaAina]

21. A bas les FReepeurs!

Vive la langue francaise!

[hootinholler]

23. A little help for the French impaired?

Please?

Edit to paste in the translation: "This woman does not speak francais. sad, yes"

-Hoot

[Book Lover]

27. Translation:

"Cette femme ne parle pas francais. triste, oui ?"

This woman doesn't speak French. Sad, isn't it?

[KurtNYC]

30. My last line was "that woman doesn't speak any french - sad yes?"

And to be clear, it wasn't anyone's lack of french speaking that I found sad -- it was her lack of manners.

[hootinholler]

42. But of course...

I picked up on the anit-rudeness, I just couldn't figure out the line.

I went to a net translator and got it, but thanks for the reply.

-Hoot

[pitohui]

110. HER lack of manners?

everyone involved in the story lacked manners -- the 5 yr old gets a pass

you don't know the lady's background or culture, what if she was from chalmette, louisiana (good odds this time of century since the town was totally destroyed, maybe she was venice, louisiana, totally destroyed and will never be rebuilt, etcetera and so on) -- in south louisiana it is only good manners to pipe up and say something, anything

she was telling the kid she could be a stock broker, it wasn't like telling the kid she was janitor in a drum

hello?

you were just as cruel and rude as she was, maybe more so, since you have an education

as i say above, this story is sad on many levels, you scored points off someone trying and struggling to be nice despite a lack of education and opportunities, i hope you feel proud

[huskerlaw]

119. Hmm...no....

piping up and joining a conversation is one thing.

Claiming you can only be successful if you speak English is quite another.

If that lady was trying to be nice, perhaps she should work on doing it without "accidentally" being a condescending bitch.

It matters not where she was from or what culture she was raised in. Telling a person who's speaking French that they can't be successful unless they go to school and learn English is ignorant and rude.

[Occulus]

49. and the response: "oui"

Priceless. Absolutely priceless.

[Recursion]

24. Formidable!

Allez! Et la!

[Book Lover]

26. Jesu! A new York?

Deve essere un turista. E che huevos affinche lei critichino chiunque nel sottopassaggi.

[CTyankee]

38. Si, davvero!

Che modi!

[troubleinwinter]

28. This is my friend, Libby.

She does not speak English. She speaks Navajo fluently.

She must not be very "American".

[KurtNYC]

31. Well then she should just go back to whatever country she came from!

;-)

[Arugula Latte]

62. The land bridge is under water, though!

:scared:

[mcscajun]

47. See? That's why she missed a thriving career on Wall Street!

How empty her life must have been. :sarcasm:

From the looks of her, she did quite well without English, Wall Street, or freeperish busy-bodies telling her how she should live, and speak.

[Occulus]

52. I would *love* to have a nice long talk with her.

Wow. You are really lucky to have such a person to call a friend.

Has she shared much of the native traditions/legends/stories with you- in her own language? My thought is, something is always lost in translation, but to get it from a source like that would minimize that loss.

Sheesh- she just looks remarkable. And wise.

Very photogenic, too. She looks like anyone's favorite grandmother.

[troubleinwinter]

69. "really lucky to have such a person to call a friend."

Yes I am! I cannot speak her Navajo language (her family translates for us), but we communicate with our eyes and laughter!

She must be wise, because all of her family are kind, extremely generous, intelligent, and have wonderful humor. A great number have served in the armed forces over many generations. Honor, service and patriotism are very much part of their culture.

I would say that they hold the 'blue' part of my 'red' state, from the conversations I had with so many. The ones I spoke to did not go along with this war at all.

A woman told me in May:

"When the economy becomes bad, we feel it immediately. When a family cannot take a vacation to come and visit our land, we cannot make any money. They don't come so much now.

You know our lands, having lived with us. I drive an hour or two hours to visit a neighbor or my brother or go to a store. It is that way for all of us. We cannot do well when gas prices go up. We have no place to make the money that we need. My uncle has to drive a long way to get his water to fill a small tank to live.

We know when the economy is getting bad, we feel it first. It is bad now."

[VaYallaDawg]

29. I hate to see some of these small-minded small towns passing

"English official language" laws.

Somebody is going to have to give me the "English" word for "taco" - if I go into a Mexican restaurant, how am I going to order one without using a Spanish word??

Besides - what passes for English in most of this country is a god-awful bastardized version of that wonderful language anyway.

[Ilsa]

93. No, we should pass an English-only law.;

because then we'd get to deport Bush.

[SharonAnn]

124. I had a friend ask me what the Spanish word for "patio" is. I laughed

Next i suppose she'll want to know what the Spanish words are for:

canyon
balcony
veranda
plaza

etc.

BTW, I learned that some words that I thought were true Spanish, such as "frijoles" and "aguacate" (avocado) are used in Central America but not in Chile. The words used in Chile are "porotes" and "palta". Apparently the Spanish took the native Indian words and the Central American language of Nahuatl (Aztec) used the word "aguacatl" for what we now know as avocado.

I find this kind of stuff interesting.

Also, in Honduras, around the fruit company compounds on the coast, the word for gardener is "yardero" from the english word "yard" instead of "jardinero" from the Spanish word "jardin". And the Security Guard is "el watchiman". etc.

[VaYallaDawg]

134. I love interesting words with fun origins too.

I used to travel to Mexico City on business a lot (many years ago), to the University Medical Center. During those days there was (reputedly) a big market in stolen hub caps off of rental cars. But you could avoid this by hiring what was know as a "watchacarro" - a man to stay near wherever you had parked your car to ... well ...

The "English only" sentiment is such bad news for our country. We are the world's original melting pot - half of the beauty and color and poetry of our neighborhoods is the sound of people laughing and bargaining and grieving with each other in the languages they understand - we don't all have to know every single word of those languages to understand the fact that we're all human, and we're all American.

OK, off the soapbox.

[ElboRuum]

32. Zut Alors!

Cette femme n'est pas trop brillant, n'est-ce pas?

[cyclezealot]

33. Well. sorta french related.

We were at a Greek fast food restaurant in San Diego county. Some crazy military wife was into the whole "freedom fry/French fry' thing. She ordered Freedom fries in an ordering line, directly in front of us.
So our turn to order, she is standing next to us awaiting her order. So my wife and I Start a whole dialogue about how this restaurant does French fries, with real potatos, JUST like the French do. Not that pasty stuff you get at McDonalds. We banter a couple sentences about , I think French fries sounds good today. So, we both ordered French fries. WE must have used the word French fries about 12 times.
We never order French fries. In the US they are usually too greasy. But that day we ordered two large servings and enjoyed them.

[racaulk]

34. I don't speak French but I do speak a little Spanish.

And to you I say...

Muy bien!!!

It amazes me that some people are so self-righteous that they feel entitled to tell other people how to conduct their lives, even complete strangers. And the fact that she was speaking to an innocent child makes her behavior even more obnoxious.

Thank you for putting that beeeyotch in her place, and thanks even more for sharing the story with us. This made my day!

K&R baby! :)

:kick:

[KurtNYC]

53. To hear french as spoken by a small child is just about as beautiful

as language gets. All the more reason that woman was wrong. For example track 3 at this site:
http://www.fbesp.org/jordy/

And usually I like when I'm reading or just zoning out when people around me speak a foreign language. It is easier to ignore their conversations.

Yo hablo espanol tambien pero you hablo como los mexicanos porque yo estudie' espanol en Los Angeles. I have trouble getting my ear around spanish the way it is spoken here -- the Dominicans and others have an accent that I don't quite get and they speak fast too.

[coalition_unwilling]

36. Ca, c'est drole, c'est magnifique. Merci bien (n/t)

[shadowknows69]

41. By the time she's ten

that girl will probably speak better english than that woman and still be fluent in french.

[dapper]

61. What am I in a foreign country?

... .--. . .- -.- .-
-.. .
.. -. --.- .-- .. ... ....
..-
..-. ..- .-.. ...

...I'm kidding...

[RB TexLa]

44. One of the best things to tell these people is

I speak English, I just don't speak it with you.

[fudge stripe cookays]

57. RG, you have just earned my chuckling respect.

Sort of a Shatner-like learning to poke at yourself the way many of us had started to.

Sorry for being a bitch before. But that cocktail party story was really funny.

[RB TexLa]

59. there was no "poking" at anything

what do you have against speaking directly to people?

[fudge stripe cookays]

74. I was speaking directly to you.

What do have against not being a jerk just for the sake of being a jerk?

[Occulus]

48. L. O. L.

Oh my God. Was it just those people present? Did anyone say anything else?

That poor woman probably felt like she had stepped into an episode of "The Twilight Zone".

Good for you. And a good laugh, too! :D

[KurtNYC]

64. There may have been 40 to 50 people in that car

and people speak all kinds of languages but mostly english and spanish. Subway cars are long, maybe 50-feet; it was really just the 4 of us in this conversation.

[mcscajun]

50. Cela a été bien fait!

:applause:

You are witty in two languages, and the freeper witch can barely handle one.

[SammyWinstonJack]

54. How rude!

[ecstatic]

58. That woman must have been visiting from the South

A small town, where being a bossy bigot is the norm... Talking to a stranger's child that way on a NYC train is not the brightest thing to do... She's lucky she didn't get her ass whipped or worse.

[sadiesworld]

63. Being a bossy bigot is the norm in the South?

Heal thyself.

[kilgore65]

102. Yes, for a generation of white women born in the 30s 40s and 50s ...

it is... and these women are absolutely insufferable. My first reaction to the story was the same, that the woman must have been from the South to speak in such a haughy, arrogant, provincial way. Vive la France!!

[CTyankee]

122. Uh, I am one of those white women born in the time frame you mentioned

and in the south. I left Texas, my home state, when I was 18 to go off to college, never to return to live. I am a liberal, progressive woman, now a CT Yankee and proud to be so.

Don't be too absolute with your judgment of "these women." I am one of them!

[Bridget Burke]

132. Like Ann Richards?

Or like me? (Younger than Ann but still in your suspect tiem frame.)

There's no evidence whatsoever that the ignorant woman was from the South.

[lildreamer316]

66. Oh. Thanks for generalizing.

I am a proud resident of the South. And a woman. Who has visited New York City 5 times.

[ecstatic]

67. no harm intended. I live in the South

and I'm originally from NY. There are bigots in NY as well as everywhere else but in general, New Yorkers are accustomed to diversity and foreign languages and won't comment on it (at least not out loud). The woman who made the comments had to be from a small town with a more homogeneous population.

[skygazer]

76. "Had to be"?

You know, it's never a good move to generalize. I grew up in a very small town. I never saw a single person of color until I was at least 10 or 12 nor did I ever hear a language besides English until I was about that age. Does that make me small-minded and a bigot? Being raised in a more diverse area is no guarantee that a person will be tolerant.

That's an utterly simplistic remark with absolutely no factual basis.

[JHB]

68. What, we don't have our share of bigoted idiots? Who elected Rudy?

Lay off the South except for when they deserve it... like snow flurries making them forget how to drive ;-) :toast:

[pitohui]

111. yes i do think she was from the south

and she was not being rude, for a southerner if she wished to be rude she would just pretend the child and the mom and kurtnyc and the rest of ya'll didn't effin' exist

are we really this clueless?

folks -- i am a fucking high functioning autistic -- if i was young enough to be in school after the diagnosis was established i would almost certainly be asperger's

and even *I* see this

ya'll honestly can't see the lady was trying to be kind

if she thought she was all so high above ya'll she wouldn't have said DICK to the child

certainly she would not have suggested the child would one day be working on WALL STREET

she should get her ass whipped for NOT being a bigot and for NOT being so "high and mighty" and above it all? in other words, the true asshat would have been given a free pass and not even noticed

but the "liberal" blue collar southern lady is condemned

what the hell is wrong w. us?

we punish people for trying to be kind and then wonder why we're fucked

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

116. This autism/Asperger's excuse is REALLY REALLY REALLY worn out. -nt

[Bridget Burke]

120. Hey, I'm probably one of those undiagnosed "Aspies"....

But I know where to find the shift key!

(If the lady was really from South Louisiana, why didn't she speak French? I know their version is different.)

[fudge stripe cookays]

121. Pssssst!

You're also not a complete asshole to others and then blame it on your Asp-ness.

Get it? ;-)

[Catherine Vincent]

60. Gawd!

How do you say "F_U_B!" in french?

[gully]

70. Sounds great, please translate.

;)

[sakabatou]

71. Furansu-go wakaranai

[NuttyFluffers]

113. "sono onna no hito wa furansugo de hanasemasen. zannen desu ne." to iu

yokatta desu ka? douitashimashite.

:hi:

[sakabatou]

115. Anata no nihon-go wa mama desu

I think you said, "This woman speaks French. It's a shame isn't it? Was that good? Tell me if it's good."

I might be off though.

[NuttyFluffers]

129. :D watashi no nihongo wa maa maa da ka? shizuka da yo!

:evilgrin:

daijoubu, daijoubu. (it's OK, it's OK...)

sono = "that" remember kore, sore, are? the possessive pronoun versions kono, sono, ano? this, that, that over there?

the 'se' in hana'se'masen stands for volitional form. as in "can do" something. instead of hana'shi'masen, which does not indicate capacity. hanasu becomes hanaseru. iru/eru verbs drop the ru and add rareru, (but you then have to figure out if their not passive via context. taihen da ne!). other verbs just drop the last vowel and add 'eru'. thus 'i can drink sake!' becomes ' (watashi wa) osake o nomemasu yo' (emphasis added is mine :D )

naturally the 'masen' is the negative qualifier.

'yokatta ka' is just a rhetorical question with the subject + object left out. basically saying 'is that good for you?' if you want to say, 'is that all good?' i'd just repeat as my teacher says 'zenbu yokatta desu ka'.

'douitashimashite' is just 'you're welcome' here.

translation: "that woman cannot speak French. regrettable, isn't it?" (Original Poster is assumed subject) said.
(was that) good (for you)? you're welcome.

oh well, now back to the 'jigoku' (Hell) known as kanji study... one day i'll be able to speak this damn language! :D

edit: misspelled jigoku w/ a chi instead... it's been a loooong night of kanji.

[sakabatou]

131. Damn

Aw well, close enough.

[Jack Rabbit]

73. Very good

My poor Spanish is good enough for me to understand the French.

[bliss_eternal]

75. Too bad no one could teach the French girl to reply,"Fuck You"

to that rude woman. :eyes::mad:

[Cassandra]

81. Merde is a handy word.

aka shit.

[bliss_eternal]

82. LOL!

I swear, I'm picking up my independent french study again. It rocks to be able to curse in other languages. :hi:

[mcscajun]

84. A supplementary text or two for you...and for all who took H.S. French

Merde!: The Real French You Were Never Taught at School (Paperback)
by Genevieve, Michael Heath

Streetwise French: Speak and Understand Everyday French (Streetwise! S.) (Paperback)
by Isabelle Rodrigues, Ted Neather

[bliss_eternal]

86. This is wonderful!

Thank you SO much! I'm going to call the library and see if they have these, before checking at B&N for purchase! :woohoo:

:hi:

[GoneOffShore]

90. They've combined

volumes one & two
Merde et Merde Encore.

And Michael Heath does some cool cartoons. Some of his stuff you'll find in the New Yorker.

[bumblebee1]

128. What an idea

not sure how that little girl's mother would like hearing her daughter speaking that way.

[Selatius]

77. Hahahahaha!

Sans doute!

[Rex]

78. Poor woman, she thinks working on Wall Street means something!

Corporate whores milling about for their next fix. Good response!

[sarcasmo]

80. Mario Lemeiux

[Amonester]

125. Typo!! ;-)

It's Mario Lemieux. :-D

(Guy Lafleur, Maurice Richard, Raymond Bourque, Marcel Dionne et Luc Robitaille sont aussi mes favoris.)

:thumbsup:

[Ioo]

83. La femme est simplement fâchée

La femme est simplement fâchée que les gens puissent parler de sa droite à son visage, et elle est à sourd-muet pour le savoir.

[tocqueville]

85. Merci n/t

[RebelOne]

88. OK, without sounding bigoted, I just want to say that when

I lived in Miami (where I grew up), I was sort of sick of the Cuban refugees telling me that I needed to learn Spanish. This is my country and I will not speak their language. I knew Spanish, but only spoke it when necessary, for example, to mechanics who were mostly Spanish. And I would say "Mi caro es muy infermo."

[GoneOffShore]

91. Learning another language gives you another map

The more languages you learn, the more understanding there is.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

92. my car is very sick?

how did I do?

I've been picking up some of the lingo at work lately, they only laugh at me once or twice a day now. :)

[Solon]

118. You know that Florida was a Spanish territory before it became...

American, right? There already is too much Anglicization in this country, do you really want it to continue?

[Bridget Burke]

133. "My expensive one is very infermo"?

Babelfish confirmed my suspicions.

By assuming the mechanics "refused" to speak English & slaughtering their language, your car probably WAS an "expensive one." Overcharges, you know.

[Ilsa]

94. I bet if they'd been signing in ASL, that nasty woman would have

demanded that they do it in English.

[roguevalley]

100. tres bitchin'. I love this.

[Writer]

101. Jesus Christ - in New York?

That person obviously wasn't a local. What a patronizing bitch. All she needs to do is look up at the placards in the subway car to understand that NYC is a multi-lingual society.

[tomreedtoon]

105. Wait a minute...did you call the woman a Triscuit?

I didn't think they had Crackers up in New York, but maybe you ran across an outpost of the Klan on that bus.

[pitohui]

106. you blue meanie but that is funny

she was trying to be nice, tho, she just didn't know how

if she was a shithead she would have just pretended the other people around her didn't exist, that's what pitohui always do on public transportation

so much of life is about mammals trying to show how they;re better than other mammals, sadly, democrats are still mammals

you prob. made the best choice you could but it's still sad, isn't it?

[and-justice-for-all]

112. Haha!! thats great!!!

[lostnfound]

114. And aren't there one or two tourists in New York?

Sounds like the English-o-phile is listening to too much talk radio.

[DivinBreuvage]

127. If you live in NY State and can't speak one of the Iroquoian languages...

your life is a fraud and a sickening waste, and you are a hypocrite. In this hemisphere French is nothing but another language of the colonizer and the genocide.

On edit, this isn't directed at anyone personally; I am using "you" in the third person sense. I would have said "One who lives in NY state" except it comes off as so pretentious here in the land of the working people.

[Random_Australian]

130. Ok, hypothetical for you:

Scientist lives in that place. Does some wonders of chemistry & math. As a math person, is not good speaker, and uses ability such as it is to learn the specialised science language.

Is this life "A fraud and a sickening waste" ?



Edit: Sorry for my poor fluency. When I am not thinking about the words I need to use, I speak somewhat telegraphically.... who cares?