Fuck you, penguin
Labels: France, French Grammar
From "Fuck you, penguin"
French for penguin is "pingouin".
Except if you call a penguin a "pingouin" in France all the french people will shout at you and tell you that what you are looking at is not a "pingouin" but a "manchot".
They are very pedantic about it, "pingouins" come from the arctic and are auks and can fly, and there is only 1 species left. What everyone else on the entire planet calls a penguin, those tuxedoed bastards, come from the Antarctic, can't fly and are "manchots".
Now put "manchot" into google language tools and it will tell you penguin. Put "pingouin" into google language tools and it will tell you . . . penguin.
Bloody French.
posted by Stew @ 10:36 pm
4 people could be arsed to comment
4 Comments:
try the difference between an hibou and a chouette....both are owls if you ask me....
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hi Stew,
I saw your blog in "A taste of Garlic" and wondered if you would be interested in contributing to our new online magazine TIENS ! Le Sud-Ouest de la France.
Here's the address to the home page: http://websitetiensmagazine.dutchgiraffe.fr/
For more information, please contact me.
Kind regards,
Perry Taylor
perry@tiensmagazine.com
So you do not like to be corrected? Well you certainly have chosen a hell of a country to live in I'd say. The French (as you undoubtedly know) take great delight in correcting others, usually loftily, pedantically, even arrogantly. It's a fundamental cultural trait and they can stick it up their fundament but there you are Nancy. (No, not the town in France, Nancy.) I grew up with all the white folks nagging one another about referring to the "banana tree": "It's a plant, stupid!" "Trees have bark and trunks and branches" yadda yadda. Then I come to live in Bananalandia and guess what they call it here? Bahasa Indonesia; pohon pisang. Guess what that means.
Post a Comment
<< Home