You need to know these words!!!
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A lot of people try to avoid learning swear words in other languages. I don't understand why. These words are part of the language, and you shouldn't avoid them because they make you feel bad. Barry Farber and A.G. Hawke say in their books that you shoud avoid learning profanity in other languages. I say you should as long as you avoid SAYING them. Just KNOW them. I discuss this in my book.
Brandon Simpson
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Good Fun! Useful?-Probably
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Any author of this type of book is on a hiding to nothing - the readership is likely to stretch from the purient schoolboy to the scholarly student!
This book treads a good middle ground, with plently of gutter language, but with a hefty nod towards the correct grammar and pronunciation.
It's not all gutter language - that would make a very dull book - but it includes plenty of colloquialisms too.
The reader or student of this type of book is very much in the hands of the writer not to lead them into social difficulties (!) and the author of Merde! tries to help by grading the language from zero to two stars! However, I do wonder if the author has a prudish streak because there seem to be tranches of the English language that are not mentioned (do French women not menstruate?!).
There is also a danger of this type of book becoming out of date - and again the reader would be unaware of the changing language - with the potential for gaffes in use.
There are occasional curiosities , leading one to wondr why the inclusion - eg bistro. Furthermore, I am unsure whether the book is aimed at the British or American market - the author is clearly English, but there are occasional americanisms thrown in, which make it a strange read for an Englishman, but there are insufficient to make it a useful tome for an American.
Hoepfully the next edition will include an A-Z reference so that a term can be referenced back to a given page (eg Merde - see page 99 etc); perhaps a section on internet / email / txt speak might also be entertaining and potentially useful as well.
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Entertaining.
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This book is entertaining to leaf through every so often, paritcularly if you might be visiting France any time soon!
You do, however, require previous knowledge of French grammar if you want to be able to use your newly learned words effectively.
It's great if you want to yell at someone, baffling them so much they're unable to retalliate. Even if you don't want to use the vocabulary (which includes phrases such as "to tear one another's guts out" and "to have it off"), it's still quite an amusing read.
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The French you really wanted to know... and spanish too
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I've had the UK version of this book for years, as well as the sequel "Merde Encore" and the Spanish version "mierda". I couldn't believe my luck. Instant credibility in a few hours reading. I've shown it to many friends and it has been a universal hit. If it was used as a text book in schools, the interest and uptake of foreign languages would be much higher!
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Going to France to enjoy yourself? You need this book!
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When I first moved to Paris, I could barely speak a word of French (and had no job, and nowhere to stay, but that's another story), apart from a heavily-accented "une baguette de pain s'il vous plait Madame". And I can honestly say that this book was THE most useful thing I read -- indeed, it's the only book I pored over and learnt sections of by heart. Yes, speaking proper sentences and being polite and all that is all very useful, but if you really want to enjoy yourself, and get on with the locals, then this is the motherlode. Even if you only know two words of French, slipping a few well-chosen words like "bagnole", "boulot", and "flingue" (and the choicer swear words) into your conversation will break the ice, and impress your hosts, a LOT more than knowing the subjective pluperfect ever could. I eventually took "proper" French lessons at the Sorbonne, and had many arguments with my teacher about the relative merits of "correct" and "colloquial" French. For me, learning a language is about communicating, not about grammar, and this is the perfect place to start. To this day, I make sure that none of my friends or colleagues goes off to France for any period of time without a copy of this under their arm...
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