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Cussing
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13 thoughts on “Cussing”
I wish my students were motivated enough to look up the swears! When they ask me, I tell them to do what I had to do when I was learning: go find a good dictionary! No one has ever tried to use the swears in class, though. Perhaps rather than being unmotivated, they are just very polite!
In case anyone has students to whom it is appropriate to give the Spanish cuss words (adults), you should check out Bryce Hedstrom’s “Conversational Spanish” book that is sold on this site… really good comprehensive dictionary of cuss words!!
I have always told such inquisitive students to go find a good bilingual dictionary of slang at one of the better public libraries.
I make a fairly big deal out of the class being G-rated from day one, which has pretty much taken care of it. (well….with consistent reteaching as necessary lol) With my seniors I am fairly frank: it is impossible to interact with Spanish speakers without being exposed to a fair amount of these words, but it isn’t my place to teach them, nor theirs to use them in high school. I encourage study abroad where they can immerse themselves in all of it that they would like. :o)
with love,
Laurie
Excellent; that G-rated comment is exactly what I tell my middle-schoolers and I crack down hard on infractions. I will add the “not my place to teach you this/not your place to use them in school.”
I also tell them what I read in Barry Farber’s How to Learn any Language (p. 133) that using foul language in English among people you don’t know well causes you to lose standing but when you go out of your way to curse in a foreign language, it is much worse (paraphrased).
thanks,
lori
Thanks for that book citation Lori, I will check that one out. It does make sense that one would look very silly going out of one’s way to curse in a FL. Just think about someone trying to do it in English when they can’t get the basics quite right… I will use that visual (but try to avoid too much discussion on it, I’m sure they can think of lots of examples from movies) 🙂
I tell them that while it’s nice to know a few naughty words, it tends to make you look stupid rather than cool. Here in the classroom, the kid who can say “F you!” is going to look like a cool guy. But in France? Not so much. What is likely to happen?
Kid says “F you!” to a French person.
French person retorts with a bunch of words – likely NOT anything the kid can understand, other than understanding that the French person is angry.
Kid says “F you!” again, because it’s the only naughty thing they know.
French person says a bunch more words, also not understood.
Kid says “F you!” again.
French person decides the kid must be mentally deficient or just stupid, and then walks away.
I tell them that in order to swear and NOT sound like an idiot in a foreign language, you really have to know the foreign language well. Really, really well. Because any points you hoped to make by using foul language will be wiped out if you use it incorrectly. A person with a funny accent using the F word correctly is pretty impressive. A person with a funny accent using it incorrectly just makes everyone laugh at them.
My husband is from Poland. He served in the US Army, so he knows his was around the swear words. But even being fluent in English doesn’t mean he always gets it right. And when he gets it wrong…well, whatever message he was trying to convey is overcome by the giggles on my part when I point out his mistake.
I’m going to stick my neck out and share my thoughts.
I don’t really think it is such a big deal to know a few swear words. It is something that is interesting to them. I have been known to use the ‘s’ word in English (but not in class) and just as easily the ‘m’ word in French. I think it is not such a big deal to the French as it is to Americans. My kids know it but never use it (oddly enough!) because it has just come up and I don’t avoid it. Maybe I am naive but I don’t know how to say F you or F off in French or Spanish. As far as I know they don’t use it in the same (prolific) manner that Americans do.
Also it’s a wonder to me that the word for seal (phoque) comes up almost every year for some reason (I think one of our books is about seals) yet aside from a few odd comments here or there the kids don’t try to get them into stories or whatever.
I think they feel some pride that they know something that other people don’t know. But, since I have just first and second year students they seem to have little desire to try to tell someone off in French! (One exception; my second year boys keep trying to call each other butt head. They keep trying to put tête and fesses together and it just doesn’t work. I keep telling them it’s really wrong but they continue to be creative with their play with language.)
I do a mini-unit for my adults (outside of class) on cussing, but NOT to encourage them to cuss. I want them to understand the words and AVOID using them. when I was learning Spanish I often heard and acquired words that I thought meant something like “Wow!” or “Dude”. when I used them in polite company, people were appalled. I want to help my adult student to avoid similar situations.
Yes, that’s a great reason to understand profanity–to avoid using it ignorantly.
Btw, I was approached about teaching Spanish to an older group of women who want to learn to use the language when they take church trips to Texas.
Any sage advice on how adult class instruction and materials differ from teaching teens?
The overall strategy is the same: Compelling Comprehensible Input. Tactics can differ a bit. My adult student learn far faster than my high school students. They have bigger English vocabularies (which helps them to substitute unknown words with similar cognates), they are more aware of their own learning strengths (which helps them to focus on what works for them) and they are more motivated than high school students. So with my adults, I go faster, I explicitly teach cognates and I frequently survey them as to what works and what doesn’t. But it is all very similar with both adults and teens: stories, jokes, songs, fun stuff and general banter with the most common words, all in the TL. If they know the most common 300-500 words well they will do fine on the church trips.
Maybe you could throw in some stories that use some of the specialized vocabulary they will need on the trips. What are they doing? Construction, medical, evangelism, literacy? That will change the vocabulary needs a bit, but the core of the most common words will help the most.
thanks; very helpful and encouraging. I don’t know any specifics yet, but now I have a feel for what to expect and what to do.
I appreciate your getting back with me so quickly!
lori
I have two German exchange students who are my aides during my German I class. The first week, when the two of them barely knew each other, the German boy leaned over and asked the German girl in perfectly enunciated Spanish to “do something” to his “something”.
I don’t speak Spanish, but growing up where I did and having taught ESL to Spanish-speakers for a number of years, I am pretty well versed in the “colorful metaphors” as Mr. Spock would say.
His host mother was appalled when I called her. Turns out he had recently been “tutored” by a friend of the family and was just repeating what he had learned. Nice.