I love french Fridays:) cowly owl ! Sometimes I print it off and share with alliance conversation class, which is always appreciated , thanks Rosemary.
Rosemary Kneipp
May 31st, 2013 at 9:21 am
Thank you, Jill, for spreading the word at Alliance Française!
Jill
May 31st, 2013 at 2:22 am
And a big thank you for sharing my blog post too.. Vachement sympa !
I must say I was amused rather than insulted by Mme B’s comment, but the person she said it to (in front of me) looked embarrassed, probably because I clearly understood the remark. This incident was several years ago now.
Rosemary Kneipp
May 31st, 2013 at 9:21 am
Well, I’m glad you took it so well – it could have given you a complex forever! I’ll add “once” to the sentence!
Portlandia
May 31st, 2013 at 10:22 am
Another anecdote about the expression “la vache” to describe s/g unpleasant. I was in a restaurant a few years ago and a man behind me was literally choking to death. Someone did the Heimlich and he was OK, but when he came to and realized what had happended, guess what he said? “Oh, la vache.” I told my kids and they have never forgotten the significance of the expression!
Rosemary Kneipp
May 31st, 2013 at 10:38 am
Goodness! It’s certainly an expression to be used under any circumstances.
Jane
May 31st, 2013 at 5:38 pm
I’d be really insulted if anybody said I spoke like une vache espagnole, as it means you speak very bad French. What a very unneighbourly thing to say. But it got me thinking, I don’t think that young people, teenagers, I mean, use vachement very much any more. On one of my first visits to France as a school girl on a French exchange, when I heard this expression for the first time, I was perplexed, but I heard it all the time, and soon got to grips with it. Now, I don’t think it’s so fashionable. It’s really “rélaché” and I’d avoid using it to my boss, for example.
[…] You can combine it with chouette too, as in machin chouette or go the whole way and say machin truc chouette. You may remember about chouette from my previous post on Spanish cows. […]
I love french Fridays:) cowly owl ! Sometimes I print it off and share with alliance conversation class, which is always appreciated , thanks Rosemary.
Thank you, Jill, for spreading the word at Alliance Française!
And a big thank you for sharing my blog post too.. Vachement sympa !
And you’re very welcome!
I must say I was amused rather than insulted by Mme B’s comment, but the person she said it to (in front of me) looked embarrassed, probably because I clearly understood the remark. This incident was several years ago now.
Well, I’m glad you took it so well – it could have given you a complex forever! I’ll add “once” to the sentence!
Another anecdote about the expression “la vache” to describe s/g unpleasant. I was in a restaurant a few years ago and a man behind me was literally choking to death. Someone did the Heimlich and he was OK, but when he came to and realized what had happended, guess what he said? “Oh, la vache.” I told my kids and they have never forgotten the significance of the expression!
Goodness! It’s certainly an expression to be used under any circumstances.
I’d be really insulted if anybody said I spoke like une vache espagnole, as it means you speak very bad French. What a very unneighbourly thing to say. But it got me thinking, I don’t think that young people, teenagers, I mean, use vachement very much any more. On one of my first visits to France as a school girl on a French exchange, when I heard this expression for the first time, I was perplexed, but I heard it all the time, and soon got to grips with it. Now, I don’t think it’s so fashionable. It’s really “rélaché” and I’d avoid using it to my boss, for example.
[…] You can combine it with chouette too, as in machin chouette or go the whole way and say machin truc chouette. You may remember about chouette from my previous post on Spanish cows. […]