idk if these are correct but they are funny. in highschool French I was taught that 'un boum' is a party and 'c'est le pied' means that something is beyond cool.
A french person should correct me if I'm wrong, but I think these days une boum is just a kids party, and sounds a bit cheesy if an adult says it, like having a disco in English these days.
"C'est le pied" is an actual expression, but I _think_ (Canadian French here) it means "it's fun", not "it's cool". It was used for Marty's "It's heavy" line in the Back to the Future movies.
I don't know what period "boum" is slang/informal from, though.
"Cock" is still correct in most English dialects. It's just a little dangerous if your context is unclear. (edit: But yes, "rooster" is generally a good choice.)
That reminds me of a scene in chemistry class, when I was probably in 8th grade or so.
One of the children had taken away the little thing that you use to remove pencil marks from paper, and I asked him to "give me back my rubber!". Cue laughter from the (mostly US-English-using) children.
When the teacher asked what was up, I said that they had taken away my rubber. Whereupon he said, "Well, give him back his rubber, then!" Cue more laughter. Neither the teacher (who was from the UK) nor I knew what they found so funny about that.
I have since learned :)
That doesn't really count, I suppose, since I learned the word from my father, a native speaker of UK English, rather than in a language class. But still.
I don't speak any French, but I have to say that what instantly jumped into my head upon reading "c'est hypercool" is that “Les Jeunes de Paris” skit series on "Saturday Night Live."
It would fit the WTF? wackiness of it, and be funny...
I have a lot of experiences like this one. One that comes to mind is a teacher in high school English insisting that the word "political" should be pronounced "POlli-tickle" (emphasis on the PO). This was a teacher with whom I didn't get along well, so mostly I did not bother correcting him (he would ask for evidence and I never had any on hand - but hey, I speak normal English every day at home). Why does the stress change? Hell if I know. But it does. Trust me...
I sympathize with a lot of the "we were taught overly stiff phrases" comments too. English as presented was an elaborate code of set-piece phrases, with pitfalls everywhere, and ONE precise specific way to say anything. This just made me feel weird about my own (normal!!) English. We read stories out of a reader which were ordinary enough, but the analysis, oh, the analysis, and all of it presented with terrible accents. We had to memorize translations of proverbs.
I had a french teacher like that. In my last year of school I ended up with a schedule with huge free periods, so I started taking the advanced french class as a non-examined student as something to do. There were two teachers, one French, one English. The french woman was lovely, she really encouraged you to speak and told us lots of idioms and jokes and brought real magazines and newspapers and so on in.
The English woman was the total opposite, stuck rigidly to the textbook and seemed to view languages as some elaborate code with mistakes punishable by death rather than something used for communication. She really seemed to hate teenagers, and it really didn't help that she was cross-eyed and used to call on people to answer questions by looking at them because she couldn't be bothered to learn anyone's name (there were only 12 students) and no-one could tell properly who she was looking at. She always seemed to think everyone was cruelly mocking her disability rather than actually confused.
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I don't know what period "boum" is slang/informal from, though.
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Early 80ies, when I was in middle school.
See also La Boum (1 & 2) with Sophie Marceau.
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One of the children had taken away the little thing that you use to remove pencil marks from paper, and I asked him to "give me back my rubber!". Cue laughter from the (mostly US-English-using) children.
When the teacher asked what was up, I said that they had taken away my rubber. Whereupon he said, "Well, give him back his rubber, then!" Cue more laughter. Neither the teacher (who was from the UK) nor I knew what they found so funny about that.
I have since learned :)
That doesn't really count, I suppose, since I learned the word from my father, a native speaker of UK English, rather than in a language class. But still.
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It would fit the WTF? wackiness of it, and be funny...
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I sympathize with a lot of the "we were taught overly stiff phrases" comments too. English as presented was an elaborate code of set-piece phrases, with pitfalls everywhere, and ONE precise specific way to say anything. This just made me feel weird about my own (normal!!) English. We read stories out of a reader which were ordinary enough, but the analysis, oh, the analysis, and all of it presented with terrible accents. We had to memorize translations of proverbs.
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The English woman was the total opposite, stuck rigidly to the textbook and seemed to view languages as some elaborate code with mistakes punishable by death rather than something used for communication. She really seemed to hate teenagers, and it really didn't help that she was cross-eyed and used to call on people to answer questions by looking at them because she couldn't be bothered to learn anyone's name (there were only 12 students) and no-one could tell properly who she was looking at. She always seemed to think everyone was cruelly mocking her disability rather than actually confused.
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My French teacher at school taught me that "musée" was feminine. I found out the truth embarrassingly recently.
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