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IiD:
I live in the Valencia region of Spain – if I wanted to work in any public office I’d have to speak, and write Valenciá, the Valencian language, as well as Castillian Spanish.
If I lived in Catalunya I’d have to speak and write Catalan as well as Spanish.
Well, if it is an ‘in joke’, then amimissingsomething is the only one who is in on it.
I was talking about frogs. Real frogs. Jumpy things that croak.
No Frenchmen were insulted during the posting of this message.
No Frenchmen were insulted during the posting of this message.
TheCuckoo | 23.04.07 – 2:38 pm |
Wonderful.
I think I must be getting old. To me the French have always been Froggies (because they eat frogs legs). Do I take offence when they refer to me as Ros-Bifs because I eat roast beef. Of course I bloody don’t. Do they take offence? Personally I don’t think they give a toss what the English think of them.
To anyone like me, born just after WWII, and brought up on a staple of Eagle and Wizard, Germans were Krauts or Fritz after ‘For you the war is over Fritz’. (The first years of my life were spent in Germany and my first language was German, as were my childhood friends). Just like the Japanese are Nips. For the hard of thinking this is a truncation of Nippon.
Anybody who comes from a service background will refer to Jock, Paddy, Taff, Chalky, Dusty, Sharky, Oh and shock horror, call in the thought police, even ragheads.
Do I dislike the French because I call them Froggies?
I’ve always admired their single-mindedness in pursuing a foreign policy that is totally self-serving.
I love their cuisine. I’ve waded through Zola (English translations of course). I adore Saint-Saens, Debussy and Erik Satie. I enjoy Paris, who else but the French could turn an old railway station into the Musée d’Orsay (always takes my breath).
Oh, and on Friday I’m off to the National Gallery to see the Renoir exhibition because the Impressionists leave me spellbound, even though Turner was their inspiration.
I’m hard pushed to find things I dislike about them (apart from their politics). Are they froggies? Well just look at the endless reruns of Sharpe that are being played out on UK Gold.
Please tell me this is an in-joke between you two and that I have nothing to despair about.
TPO | 23.04.07 – 12:01 pm |
well, i was just joking
sorry if any offence caused…seriously, i never do (crude) ethnic jokes
i didn’t think he meant any group, which is precisely why i pretended, in jest, that he did!
amimissingsomething | 24.04.07 – 2:53 am |
i’m sorry – it just seemed totally out of character with everything else I’ve seen you post.
I really am getting old. Its just that things that I’ve always accepted as innocuous banter are now seized upon by a new breed of zealot thought police and I find it disturbing and frightening, particularly when these zealots are self appointed.