Un phoque
If you learned all your English from non-native speakers, British people, or from the movies, you might be excused for thinking that the word I will call phoque is one of the most commonly spoken words in the United States. Ah ben you'd be wrong except in certain specific groups. The average American does not use it with people he or she does not know well or unless used deliberately to shock. There are lots and lots of exceptions, mostly on the east and west coasts and within certain communities (Reddit, Hollywood and Silicon Valley come to mind). And usage is changing fast, too. But in many parts of the U.S.A., which is still a very religious and conservative nation, you can go months or even years on end without hearing it in public.
But non-native speakers think nothing of strewing their conversation with "phoquing this" and "phoquing that" and "Phoque him" and "What the phoque?" Germans, Dutch and Scandinavians are especially prone to this, possibly because they all speak English well (but not usually as well as they think they do or they would stop doing this).
The German word for phoque is ficken, which probably sounds about as nasty to me as phoque does to a German. (V in German is pronounced f, by the way, which is one reason why you don't meet many German girls named Victoria!)
This rant was inspired by hearing a German woman at a party drop a long series of f-bombs into her prattling English conversation as if that was really a cool way to talk. It actually made her sound like an obnoxious foreigner.
I wanted to lean over and say, "Fick dich in deiner eigener fickenden Sprache!" and see how she likes it.
COMMENTS ( 1 )
posted on 12 August at 08:07
Hi Sedulia
Just by accident I found your blog, resp. this post about Germans talking English in a very rude way. You are right, people use it in the meantime very often, but still it is, as well in Germany, a "bad" word for those who think about language and the social groups, they are part of. For young people it is used not to offend anyone, but we hear it in your movies, in your songs etc. It just became popualar to say it, like "cool". The Americans have a huge impact on other countries, for whatever reason. So there is as well a part on your end to change how you show youurself in the world. We both need to educate people to avoid it, if it insults or offends people. I really like the English language, I work with Brits and Americans as well. None of my colleagues is using this word in public.
One information about "ficken". This is not used in the same way as f. A good comparison in meaning would be "scheiße", but this cannot be used as flexible as f either, as our language is different. So your American word gives us a way to express many negative (as well sometimes positive) feelings in an easy way. But this is not an apology, it is just an explanation.
I hope you will be able to meet more Germans over there, most of us don't like to use this word and can perfectly speak without it. :-)