Merde Encore!: More of the Real French You Were Never Taught at School
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- ISBN13: 9780684854281
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Sacre Bleu!!!
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the café…
For persons of you who delighted in Geneviève’s deliciously naughty first book, Merde!, and for persons unfortunate few who have not yet had the pleasure…Geneviève is back with Merde Encore!
Here the unique Geneviève makes further fabulous forays into French argot and comes up with an enormous range of colorful idioms, essential for anyone who wants to speak the language as it really is spoken. As an additional treat, she also gives instructions in the right use of impassioned Gallic gestures — persons silent but expressive signals so beloved of the French motorist and shopkeeper. And, most vital, she reveals how the French language, both spoken and visual, is a key to the spirit and character of the people who use it. With communicable humor, she exposes the idiosyncratic attitudes that have produced so fantastic a wealth of plain expressions.
So now learn how the French really feel about sex, food, la belle France, foreigners, hygiene, death…Merde Encore! may confirm what you’ve permanently suspected.
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This book teaches you things that only a excellent friend who is French could tell you. Not covered in the usual French text, it is for real world French.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
I got it for my teen, and it was a huge hit. LOTS of R rated phrases and words. Be warned! Still it was excellent for fun and some of it might be useful to know.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
This book assumes you have at least a full year of French behind you. It is not for beginners, even agreed the fact that most learners of a second language usually go for the “cinq lettres” words first. It was absolutely a must read for me when I visited Paris, and a bit of a help when I eventually visited Quebec. Lots of cultural nuances about the French (even body language is discussed), amusing illustrations, and plenty of excellent intentioned advice… if a bit R-rated.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
In “Merde Encore!,” leader Geneviève recommends that one should have looked over her previous book, “Merde!,” because she “shall at times . . . assume knowledge bought in the first.” Thus, she says, “What I offer here is further exploration of colloquial vocabulary and idioms and, through them, deeper insights into the French psyche.” So, while the layout of “Merde Encore!” is similar to “Merde!,” there is a difference in tone between the two books. “Merde!” presents a colloquial and idiomatic French glossary, and “Merde Encore!” attempts to offer an outsider’s view on the French psyche (in particular, on the Frenchman’s psyche) in a rather sarcastic commentary interspersed with additional vocabulary. Here, Geneviève extends her thesis from “Merde!” (see the chapter on “Xenophobia and Racism”) on the “innate French feeling of superiority” by indulging in lots of name-calling and stereotyping. In the interests of free speech, a glossary, glossary, or phrasebook may offer “politically incorrect” terminology and usage. But, it is up to the reader to choose if a line has been crossed when an leader chooses to perpetuate xenophobic stereotypes by using the words “Frog,” “Froggie,” and “Frog Pathology,” and by offering undocumented commentary on the hygiene of the French, for example. Sometimes it is hard to determine what is humour and what is not. (The foregoing remarks are offered by this reviewer as a disclaimer.)
“Merde Encore!” has thirteen fleeting chapters: “Verbs” (i.e., the “moi-je” syndrome); “Suffixes” (“instruments of belittlement and contempt”); “Les Beaux Gestes” (with cartoons of French gestures, illustrated by Michael Heath); “Guillotined French” (“shortened” French words, like “cap” for “capable”); “Counting in French” (including “The Frog Clock”); “Sound Effects”; “The Most Well loved Ingredients of French Idioms” (food and animals); “Anatomy of a Frog”; “Appee Beurzdé Tooh Yooh” (“Franglais”); “Allons Enfants” (“kiddie talk”); “The Cocorico Syndrome” (i.e., “Frogs on Wheels”); “Geography à la Française” (i.e., “the Parisians and the rest”); and “Your PH.D. Exam.”
This book has reasonably a bit of useful idiomatic vocabulary and phrasing; it is also reasonably humourous. As to an insight into the French psyche or national character, I reflect not. For a more perceptive, witty, and insightful read on an outsider’s view of the (Parisian) French, I highly recommend “French Toast,” by Harriet Welty Rochefort. The irony of Geneviève’s books (particularly the second one) is that they would be most appealing to an age group who should not be reading them!
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
Ooh-la-la. This is a delightful gift for the friend who has a decent elementary grasp on the French language and a rolicking sense of humour. Written with fantastic lingusitic dexterity, both in French aan in English, it will be treasured for years to come.
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Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5