Monday, May 16, 2011

There is no FUN in French


You can tell that having fun is not natural to the French because they do not even have a word for it. That's right FUN does not exist en français. They had to steal our word (but with their accent it comes out sounding like 'UN'). They seem so serious all the time you wonder if they would even know FUN if it came up and bit them on the derrière. Even for French children there seems to be very little FUN allowed. At birthday parties they don't even play games like pin the tail on the donkey or musical chairs. They just let the kids run around unsupervised until their parents return to pick them up. I've tried to educate my French friends by introducing them to traditional American ideas of fun. For example last year I hosted a Toga Party on my birthday and while all our American friends got it, the French did not. Instead of coming dressed in sheets they bought sheets, wrapped them up and gave them to me as a gift. Oh, well. C'est la vie!

1 comment:

  1. Well....French people are actually very different from Americans.

    I used to live in both countries and I can say that!

    Regarding the word fun...they have a verb "s'amusér" for it...
    But it's not quite exactly the same!!
    You need patience!!

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