I have an odd habit. Whenever I swear (and by swear I mean “ass” and “hell”, very rarely anything truly vulgar), I say “pardon my french” right afterwards.
*I* know it’s not french. The people I’m talking to know it’s not french.
Maybe I hope by tossing in an oddism, folk forget that I just swore. But the odd thing is that I didn’t really swear in the first place.
I have no idea where I picked this up. It’s like a hook a character in some crappy comedy movie has. He does it over and over again, nobody laughs, but it makes him feel like everything is right in the world.
Truly odd.
December 8th, 2005 at 2:54 pm
December 8th, 2005 at 3:04 pm
Cold: That’s funny… I haven’t spoken Russian in almost 10 years, and I’m fairly sure I picked it up well after that (and I’m not sure I ever picked up that slang in Russian anyways)… Very funny!
December 8th, 2005 at 8:24 pm
I seem to have developed a bad habit of saying “howdy” – both as an online and a face-to-face greeting.
That might be okay if I was from Texas or somewhere similar – but as an Aussie, it’s a very bad habit and one I’ve got to stop myself doing.
Funnily enough, I do also say “g’day” … although I tend to use the more NZ version “gudday”.
Chatting on skype with b5 Jon recently, I greeted him “howdy”, to which he reponded “You sound like a real Calgarian when you say that. We’ll have to make you an honorary cowboy
” … now THAT is a problem !!
Time to put a stop to this habit right now!
December 8th, 2005 at 8:28 pm
I’m an Aussie and I’ve used that phrase since God knows when – now I know that when I use that in some posts readers are not saying: what the ….? eh, almost had to pardon my french there
Anyone knows if it’s common in use in Amercia – seeing 85% of my readership are Americans
December 8th, 2005 at 10:27 pm
As per Martin, its a common phrase in use here, and I don’t always say it if I swear but I do say it if I accidently swear in polite company, like when I’m on a b5media conference call
December 8th, 2005 at 10:29 pm
I picked up “howdy” in the UK. I started doing “pardon my French” within the last year or so (when I started doing conference speaking).
I still have no idea where it came from. But, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who does it. Maybe it’s not as odd as it sounds in my head (after it comes out)
December 9th, 2005 at 2:22 am
@Sim’: And what, exactly, is the problem with sounding like a Calgarian? Can’t us colonials all just get along?
December 9th, 2005 at 6:03 am
Merde! So do I. Pardon my French.
December 9th, 2005 at 7:42 am
Gawd I love the internet…from Google Answers:
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=232360
If you read classic Russian literature you’ll notice that they speak
in French when they want to use any sort of coarser language. This was
of course limited to the Russian aristocracy who were more educated
and had the ability to become bilingual. The idea was that they didn’t
want to sully the mother tongue with cuss words and such, and so they
spoke in French on these occasions. I can’t say for sure, but I’d
assume that this fiction mirrored reality in the use of this language.
Quite literal example of needing to say “pardon my French!”
December 9th, 2005 at 7:53 pm
I am always a bit concious of using that phrase around French Canadian’s as it may offend them more than the actually swearing did…
C’est la vie
December 10th, 2005 at 3:33 pm
My dad says “Pardon my French” after he farts.
December 13th, 2005 at 2:42 am
When everyone started changing “French” to “Freedom” such as “Freedom Fries” etc, I started saying “Pardon my Freedom” when I say something slightly offensive. Just a little twist on things. hehe!
December 13th, 2005 at 7:53 am
really funy =) Thanks, i laughted a lot.
December 16th, 2005 at 4:39 am
As said by other Aussies, its a common expression here.
I personally tend to say “Pardon my Anglo Saxon”. Rarely fails to get a smile. And its truth in advertising.