Cross-cultural communication （57）　

57）How to learn dirty French
During the 2015 Golden Week holiday, I watched a French film called “Paris Police Department: Juvenile Protection Unit” (original title: Polisse; the original spelling is Police, but it is a coined word with a meaning. See note.) on DVD. This film was not released in theaters here, so it is not well known in Japan. However, it seems that this film is known by certain cinema fan, as it won the Jury Prize at the 64th Cannes International Film Festival.

This unit actually exists, and the director spent several weeks with them, carefully researching and gathering material before writing the script. The film is made up of individual incidents pieced together in a documentary-style. Most of the incidents involve pedophiles, and the French words that are used are such that they cannot be printed here. The dialogue in the scenes where the detectives become enraged at the suspect's outrageous words and actions is also very powerful. Also, perhaps due to the stress of dealing with people with extremely abnormal sexual orientations on a daily basis, almost everyone in the team has problems with their own family or married (or cohabiting) life. There are also quite a few scenes of their personal arguments between men and women, but the dialogue in these scenes is also French that you can't learn from a textbook.　

French people, regardless of gender, are really talkative, and they can go on talking for hours in cafes, but if you listen carefully, you'll find that they're often talking about completely trivial things, and they can spend two hours endlessly discussing whether to go to the beach or the mountains on their next day off. This kind of idle chat is of no use whatsoever. However, I have occasionally come across arguments involving money or break-ups, and the abusive language used in these situations is so brilliant that it could almost be called a culture in its own right. Unfortunately, I rarely get the chance to witness such things.　

Even when driving, if they don't like the way someone is driving, women will open their car windows and shout abuse at them. I once heard Catherine Deneuve, who was in her 50s at the time, shout “Salop!” (Scum!) at the driver of a car that had suddenly changed lanes in front of her. Of course, this was in a movie. When a beautiful woman who looks so elegant, lets out a curse like that, it's actually quite sexy. Maybe it's because it's Deneuve, though.

Dirty words are also a part of a country's culture. There is no need for us foreigners to force ourselves to use them, but it is better to understand them. It seems that the best way to do this is through movies.

Note: In French, peau lisse means “soft skin”. The pronunciation is exactly the same as police. However, for pedophiles, peau lisse means the soft skin of their sexual targets, which are children.

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