Thanks.
I always enjoyed using “backpfeifengesicht” with my former German colleagues with regards to one idiot and master of seagull management who was inflicted upon for a short period.
1 Like
A few minor corrections:-
Ronaldo isn’t ‘being paid’ as he hasn’t accepted the rumoured offer, and is unlikely to because he wants to continue playing at the highest level.
I think the Belgian rioting was actually local Moroccans celebrating their team having beaten Belgium.
Lastly national teams aren’t ‘clubs’
.
I wouldn’t disagree, but unlike the French football team, they’re not the current World Champions.
I was disappointed with the lack of variety in German swear words. There’s the all-purpose Scheisse, which is also used as an adjective by omitting the final “e”, leck mich am Arsch, Arschloch, and the German translation of the Snake Island retort (I’m trying to keep this as decent as possible). There are four commonly used words for sexual intercourse, two for the mammary glands, one each for the sexual organs and that’s about it. No comparison with the rich English language. Maybe young people have invented new ones, although they tend to use English terms.
Not yet…
But since Fabien Galthié took over, the team has got better and better. They have now had 13 consecutive victories.
2021
Six Nations : victories against Ireland, Italy, Wales. 3/5 matches.
Test matches : victories against Australia, Argentine, Georgia, All Blacks. 4/6 matches.
End of the year : Antoine Dupont named “meilleur joueur du monde”.
2022
Six Nations : 100% victories, winners of the tournament (Grand slam) 5/5 matches won
Test matches : 100% victories against Japan. 3/3 matches won
and 100% victories against Australia, South Africa. 5/5 matches won
1 Like
Do you have German neighbours?! 
Replying to Karen “scheiß kopf” one which I have been called many times when on exercises in Northern Germany but I was commanding a brute of machinery and flatten their barn
And is that Rugby League or Union ?
That’s a question I used to use to wind up my white S African colleagues if they started bragging about the Boks’ latest win over any side from the British Isles.
OTOH Bafana Bafana (S Africa’s football team) aren’t likely to beat anyone.
Du Dubel, du Simpel, are nice but not too awful. There’s a fisherman in a novel who says Himmel Arsch und Zwirn a lot but that’s very old-fashioned, Schlampe isn’t very nice but teenage girls call each other it (hey Schlamp’!) like saying oi slag in English. Scheißkerl is nice. Misthaufen is an innocent word you can use too. My Oma said um Gottes Willen a fair bit.
Dutch is quite good for swearing with all the variations on zak and stront etc
All far, far too refined for me Vero.
Rachman and Stevefrance64 clearly not as refined, as you 
. But still rather tame.
The trouble is, I’m probably too old to sneak into the places where I might hear some really bad language.
I heard the swearing through a couple of inches of armoured plate banging our battle wagon with his shovel it took two bottles of scotch and a cheque from the spooks behind us 
to placate him
…And rightly so, since you had just driven a tank through his barn hadn’t you?
A whole battery of artillery with Tanks still laughing now it was led by a junior officer who had problems with maps, you cannot make it up
1 Like
Rupert redarse, surely?
1 Like
I’ve a very distant recollection of Jean Genet (in The Thieve’s Journal?) declaring that Serbo-Croat was the best language in which to swear because it was the ugliest language in the world.
However, I’ve always been impressed by the rich inventiveness of both US invective and US English in general.
A somewhat inappropriate statement to colour. We cannot change history but we all have a responsibility for respect and inclusivity of all human beings both now and going forward, we are all the same on the inside.
Le“15 de France” is a clue…
You didn’t use the old standby response then?
“If this was for real, I’d have backed my tank into your house and would drinking your beer while we wait for the Ivans to arrive.”
Heard that story from a former armoured farmer over a few beers many moons ago.
2 Likes
I don’t see why, as I used the past tense and when I arrived in SA, shortly after the end of Apartheid, rugby and cricket were still very much exclusively white sports, both in terms of players and spectators. Inevitably, in a former white university, at that time nearly all the academic staff where also whites.
I was appointed to help implement the national process known as ‘Transformation’, as part of which the University became a modern multi-cultural institution. This was a far from easy or comfortable task with very different problems compared to working in UK HE. For instance, I had to manage staff who’d been on opposing sides in a recently ended civil war.
I have not heard that expression for years My BC used to called me that just because I had a Gloucestershire accent and smoked a pipe thanks for the memories 