What language is the most fun to curse in?
Chinese is great fun to curse in because with the tones you get to sound really good and angry. French, of course, has a glorious tradition of swearing. I still use French curse words fairly frequently. I’ve studied them so long now they just pop out — Va te faire foutre, which is, loosely, “Go fuck yourself.” Driving in Boston, that’s been the time that comes out. I’d forgotten what a challenge it is to drive in Boston.
How does politics affect language?
The political relationship between language and states is obviously a big deal, so countries will try to protect languages instead of allowing them to change. France is infamous for this, like instead of “le fax” they’ll invent some four-syllable word that nobody will ever use. The only thing about language that never changes is that it’s always changing. So it’s a really sad lost cause to watch this happen. It makes people ultra-sensitive about their language usage. It adds to this whole idea that you have to be so smart to use language, that only the hypereducated can do it, which is total crap. I want to tell the exact opposite with my book. I want to make it clear that if you can speak one language you can learn another. You may not learn to speak it beautifully or perfectly. You might not learn to read epic poetry or translate it, but you can speak it.
Related:
Turn on the bright lights, Poison ivy, Freedom of screech, More 
- Turn on the bright lights
Art this fall grapples with issues like gender and journalism, personal space and human survival, and what to have for lunch.
- Poison ivy
John Edwards’s campaign seems to have hit a roadblock that could seriously hurt his chances of securing the Democratic nomination.
- Freedom of screech
While I applaud your honesty, I cannot agree with your decision to not publish the Danish cartoons (“ World of Pain ,” February 10).
- Mix and match
Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert recently demonstrated that having many options to choose from makes us less happy.
- Books tour
While most area colleges continue to offer predictably boring campus tours that amount to wandering through academic ghost towns imagining departed crowds, there are also some alternatives to the standard walk-and-talk routine.
- Slideshow: Record Hospital Fest 2009
Record Hospital Fest 2009 at Harvard's Holden Chapel, April 11
- Crimson tied
Barack Obama's presidential campaign was successful in part because he was able to cleverly negotiate and navigate the battles that have plagued the United States the last few years.
- Pushing up daisies
If the phrase "April showers bring May flowers" has any cred, it might ring true with a new installation at Boston Sculptors Gallery.
- Quiz-bowl kids
Andrew Watkins is having faulty-buzzer issues.
- Parody flunks out
Artist Barry Blitt’s brilliant illustration — which sought to satirize the naysayers who portray Obama as a flag-burning, unpatriotic Muslim and his wife as a black-power radical — cut to the core of today’s political paradox.
- Nowhere to hide
Google-fucked. That’s what you are when a potential employer searches your name and discovers that you — you of the 4.0 GPA, you of the charity work — are also the sluttiest person on campus.
- Less
Topics:
Books
, Culture and Lifestyle, Language and Linguistics, Harvard University, More
, Culture and Lifestyle, Language and Linguistics, Harvard University, Grammar, Less
