Mountains out of Molehills
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149190019425
JoeUser Forums
Quick! What is the worst thing you can call a German? What is the worst offensive gesture in Nigeria?
What is Shit in Spanish, French, and German?
How many of you know? What if I had substituted Japanese, Chinese and Russian?
And the good old classic, Forced Unnatural Carnal Knowledge. What is it in German and have you ever used it?
These are but a few questions I have for the Washington Post and a local talking head (or poop chute as that is where he orates from). Quite simply, if you ask me what the worst insult in Hindi or Urdu is, I could not tell you. And if you asked me the translation of Shit in Russian, I would give you a blank stare.
And until last week, I did not know that Macaca was a slur against anyone! Hell! I did not even know the word! But apparently it is. After Sen. George Allen called someone "Mr. Macaca, or whatever his name is". But now he is being castigated by the holier than thou (who don't seem upset with the 2002 use of the N word by Sen Sheets Byrd). Are we supposed to know EVERY slur that might exist in the known world?
That is so stupid as to be ludicrous! Let me give you an even better example.
Tiger Woods was castigated for saying that he played like a Spaz in the British open last year. Spaz in America is a very well accepted word that we use to describe an uncoordinated person. No one on this side of the pond is offended, at least I have never heard a spaz object. Yet in England it is apparently some type of slur because they use it to describe handicapped people. And we supposedly both speak English!
Upon being told that his word was offensive (no one at first had even found the French connection which they use to derogatorily refer to Muslims), he Apologized. But did that satisfy the 'unbiased' Press? Hell no! They are still hounding him on it.
And you know what? I hope they keep it up. For when people realize that no one knows all 4000 languages in use today, much less all the slanderous slang of said languages, they will see that these poop chutes are acting like poop chutes. And any word we utter can be an offense in some language or another. Regardless of the intent.
Oh, if anyone wants to know the answer to the first 3 questions, just ask. And for the record, Fick du in German will get you a night in the sack, not a smack.
I don't even speak French...but I am rather fluent in Spanish. 
I don't think I've ever spoken a German phrase besides what I read off of the instructions you get in some appliances. 
The word penis in spanish (not sure if I want to say it here) has 2 meanings. It all depends on where you are. In Puerto Rico penis in spanish is just that and is used as an insult a lot, in other latin countries it means insect. Go figure.
