Pardon My Xhosa / French.

Now I am sure you have all heard the idiomatic request to “Pardon my French”, when someone has used a swear word in polite circles. But have you ever wondered where the expression came from and why it was French and not say Spanish or Portuguese or any other language for that matter, that you were being asked to pardon?
Well I was reading somewhere (Hot Word Blog) that: ““Pardon my French,” or “excuse my French,” is an apology for the use of profanity; the expression dates from 1895. Pardon is derived from the old French pardoner meaning, “to grant, forgive.”
Well fairly elemental so far there, so now let’s look as to why French and not some other language. And the answer is probably both Geographical and Historical!
Yes, it is probably because, being closest to England and being at war with England for many, many centuries, all things French would have been looked down on as profane, by the English.
And as a complimentary “explanation suggests that during the 19th century, the English often used French words in conversation – a foreign language to most people living in England at the time. Realizing the listener may not have understood, the speaker would apologize by saying, “Pardon my French.”
The latter particularly is a very reasonable explanation I feel, based on my own personal experiences in totally different parts of the world.
Many years ago, when we thought we might be going as missionaries to a French speaking country in Africa, I tried to learn French for a while. Even bought a set of Second hand Lingaphone French language records and such. At one stage, I even worked with a French speaker from Mauritius, unfortunately he didn’t think very much of my early attempts, and when the French countries closed their doors to us metaphorical speaking initially, we looked (supposedly temporarily) at some English Speaking countries in the short term. That very briefly is how we ended up In the Then Republic of Transkei, now back as part of South Africa) working with the Xhosa people there, for nearly 12 years.
And although I tried hard to learn Xhosa, I succeeded only to the degree that I knew and could speak certain phrases as well as many Xhosa, but I never really understood the language enough to carry a full conversation in it.
None the less there were are certain words and phrases that we learnt and used so commonly, that even today, nearly 9 years out of there, I still occasionally have to say to someone , pardon my Xhosa! Not because I was swearing at them; just using a word they had no clue of the meaning let alone origin.
Which finally brings us to our point today. Whether in French, Xhosa, any of the thousands of other languages currently in the world, or even in modern idiom, what words or expressions are you currently using, that the people that you are speaking to have no clue, what you are saying and by rights you too should be saying, “Pardon my French or whatever”? Over to you for now.

Your Opinion Depends On From Where You See Things.

Having lived in South Africa for nearly 12 years, we still have some contacts there and occasionally get News Items from there. A recent article from there, told about a Taxi (Read 12 –15 seat mini Buses here,) that was extremely overloaded with Kindergarten children being picked up by Traffic officers.
Having seen it first hand during our own time in South Africa, I had no trouble with the e-mail Title of: “Crazy Taxi! --- ONLY IN SOUTH AFRICA”.
However when I sent it to a former South African, (Now living in Australia), his reply was, “not just South Africa, all over Africa.”
So, not having experienced this gross overloading of Passengers in Australia and not really having travelled much elsewhere in Africa, (other than briefly in Zimbabwe and Swaziland,) I, like the author of the article, tended to see this problem as only a South African one. But one who has seen much more of Africa than I have, has been able to put it into the broader perspective.
This still doesn’t excuse it, but shows that it is not exclusively a South African problem, but also happens elsewhere in the African Continent. Just like I’m sure it happens in other parts of the world too, like India and even some other Asian and even South American countries.
So today’s’ lesson, which I am still learning is, when something is wrong, look around you and do not blame just one guilty party but look to all guilty parties where they are wrong; and then rather than just blaming them, try and help them solve or resolve their problems. What say you?

Finally Cured At long Last!

Once upon a time, way back when. I really can’t remember the date but it has to be at least 15 or maybe even 16 years ago, I was mugged at knifepoint.

It was in a far away country and was in itself an almost comical event with the knife wielder and friends more scared at the time than me. As there were 4 of them and just me and my 8 or 9-year-old daughter, there really wasn’t much I could do at the time and it was all over before we could even get scared at the time.

As I said, the actual event was almost comical and not scary at the time, and I can say the actual event caused no physiological problems, but the aftermath did.

Even though this event happened out in the wide open spaces, I developed an extreme concern every time I went into confined areas like at the Post Office Private Mail Boxes or even public toilets.

However as bad as that was, it way nothing on the panic that occurred when ever I heard running footsteps behind me when out and about.

You see that was the last sounds I heard and the first inkling that I had that we were in trouble, a split second before I was confronted by my shaky knife wielder and grabbed from behind by another.

As I said that was another place and time but the anxiety of running footsteps has always been with me. Well until just recently that is.

A couple of day’s agio I decided to walk from the new place down to the Shops in Croydon in the late morning. As I did so I needed to cross the Railway tracks and did so at the Pedestrian Crossing at the Station itself. Now even though it wasn’t a bad time to be there Croydon Railway Station doesn’t really have a good reputation at the best of times, yet despite this I was happy enough crossing there. Although I must admit I did quickly pass a couple of guys who looked like it wouldn’t take much to set them off. Shortly after this, just as I was about to turn a corner and cross the track itself I heard really loud running footsteps and I just automatically checked it out of the corner of my eye and seeing someone running really fast, just jumped back against the fence. Not out of fear like in the past, just to get out of the way of being bowled over.

Well my reaction must have made the person running think I was scared (which amazingly I wasn’t) and so she said, “its all right mate, I just want to get to the Loo.” We both laughed.

It was only then that I realised that for the first time that I can remember in 15 years the sound of running footsteps evoked the right reaction and not one of fear.

How about you? Has something happened in your past, maybe even more traumatic than my “Incident” that has provoked an extreme result that you have since had to live with and live down? I have no answers here other than to say don’t sweat it and give it time. The more you worry about it, the longer it will bother you. As hard as it may be to do it, sometimes you just have to let it go and go with the flow. What say you? Walter