----Mon père, baptisez-moi; je veux devenir crétien.
Le missionnaire lui répond:
----Ca n'est pas possible, parce que la religion chrétienne ne permet pas la polygamie et vous avez pleusiers femmes.
Le pauvre sauvage s'en va très triste. Quelques semaines après, il retourne et dit au missionnaire:
----Maintenant baptisez-moi, je n'ai plus qu'une femme.
----Qu'avez-vous fait aux autres? dit le missionnaire.
----Oh! je les ai mangées, dit simplement le sauvage.
From Lisons Donc by Emile B de Sauzé found in
rsc's library of books, from 3rd form French and my recollection inspired by Le Petit Prince.
My 9th-grade French text didn't delve into cannibalism, but it was very much a product of the late 60s, and showed rebellious young French women named Sylvie and Brigitte, scantily clad in halter tops and scarves, plotting how to overthrow the faculty one professor at a time.
That's not what I was getting at -- I'm thinking that this story would be considered, um, culturally insensitive. Especially at the "progressive" private school that
I feel quite accomplished today: not only did I get my home network and PDA all working and talking to one another, but I read a story in French. Woo-hoo!
We came up with the unlikely title, "L'hero ou l'heroine?", and wrote a slapstick story about drug dealing and drag queens (he was really good at pratfalls). We actually wrote it, hoping that the teacher would be scandalized, and refuse to allow us (force us) to perform it at the annual Cabaret.
She loved it! She even gave us a few pointers on spicing up the plot, and gave us the vocabulary words to do it. It became a fixture at French Club functions that year.
Imagine our surprise when, after a nice number by Lully (I forget which), we gazed up to find our teacher frowning.
"Il était italien!"
Of course, this is the same woman who broke down in tears and bawled her eyes out after we took turns reciting passages from the final chapter of Le petit prince back in the 9th grade.
Oh, look! you unhijacked the thread!
Quelle surprise.