What's up with that?

[rebeccmeister]

Back in summer camp in high school, we used to play a game called the Question Game. Basically, you would go around in a circle and each person would have to ask a question that hadn't been asked before. Eventually, one of the guys started doing things like saying, "The sky is blue. What's up with that?" And the "What's up with that?" game was born. We were pen-pals for quite a while after camp, and I'll never forget the duct-tape letter he sent me (in an envelope made of duct tape!).

In any case, something calls for a W^WT? (the new abbreviation I just invented):

Australians drive on the left. But they row on the right. W^WT?

On the other hand, getting to row in Melbourne is AWESOME. They call their boathouses Boat Sheds, because the boathouses are a bunch of historic buildings that hold rowboats and kayaks and canoes. There are something like 7 Boat Sheds all lined up and filled to the gills with boats, and rowing goes back to the 1850's here. The river's a little bit smaller than the Charles, but is very pretty. Oh, and the coaches ride their bikes along the shore and shout into their megaphones. I cannot understand a F*ing word* they're saying, but it sounds good, I guess.

*this is a trademark phrase used by R. If you know how to say it in French, PLEASE let me know. I know that a word that's pronounced "pew-TAN" substitutes nicely for the F-word, but that's about as much as I remember--and that the verb is some version of "comprehende".

Comments

[sytharin.livejournal.com]

By "pew-TAN" I assume you mean putain, which is sort of a "whore" word. Is your word of choice the lewd "baiser" (BEZ-ay), or something more?
Your phrase probably starts "Je ne comprende ..."
Okay, my decaying, limited French is out.

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's right, I mean putain. That's about the same definition as R gave us. Lovely. Merci beaucoup.

[boolean263.livejournal.com]

French swearing (or at least French-Canadian swearing) generally centers more around religion than bodily functions like in English. I'll occasionally hear one of my French-Canadian coworkers spout out "Chalice!" (pronounced "calisse") or "Tabernac!" (or the more polite version, "Tabernouche!") where one of us might spout out the F- or S-word as interjections.

Keeping in mind that my own French is rusty, here's a few possibilities:
"Je ne peux pas comprendre ce qu'ils disent (pronounced 'deez')." -- literally, "I can't understand what they're saying."
"Je ne peux rien comprendre ce qu'ils disent." -- "I understand nothing of what they're saying."

And if you want some more W^WT ponderances... Canadians typically measure speeds, travelling distances, and the weights of meat products in metric... but measure their own weight and height, cooking directions, building supplies, and short distances in Imperial. (: