French talk of the playground

AUTHOR and teacher Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert lives in France with her French husband and three bilingual children. She is the author of Language Strategies for Bilingual Families: the one-parent-one-language approach

When my first child, aged four, started French school he came home one day shouting “caca-boudin, caca-boudin”. I was unable to translate this bizarre pairing of words (literally “poo-black-pudding-sausage”) and thought he had a speech problem.

It turned out all the children were saying that at school and he had simply copied them without knowing what it meant.

Parents know in their own language which words are acceptable but what happens when you move to another country? Chances are high children will pick up a few gros mots as they become bilingual. It is an important part of fitting in socially and sounding ‘right’ in their world.

For parents, swearwords or naughty words are rarely taught in GCSE French classes or group French lessons – unless asked – but it is useful to have an idea what your child is saying.

Here is a brief guide to what little children say in the playground.

Commonly heard are the funny body words: pipi (pee or wee-wee), caca (poo), zizi (willy) or fesse (bottom). Little kids like the onomatopoeic prout-prout (literally the sound of farting) and pouet-pouet camembert is a silly phrase children say, something like ‘na-na-ni-na-na’ in English.

You might overhear conversations involving crotte de nez (snot) or crotte de chien (dog-poo). Conjugating verbs like ‘to fart’ (péter) and ‘to burp’ (roter) are amusing at this age too, in daft rhyming phrases such as je pète dans tes chaussettes (I fart in your socks) or je rote dans ta culotte (I burp in your pants). A child might call another one caca-boudin (poo-black-pudding-sausage), or insult each other by saying they are a grosse vache or gros cochon (fat cow/pig).

In general, these words are only used in the pre-school/école maternelle, but children can pick up stronger words from older friends, brothers or sisters.

Words which your child should be careful of using in front of sensitive adults, neighbours and teachers are dégage! (Get out of my way!) and ferme ta geule! (Shut up!)

Some words should be avoided: cul (stronger word for bottom/arse), which can be considered vulgar, and con (stupid/idiot) is insulting.

If you are not sure about rude words your child is using ask their teacher or a French friend if they think their vocabulary is suitable.

My nine-year-old son is using French playground ‘rude words’ – nothing too serious, all perfectly normal. However, he doesn’t know the English equivalents. Should we tell him what they are? He will be missing out if we don’t.

Bilingual children often have a ‘language gap’ where one language races ahead of the other and a child simply does not have any exposure to a whole set of words. Rude words, by definition, come from a social situation like school, and it would be uncomfortable for you to teach them at home. Your son is not missing out on the rude words, but he could benefit from knowing some in English, simply for times when you are in an English environment or have English friends with children visiting.

I think the way to introduce them would be through English films, television series or books for his age, where children use typical playground words. This would help him see how English children use the equivalent words in the right context.

We moved to France three years ago and enrolled our daughter in the local école maternelle where she picked up a fair number of ‘naughty’ words she likes using. She is now seven years old and her new primary school teacher brought this to our attention at a recent meeting. What should we do? We don’t know which words to ban.

When children become so bilingual they are talking exactly like their French classmates this is a good sign, but it can be a problem if their language is inappropriate.

Talk again to the teacher to find out exactly which words are bothering her, and if possible write them down and translate them.

You then need to discuss with your daughter the effect these words have on other children/adults and ask her to tone down her language. With my children I found naughty words from école maternelle, (like pipi and caca) fade way as the child grows up and she may stop using them naturally.