Cuss Words and Multiculturalism

Bonjour! Bonne Journee!

Foucault said you can tell a culture's or country's hang-ups by their swear words. In the States, for example, the worst cuss words are connected to either intercourse or bodily expulsion. In French culture though cuss words have a lot more to do with the Catholic Church. Based on Foucault's analysis we'd have to say then that in the U.S. we're uncomfortable with the human body, and in French culture they're unhappy about the Church.

When I was living in Santa Cruz I had a close friend that liked to say the f-word a lot, except, well, with every letter filled in there. Her cussing like that was a big contrast to the rest of her demeanor since she was utterly polite and congenial in every other way. Eventually she explained that growing up in Quebec the f-word was a sort of funny rebellion for her because her Francophone mother didn't know what it meant, and from her own perspective it just didn't really sound that bad. Without growing up in the American cultural context the f-word just seemed funny to her.

Now that I live in Quebec I've taken on a lot of religious explications that I find humorous (forgive me if any of you are a Quebecer or French and find these offensive). When something goes wrong I say something like, "Tabernac!" or make something up like "Holy Blue Gown of the Virgin!" I fear that much like my Quebecois friend that was transplanted to the States, I don't realize the weight of what I'm saying. For me, these religious explications are just humorous, but for locals, from what I've been told, they have a lot more meaning. One of the nice things about Canadian culture though is that no one would ever chastise me for using inappropriate language.

Canadian culture, it turns out, is very much about not rocking the boat. People here have seemingly mastered the art of getting along in day to day social interactions. At the same time, there is also a sense in which Canadians seem to expect differences of opinions and of personal expression in a way I don't find as commonplace with Americans. The United States right now seems very uncomfortable with the possibility of offending people, and yet, at the same time, we all manage to do it rather well quite consistently. A friend of mine in Seattle told me that her boss told her she had to take down the Halloween decorations put about her cubicle last October because the decorations offended a Christian woman that worked down the hall. In Canada people don't want to rock the boat by directly confronting anyone, but in the States people seem to expect Government, or other authority figures, to implement a sort of cultural monotone as a means of avoiding contact with things they disagree with. As a result we impose a lot of rules on each other but still manage to get upset that others are telling us what to do. We're not supposed to wish each other "Merry Christmas" or even "Happy Holidays" anymore, but instead just a "Good Winter." Holidays imply religious references. We aren't to decorate our cubicles with anything that could imply a religious or political stance (or perhaps lack of it). And we aren't to talk to each other about politics. Canadian culture seems, in a general sense, less about applying these hard line rules and more about people managing their own sense of politeness.

I was asking some Canadian friends of mine about these sorts of differences while trying to sort out the source of them. Somehow Canada just seems, from my outsiders perspective, better able to accommodate multi-cultural perspectives. One Canadian friend's theory about it was that Canada begins with an origination myth of two founding countries--The British and the French. The British may have had a dominate position but they allowed the French to remain (after beating the tar out of them in battle). In addition, Canada is used to being in a position of living in America's shadow. There is no room for Canadian's believing they have greater access to "the truth" or a greater sense of "authority" in such a complicated self image. The States on the other hand starts with an origination myth of beating the oppressors right out of the country and winning our right to be self-determined. We of course have continued as one of the largest and "strongest" nations in the world as well, thus adding to the self image of "right *and* might."

Rachel and I spent a month in Alaska with our family. It snowed the entire visit. Montreal on the other hand didn't receive its first snow until the middle of January. Parking in Montreal largely consists of parallel parking on the streets. Snow removal in the city is a four day process (for one significant snow fall) consisting of the following steps. The first day all of the major roads are plowed down the middle so that driving is free and easy but the cars parallel parked along the road are penned in by a several foot high burm. The sidewalks are also cleared on the first day--Montreal runs on foot traffic and public transit so sidewalks are a necessity--such that cars are penned in by a burm on the sidewalk side too. At the end of the day when people with cars need to relocate again everyone kicks the burms down, pushing the snow back out into the road, and then actually gets under their cars and swims about pulling the snow that was pushed under the cars by the snowplows back out onto the road again. By the end of the first day, in other words, the roads are covered once again by snow and everyone's clothes are a mess. Day two consists in replowing all the roads in a similar manner, and everyone rekicking the snow burms down, etc. Day three the left hand side of every road has no parking signs put up such that no cars are allowed to park on the left so that the city can clear the snow away on that one side. People in some parts of town literally park on the sidewalks (on the right) during this time. Then on day four the same happens on the right side of every road.

Last week in the middle of a snow fall I saw one good Samaritan (wait, perhaps that is an offensive religious or political reference)... I saw one nice person walking down the street with a shovel spontaneously shoveling out any cars where the owners needed and asked for help. I ended up pushing a Mercedes out of the parking place they were stuck in (the driver didn't swim under the Mercedes well enough in his Armani suit) and then, along with another person, 10 feet up the hill the Mercedes was stuck on. I'd tried to tell the driver that he'd have to turn his wheels left and u-turn down the hill but it turned out he wasn't used to being told what to do. 10-feet later he still hadn't done it so we gave up and left him there. No use pushing a Mercedes all the way up a hill, no matter how nice the Armani suit inside it happens to be.

Rachel is doing well and, after the readjustment, happy to be back in Montreal. She goes to her first French birthday party this weekend. The mother was kind enough to write the invitation in English for me. At the bottom she didn't know what to write to ask me to RSVP. I told her the next day that in English we simply ask each other to "RSVP" to an invitation but that I couldn't remember what that meant. She answered me, "Oh! Respondez S'il Vous Plait!" Turns out we got that from the French.

My semester has started off just fine. I'm doing an ungodly amount of work but it turns out I just keep up better when I have too much to do. After eating Chicken Nuggets and French Fries for dinner everyday for 3 and 1/2 weeks last term I have managed to (1) stop eating meat and (2) start cooking vegetables, tofu, lentils, and rice. We're eating better, in other words. I'll admit though that today I drank two extra large coffees and one allonge (long shot espresso).

Blessing of the Virgin to you, or which ever deity, or non-deity you prefer. I hope that you're all doing quite well and enjoying whatever culture you happen to be a part of.

Keep in touch! We'd love to hear from you!
Elaine and Rachel