Swearing through France & Italy

Let’s face it – one of the fun things about learning a new language is learning the bad words. You don’t even have to be someone who swears like a sailor in your own tongue to appreciate how much prettier swear words often say in just about any language other than your own. And travel, as great as it is, provides all kinds of road blocks – which are great opportunities to use your new words!
Now is an excellent time to find travel deals to France, where you can start a train trip through Europe. (And incidentally, if you happen to get a flight on Ryanair, you might have even more reasons to swear up a storm…) It’s certainly colder in France at this time of year, but the prices are much lower than in the high season and the crowds are smaller. In fact, Eurail travelers may even decide to upgrade to a first class Eurail Pass since they’ll be saving money on things like airfare and accommodation.
Among the must-haves for your trip, don’t forget a good phrasebook – but be sure to supplement it with this primer for swearing in French. Of course, you want to be careful who you’re using these words around – there’s no reason to make enemies of the French if you can avoid it!
Don’t stop there, however – keep moving south (well, southeast, really) into Italy to make use of these Italian swear words. Getting from Paris to Rome is no picnic, even on a first class train, because it’s such a long trip – but depending on when you visit you may find warmer temperatures in the Italian capital than the French capital.
Have you ever used swear words in another language without fully knowing what they mean? Has that ever gotten you into trouble?
photo by Katie Tegtmeyer