vocab

The national education minister of France has led me to a new French word, which I will use with gusto. It was not actually he who uttered the wonderful syllables, but rather Florian Lecoultre, président of a high school union, in response to the minister's proposal to offer medals to people who finish high school (that's a loose translation). Said M. Lecoultre:

"ce n'est pas du tout une demande des lycéens". "C'est du bling-bling, c'est insignifiant. On peut multiplier les annonces inutiles comme celle-là, reste que pendant ce temps on ne s'attaque pas aux vrais problèmes"
The word, in case you missed it, is le bling-bling. I am now complete.
Anonymous commented:
I understand le bling-bling, but what the heck was he actually saying?? I do not speak french! Darnie
on Mon Sep 15 08:17:40 2008

David commented:

"It's not at all something high-schoolers want". "It's bling-bling. It says nothing. You can keep on making useless announcements like this, but it doesn't get at the problem". Again, loosely.

Point of order: does one hyphenate 'bling-bling'?

on Mon Sep 15 20:29:45 2008

Nikki commented:
You mean aside from the French? :) "Bling bling" is not really the kind of phrase one associates with proper written formatting... there is irony in this, I sense it.
on Tue Sep 16 14:36:59 2008

Derek (Erb) commented:
Although "bling-bling" or "bling bling" are generaly comprehensible to most modern French speakers the term is most definitely not (yet) accepted by the Académie Française as part of the French language and therefore the hyphenation discussion is probably moot. Anglicisms such as these are forbidden on television and in the media here, again by the Académie Française with a strong push by Jacques Toubon, and therefore frowned upon. That said many French rappers emulate American gangsta rappers as much as they can and "bling-bling" has become an acceptable goal for many while being considered particularly American. It's interesting how the term has evolved to meaning something also particularly American: great image, totally superficial, nothing behind it - in other words looks great but worthless. ;-)
on Thu Sep 18 03:45:42 2008

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