so after 1 or 2 years of French class, I participated in a student exchange project for 2 months, meaning my French exchange partner lived with my family for 2 months, and then I lived with his for 2.
In France, he went to a boarding school, so we stayed at school during the week and got back to his family during the weekend. After the first week of school, we went back to his parents' house and his mother asked me "what did you like most about French school?"
A little ashamed, yet proudly I answered, that the best thing is how comfortable social situations are, how close people get casually, especially, how when greeting girls you do "accolades" (those kisses where your cheeks touch/get close and you kiss the air). So I answered something like "J'aime comme pour faire la salutation, on baise les filles"
His mother looked at me in shock, everyone in the room gasped! She told the kids (July, 11yo & Clara, 12yo) to quickly go upstairs, and gave me an angry look.
- mom: WHAT?! No!
- brinkie: umm, I'm pretty sure they do.
- mom: No they don't! Bad German!
- brinkie: I dunno where you've been living, but that's pretty much what I've seen in my first week here in France.
- mom: *giggles awkwardly, unsure what to say* you… you mean something else! I am sure you do!
- brinkie: eeh, I am pretty certain that you greet the girls by baise-ing them…
- mom: *turns completely red*
- mom: BAD GERMAN!
- brinkie: What but I-… What did I do wrong? Did I say something wrong? *thinks about it* only non-trivial word I used was "baiser", I am sure I learned in school that that means "to kiss" *feels upset*
- mom: h-how about we just change the subject? <///<
2nd part at: https://gist.github.com/JTBrinkmann/afcaf117853722f6300d667f0fb7316e