THE FRENCH TRANSCRIPTION CAN BE FOUND BELOW THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Hi everyone,
Welcome to “Learn French, Become Français” with Ruben! Welcome, almost-French . Before we begin, I want to thank all my listeners. Thank you!
The transcript for this episode is in the description.
Before we begin, I wanted to apologize, my nose is a little stuffy. I'm still a little sick, so I'm still talking through my nose... In fact, I'm recording this episode right after the previous one so that there will be an episode today.
In this episode, as written in the title, we're going to talk about three French superstitions, even though the second one isn't limited to France!
Are you ready? Let's go!
Remember in the previous episode when I talked about stepping in dog poop with white shoes? In fact, in France, if you step in poop, or more crudely, in “shit,” it can bring you luck! You're probably wondering why and how? Don't worry, I'll explain! In fact, there are few sources of information on the internet to explain where this superstition comes from. What is certain is that you have to step in shit (pardon my language) to be lucky. What is surprising about this superstition is that it is the left foot that brings us luck, not the right. France is a Christian country, and in the Bible, the left and the left hand are associated with the Devil, Satan, while the right is good, God. And the left is evil, the Devil. According to what I have found on the internet, in ancient French culture it would be the opposite. Please note this information: “would be the opposite,” I am not 100% sure and I am not a historian. And so, if we walk in poop, it might as well be with the left foot, the lucky foot. At least if it's with your left foot, maybe in our bad luck or despite our bad luck, we'll have a little luck later on. They say that if that happens, you should maybe go play the lottery, the national lottery. I don't know if anyone has ever become a millionaire after stepping in poop with their left foot! Or even if anyone has ever landed a job or passed a job interview after stepping in dog poop.
The second superstition I'm going to tell you about is not very well known. Even I didn't know about it before doing my research to write this episode. In fact, almost no French people know about it because it's limited to the world of theater. So you can tell your French friends about it, maybe they'll be interested.
In February 1673, according to legend, Molière, the famous author, died after wearing green while performing on stage for the last time. In fact, at the time, in the 17th century, it was very difficult to obtain the color green. Green costumes had to be painted or dyed for each performance. The substances used to obtain the color were toxic to the actors' skin. Obviously, this color caused illness and was therefore associated with misfortune. Today, in theaters, the color green is still boycotted because of its past and especially because of the legend surrounding Molière's death. And you know what? Molière didn't die because of the color green; he died of tuberculosis. At least actors stopped putting toxic substances on their skin thanks to this legend. It's a blessing in disguise!
Tell me! When you go to France, how many baguettes are you going to eat? One? Two? Eight? Two hundred? Why not? You can eat as many as you want as long as you follow one simple rule. Never put the baguette upside down on the table, it's bad luck! When I was in high school, I put my bread upside down in front of a classmate and he asked me what I was doing, and he explained that it was disrespectful to the bread and that I shouldn't do that! But actually, it made me curious and I wanted to know more, so I looked it up on the internet. In fact, putting the bread the right way up isn't a question of respect, it's a matter of life and death. Placing the bread upside down could bring death. Let me explain: in the Middle Ages, there were public executions. People were executed, killed in public, in front of crowds, because of their crimes. They were killed/executed by an executioner. The executioner was considered essential to city life, and executioners were needed. But executioners were also considered dirty because of their job, because of their profession. They were too close to death. People in the Middle Ages did not want to touch anything that the executioner had touched. The baker therefore always prepared bread for the executioner, which he turned over so that other customers would know that it was the executioner's bread, that it was bread reserved for the executioner. If you turned the bread over, if you touched that bread, misfortune would befall you. Turning the bread over was a bit like becoming an executioner yourself and therefore close to death, close to misfortune.
You can listen to this podcast from the beginning to see if you understand it better.
What about your culture? What customs do you like and which ones don't you like?
Tell me in the comments or send me an email!
This podcast is already over, I hope you learned lots of new words!
Thanks for listening, see you for a new episode, let's keep in touch, kisses
Bienvenue sur “Learn French, Become Français” avec Ruben! Bienvenue les presque Français. Avant de commencer, je veux remercier tous mes auditeurs, merci à vous!
La transcription de cet épisode, est dans la description