Inappropriate/appropriate

I've been informed by members of my French Club that to use the word "excitant" is culturally inappropriate as it is usually used only when referring to sexual excitement. I was telling them that I was "excited" about planning a vaction to France when they stopped me and corrected me. They suggested I just say that I am happy "joyeusement" or "hereuse" about my trip. I'll be very careful about that in future!

Yes, I remember them mentioning this subtext in the audio lesson on 2.1 (Tourist Information Center), and why you should say "Ça a l’air super !" instead of "Ça a l’air excitant !" ;)

Hi Jodi, Thanks for passing this on. Will go back to the audio lesson , 2.1 to review this. Cultural appropriateness is very important. Each of us are representing our country -like mini ambassadors when we step into a foreign country. Big responsibility. On our first trip to Switzerland , my husband and I were in a cocktail lounge in Lucerne(German speaking) on our way to Geneva. Not speaking a word of German ,my husband pulled out his drivers license in an attempt to show that we were Americans. It was the year that President Clinton fell into disgrace with a young intern. Well, we just wanted to crawl out of there when the person who saw my husband's license yelled out"Amerikan-Clinton Lewinsky!"Everyone pointed to us with great laughter. I then said in my mock German ( know no German) " Clinton iszt goodt." The laughter was even louder. We made the quickest exit out of there. My diplomacy failed:( Cathy

Yes indeed Jason!

Bonjour à tous! Yes, "excitant" is not a word I would use flippantly. Although English and French have many useable cognates, it is never a good idea to expect that every word that looks the same holds the same meaning. For example, it was and still is bizarre for me to read food packaging and see all of the different sorts of preservatives that can be found in foods, because in French "préservatif" is actually means condom. That is at the same time the difficulty and joy of learning a new language. Keep up the good work! - Marie-Claire

Marie- Claire what a difference in meanings ! LOL!!! And may I add here that I wrote in an e-mail "Je suis excitee de commencer lecons avec vous." to someone in France. This was awhile ago before restarting Rocket French. I thought "excitee" was incorrectly written. Little did I know back then the wrong usage for "excited".:-( At least Jodi did not get to commit the faux pas that I made. Never did hear back from the would be tutor. Little wonder though, after knowing the implication of even wrongly written "excitee". A bientot ! Cathy