One of my previous classes had three girls in it that worked for the Cairo Opera House. Two of them were singers in the choir, the third played an instrument in the orchestra.
Me: "What instrument do you play?"
Student: "I play the faggot."
Me, confused, hoping I had misheard her: "Um, what?"
"I play the faggot", she repeated. Everyone in class seemed to understand what she meant, adding to my confusion.
"It is a wooden reed-instrument", she explained, "it looks like a clarinet or an oboe."
"Oh, you mean a bassoon!", I exclaimed, glad to clear up the confusion. In Dutch, we call it a 'fagot', pronounced 'faa-got', with a hard g sound. She was pronouncing it very much the American way.
"Please don't use the word faggot in public", I advised her.
"Why not?", was the obvious response.
"Well", I began, "it is a bad word to describe a homosexual man."
"A what kind of man?", another student asked.
"A gay man."
"Gay?" Now it was their turn to be confused, as the entire class had question marks hovering overhead.
I realised I had dug a massive hole for myself and subsequently had to explain the concept of homosexuality to twelve Arabs. Homosexuality is a bit of a taboo in the Arab world, to put it mildly.
"Gay means happy", I began, "but it is also used to describe people that fall in love with people of the same sex. Men who have relationships with men and women that fall in love with women. Another word for it is homosexual."
I had a dozen pair of eyes staring me down with a mixture of disgust and amazement. The girl that had used the word turned bright red.
"In the USA a bad word to describe a gay person is a faggot. So please don't use that word in public, it is very offensive", I stressed.
As I was already spoiling their minds with American slurs, I decided to teach them 'poof', 'queer', 'homo' and 'fag' too.
Always keen to learn new words, they normally write down everything I say. Nobody touched their pens as I wrote these new words on the blackboard. They were very quiet when they left the class a few minutes later.
Me: "What instrument do you play?"
Student: "I play the faggot."
Me, confused, hoping I had misheard her: "Um, what?"
"I play the faggot", she repeated. Everyone in class seemed to understand what she meant, adding to my confusion.
"It is a wooden reed-instrument", she explained, "it looks like a clarinet or an oboe."
"Oh, you mean a bassoon!", I exclaimed, glad to clear up the confusion. In Dutch, we call it a 'fagot', pronounced 'faa-got', with a hard g sound. She was pronouncing it very much the American way.
"Please don't use the word faggot in public", I advised her.
"Why not?", was the obvious response.
"Well", I began, "it is a bad word to describe a homosexual man."
"A what kind of man?", another student asked.
"A gay man."
"Gay?" Now it was their turn to be confused, as the entire class had question marks hovering overhead.
I realised I had dug a massive hole for myself and subsequently had to explain the concept of homosexuality to twelve Arabs. Homosexuality is a bit of a taboo in the Arab world, to put it mildly.
"Gay means happy", I began, "but it is also used to describe people that fall in love with people of the same sex. Men who have relationships with men and women that fall in love with women. Another word for it is homosexual."
I had a dozen pair of eyes staring me down with a mixture of disgust and amazement. The girl that had used the word turned bright red.
"In the USA a bad word to describe a gay person is a faggot. So please don't use that word in public, it is very offensive", I stressed.
As I was already spoiling their minds with American slurs, I decided to teach them 'poof', 'queer', 'homo' and 'fag' too.
Always keen to learn new words, they normally write down everything I say. Nobody touched their pens as I wrote these new words on the blackboard. They were very quiet when they left the class a few minutes later.
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