So I’ve told you about baskets for your feet, but, there’s lots more to say about French and feet. Don’t expect me to justify any stereotypes about the “smelly” French (ok, when it comes to cheese, consider this confirmation that it’s true) because I suspect that the stereotypes surrounding the French and cleanliness date back to the war(s) or earlier and can confirm that they are not accurate in this day and age, at least not in “my” part of France. But I digress, I wanted to tell you about “foot”. This is related only distantly to what us anglos think of, because to the French, it means football (soccer for the North Americans in the audience). Similarly, “basket” is basketball, “volley” is volleyball and “hand” is, of course, not that thing attached to your wrist, but handball. There are probably more that I haven’t thought of, however I didn’t come to talk about sports, but about feet. So if “foot” is soccer/football, what is “doing a footing”? Going jogging, of course! But wait, the French talk about “jogging” too! …except that that refers to a jogging suit or sweat suit. Which bring me to another favourite: “sweat” (pronounced “sweet”, just to be a little more confusing) refers to a sweatshirt, while a “pull” is a sweater (from the British “pullover” – and totally incomprehensible to those North Americans who have never used the word pullover in their lives). The list goes on…
