Many students who are after a more authentic experience on their semester abroad actually attempt to learn some of the local languages such as Tagalog, Kra-Dai, Tai-Kadai, or even French. If you are going to Paris and need a good, hot meal, how can you communicate that you need a steaming hot, scrumptious bowl of mac n cheese? Today we hope to answer this all-important question.
WHAT IS A MAC
The word mac comes from the Old Irish prefix meaning son of, as in MacAbeyach, MacAhoar, or MacAlionkocksuker. In traditional Gaelic and Scottish society, a person referred to as Mac was synonymous with nancy fop or wigged dandy. This was not necessarily an insult, but definitely pegged the person as NOT a coachman or undertaker.
To translate to French simply use the word bellâtre, which means pretty but silly fellow.
WHAT IS AN N
N (pronounced ‘un’) is the fourteenth letter of the English alphabet and means simply number. This is easy to translate to French using the word nombre or chiffron.
WHAT IS CHEESE
Ha ha ha. Just kidding, everyone knows what cheese is, except maybe a Parisian who doesn’t know that cheese means fromage! You see, fromage is how they say cheese in gay Paris. You will hear tons of people walking around muttering about fromage, calling fromage from balconies with a je ne sais pas, a pithy desperation, and begging you to just try their fromage, men, women, young children, bankers, street sweepers will all have fromage firmly on the brain.
SO HOW DO YOU SAY MAC N CHEESE IN PARIS
The complete phrase you will need to satisfy your mac n cheese craving in the City of Light, then, will be bellâtre chiffron fromage, s’il te plait. Remember to always be polite to your waiter! S/he is likely lost in thought, musing on hard, smoky fromage.
Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash