Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase
210.. The noun phrase today is faux pas. Okay. We ... it comes from French but
it's commonly used in English. So the first thing you
should probably note is the pronunciation. Remember in French, the last
letter is often silent. So the X is silent in the first word
and the S is silent in the second word. So it's actually pronounced
faux pas. Okay. So let's take a look at the note at the board
here and i'll step back for a second. If you want a screenshot. Okay. Good. Let's continue here. If someone says that a person made a
faux pas, he or she made an embarrassing
mistake or blunder that was careless. Often one makes a faux pas without
realizing it. So the person who does it, who makes it ...sometimes we could also say
to commit a faux pas too. So the person who does it usually
doesn't realize they were doing it. Sometimes it may be due to
differences between cultures you know , like something that's
acceptable in one culture may not be acceptable in another culture
or some informational, fact that the person was unaware
of in a certain situation. And it was obviously a social mistake.
All right. So let's continue. The origin of faux pas derives directly from
French. It has been around since the 17th century.
The word "faux" means false or fake. You can
also see this if one refers to like fur, leather, pearls etc. So if we say
a faux fur , it means it's not real fur. It's fake first
artificial fur. The same thing with faux leather,
not real leather, faux pearls are not real pearls
etc. Pas actually refers to a step or a dance step. Thus faux pas
referred to a misstep. So you stepped the wrong way and
in this case it was a social misstep or on social mistake.
All right. And we have four examples to cover this.
In the old movie "Joy Luck Club" the boyfriend of an Asian girl
made a faux pas by using his personal chopsticks when he was supposed to be
using the community chopsticks. Yeah. In Asia
a lot of times there's a lot of dishes in the center of the table and usually
everybody has their own personal chopsticks
that they eat directly to their mouth. But if you want to pick up food from the
center of the table there's some community chopsticks . You're
supposed to use those to pick it up and then put it on your plate.
And then you're not supposed to use the community chopsticks to eat with
to your mouth. You're supposed to put them back. So other people could pick
them up and put them on their plate. But he didn't realize that there was
such a thing as community chopsticks. So he made that
mistake by using his chopsticks directly and picking up the food.
So that would be a faux pas. There's a lot of faux pas about you know table
manners and things like that. Let's continue. Number two. And
there's a lot of international faux pas sometimes happen.
George H. Bush the , the father you know, the first Bush
made a faux pas by giving a V sign with his finger and palms facing
out so kind of kind of like that. Facing outward
in Australia in the US the V means well victory. A victory is
actually what George Bush wanted to mean. He wanted to say victory.
Sometimes it means peace too. To the old hippies that,
that sign actually meant a peace sign as well.
Okay. A peace but in Australia it's equivalent to giving the middle
finger. So I guess he didn't realize this.
He thought you know, he's seen the crowd go by. And he's going
hey you know, like victory. Yeah. And they're thinking "oh my God. " What is he
doing ? You know. So, so this could happen
obviously he didn't mean anything by that. But that would be a faux pas.
All right. Michelle Obama made a faux pas
by touching the queen's back during a visit to the UK.
I think when this was when they first... Obama first became president.
Usually only a handshake with the queen is acceptable and anything else
is not. So you're not supposed to touch the queen. You're only supposed to maybe
shake her hand and anything else is considered
unacceptable. That is a faux pas, but you know, they probably
should have warned her. But they probably should have given
better,,, prepped better. But that was considered to be a faux pas.
All right. And here's just one, one other one. In Thailand,
it is a faux pas for a female and any woman
to sit next to, touch or hand something directly to a monk.
Yeah. I've known this for a while. I've been in Thailand. Sometimes even
with my wife she'd sit on the bus next to the , the,
the monk. The monk would be like no, no no you can't sit next to me
or we've seen this. Sometimes on the the river boats...
sometimes all the monks stand against the against the wall
to try to make sure that you know, just in case people pass by if a female passes
by they don't accidentally touch them. That is considered to be a faux pas in
Thailand. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope
it's clear. I hope it's very informative. Thank you for
your time. Bye-bye.