Le parolacce

There are certain things that a foreign language student learns as they are reaching a "fully conversational" level in the foreign language. These items include: 

1. Idioms 

2. Colloquial expressions 

3. "the bad words"- beyond the obvious 

Today we learned the bad words that Italians, especially Sicilians, use. It was a bit of a strange lesson for me because generally, I don't use too many of these words. I decided not to protest, as on of my classmates did, and go with the flow. I thought, "even though I don't use these words, if someone is using them about me I want to know what they mean". The bottom line is, I never knew you could say "stupid" and "prostitute" in so many ways. The ironic thing is that not all of these words are used in the perjorative. Most of the time, these words are used among friends in a joking manner. And while I may never call someone a "caglione", it's good to know what it means and how to use it!