Tiennot - Post 11- Essays

 Essay Option 7

Yaourter. No, that's not a typo. Its French

Yaourter

-v. to make up words or sounds when you sing a song but don't know the lyrics

Now, this is a perfect for me, because I LOVE to sing - but that doesn't mean I'm good at it. n fact, I not only sing off-key, and an octave above the intended melody, but I'm also pretty darn awful at remembering the lyrics. Its a frequent occasion to hear me mumbling along in the backseat to whatever's currently playing on the radio, switching up a "watermelon sugar high" for " I wanna little sugar, hi!" 

Yes, yes, I'm a music teacher's worst nightmare -mostly because I'll promptly begin to belt whatever music is playing, no matter if I recognize it or not, in my magnificent dog hound howl. This drives my brother - a singer - especially crazy. 

Yaourter, funny enough, is perfect for me in that way. Yaourter - a word that flawlessly encapsulates the embarrassment - first or secondhand, that occurs from an often pathetic attempt to simply join in the fun, despite being terrible at it. 

Another reason this is one of my favorite words is because, while "bad singing" is the figurative translation, the literal translation of Yaourter is simply: to yogurt. I mean come on! That's great, right?! To yogurt?!

Have you ever heard someone try to talk with their mouth full of food? What about sing? Well, I guess the French took this to heart - Yaourter. 

It's also simply hilarious to me that the French would create a word that just means "to yogurt." I mean it begs the question as to what the French Academie is doing all day. They must not have a lot to do, if the word "to yogurt" slipped into the French dictionary. I'm sure some underpaid intern is laughing at that one. No, they really decided hashtag was too English, but yeah- yaourter seems like a good addition. 

I mean, I love it! This word can't be translated, because its so unique to the French language. By simply adding two letters- the e and the r, they took a breakfast food found in nearly every household and turned it into a verb. I mean, "Margaret, stop yogurting, you obviously don't know the words!" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

That's all I have to say on the subject of yogurt. Oops, I meant yaourter. I hope you'll forgive my pancake. I mean- mistake!