After so many years living in France, I'm still amazed and shocked at some of their last name. For those Mr Small, Ms Carpenter, Mr Goodman, Mr Bigkind, it was kind of funny but still ok. However for those with pejorative last name, like the headmaster Mr Bastard, Mr Big boots, how do they survive all these years? French people do not react to these names anymore but I do. Each time I see the headmaster, I don't know how to address him, I won't want to call him Mr Bastard.
One day while I was working, I saw a mail coming in, I had a glimpse and saw something about croissant. I told myself that someone was bringing croissant to work to celebrate about something, but when I opened the mail, it was from Ms Croissant. If Ms Croissant were to bring croissants to share with us, I don't know how I would react.
December is approaching so I'm scratching my head about gifts. At my work I have to deal with a bunch of names so one day I thought I must be dreaming but I saw a guy with last name "Cadeau" = gift in French. I was like, no way someone is named Mr Gift, but it was real. Now I don't know how to react with Mr Gift. Maybe one day I will know someone who is Mr Right?
Puzzling, isn't it! I was actually talking about it with my mum last summer. In middle school, almost all teachers had very literal names : Mr. Paquet, Mr. Rideau, Mrs. Bienfait (who was not nice at all!), etc. And strangely enough, we, kids, didn't make fun of them. I can't remember French kids being teased because of their last name... first name, maybe.
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