Death to euphemisms!
Published on
Translation by:
maria iglesia ramos
High-level meetings are being held one after another in order to put an end to the agreement on the new community budgets in which communications have never been all too clear, despite the fact that European languages offer all kinds of advice to avoid the use of euphemisms and the politically correct language which never stops revealing the truth. It is customary to call ‘the child by his name' in Germany (Das Kind beim Namen nennen), whereas in France, they call ‘a cat a cat’ (Appeler un chat un chat), so as to avoid obviating a person’s unfriendly attitude. In Spain, a country with the highest obesity rate among children in Europe, there is still a tendancy to use gastronomic similes: you call bread ‘bread’ and wine ‘wine’ (al pan pan, y al vino vino) . And since high-flying griefs are what the European budget issues are all about, the Irish tend to call a spade a spade.
The pragmatic Polish, are asking us to call something by its name (nazywac rzeczy po
imieniu).
Translated from ¡Muerte al eufemismo!