Blog de Cristina A NEW LANGUAGE MEANS ANOTHER VISION OF LIFE

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn“  is a line from the 1939 film Gone with the Wind . It was spoken by Clark Gable, as Rhett Butler, in his last words to Scarlett O’Hara. 

At home I was never allowed to use bad language or swearwords, not that my father didn’t use them more often than necessary but I swear to God I’ve never ever heard my mother utter a single rude word . My parents were brought up in the traditional way , which meant going to church on Sundays and even though my father then changed his mind about the Sunday ritual , my mother is still quite devoted to most church rites. I guess being educated at  a nun’s school ’til the age of 18 has a lot to say in this matter.

So as I said not a single taboo word was ever allowed at home although as you can imagine everything forbidden was used and overused when we thought we weren’t heard and also in the midst of some angry arguments among my siblings and me. Among the words we couldn’t use was the word ” Damn”and although we knew that it could only be used  in church ,by priests when preaching ( it is used in religious contexts to mean “To condemn to hell”) we liked to tease our parents by saying it as often as we could pretending we didn’t know it was popularly used as a cuss word.

 

Although it still maintains the religious connotations , the word Damn is used , nowaday , to express anger, annoyance, disgust…etc . Look at the word being used in context:
No, damn it, you wait a minute!
God damn it, the man said he’d write, so why doesn’t he send me a letter?
That car isn’t worth a damn ( worthless)
What is the Government doing to reduce global warming? Damn all (nothing at all)
Damn it all! (expressions of anger, annoyance or impatience)
I don’t give a damn about what they say ( I don’t care)

Now if you’re in the mood for more Damn , watch this video where  Beyoncé plays the role of a gorgeous housewife who can’t understand why her husband doesn’t love her:

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Why don’t you love me?
Tell me, baby, why don’t you love me
When I make me so damn easy to love?
Why don’t you need me?
Tell me, baby, why don’t you need me
When I make me so damn easy to need?

 

Although I can’t say I’m a music junkie I spend a lot of my time listening to music. The kind of music I listen to largely depends on my mood .Normally, on my way to work I’m full of energy and anticipation so the songs I like listening to are of that kind … but when I am coming back home I need something a bit more relaxing , so I go for classical music , ballads, chill out … and all that jazz. And sometimes if my day’s been crap and I have to think about the best way to face the music , then I appreciate the silence.

Anyway, what I want to say is that I like this chick. I think she’s got a very nice voice , powerful but sweet at the same time .. When I first listened to her , her voice kind of struck a chord ; she is somewhere between Amy Winehouse and Kate Perry with a touch of Dufy. Her first album has just been released and I anticipate it’s going to sell like hot cakes.
Her debut single ‘Mama Do (Uh Oh Uh Oh)‘ was a success but ,in my humble opinion, there are other very good tracks. By the way , her album is called Turn it Up.

 

Want to see what these idioms mean ?
http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/cat/23.html