Notes taken whilst supervising an exam in telecommunications
These 8 people that sit before me are all irish third level students, yet only half of them are Irish. We truly are moving towards a multicultural society at last. 6 of the eight register their country of birth as Ireland. Out of that 6 there is a Luigi and a Said, both of their accents are more Dublin than mine. the remaining two are American and Polish and both are accompanied by the national newspaper, The Irish Times. These young students represent a cross section of our society today who have integrated fully with society and yet retain their ancestral culture. The only real shame is that their taste in music is abysmal. Eminem, 50 Cent, Black Eyed Peas..pfah!
The Irish of more than one generation, the Sean's, Sinead's and Siobhan's are more American than the American. It is them that has the poor taste. It is them that are the MTV generation. It is the immigrants who bring the richer culture. Last month in class someone confessed not to know what Ramadan was. She knows now. Ten years ago she would never have found out. They have been together as a class for 6 long weeks now and they have learnt to take the piss out of each other. Said waits for someone to tell him when the sun goes down and Siobhan throws him a bar of chocolate. The endless Godfather jokes keep getting squarely pointed at Luigi who, on one occasion, unfortunately brought his guitar case to class. Pavel, the pole, constantly reminds the others that he'll be travelling to Germany for the world cup and came in last week in a swiss football shirt to mark the end of Ireland's chances (he knew even though England did beat Poland in their last game no self respecting Paddy would turn up in an England shirt). The American, Charlie, gets constantly barracked about Iraq, last week Said arrived with his scarf around his eyes, crawled to Charlie on two knees and asked him to spare his life.
It is through humour that this ugly tendency for rascism will be quelled. And God knows, this Celtic race is pretty succeptible to humour, after all, look at who the Taoiseach is..
The Irish of more than one generation, the Sean's, Sinead's and Siobhan's are more American than the American. It is them that has the poor taste. It is them that are the MTV generation. It is the immigrants who bring the richer culture. Last month in class someone confessed not to know what Ramadan was. She knows now. Ten years ago she would never have found out. They have been together as a class for 6 long weeks now and they have learnt to take the piss out of each other. Said waits for someone to tell him when the sun goes down and Siobhan throws him a bar of chocolate. The endless Godfather jokes keep getting squarely pointed at Luigi who, on one occasion, unfortunately brought his guitar case to class. Pavel, the pole, constantly reminds the others that he'll be travelling to Germany for the world cup and came in last week in a swiss football shirt to mark the end of Ireland's chances (he knew even though England did beat Poland in their last game no self respecting Paddy would turn up in an England shirt). The American, Charlie, gets constantly barracked about Iraq, last week Said arrived with his scarf around his eyes, crawled to Charlie on two knees and asked him to spare his life.
It is through humour that this ugly tendency for rascism will be quelled. And God knows, this Celtic race is pretty succeptible to humour, after all, look at who the Taoiseach is..
posted by Derek Keogh | 6:31 PM
1 Comments:
Taking the piss. From worldwidewords.org
Nothing literal about this one, you will be pleased to hear. It�s usually said that the phrase derives from an older one, piss-proud, which refers to having an erection when waking up in the morning, which is usually attributed to a full bladder (proud here being an obvious pun on its senses of something raised or projecting and of something in which one may take satisfaction).
It�s first recorded, as so many such indecorous expressions are, in Francis Grose�s A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue; in the second edition of 1788 he wrote: �Piss-proud, having a false erection. That old fellow thought he had an erection, but his � was only piss-proud; said of any old fellow who marries a young wife�.
This developed into a figurative sense of somebody who had an exaggerated idea of his own importance. So to take the piss is to deflate somebody, to disabuse them of their mistaken belief that they are special. It�s not recorded before the beginning of the twentieth century.
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