Lambert Wilson just need a sip of good Chateau Haut-Brion to know how to curse in French. Anyway it helps!
As I wrote here, learning to swear is very important when learning a language. It’s not that swearing is interesting itself – although French is full of very fun expressions! – but knowing how to swear make you more French. Swearing is something we don’t have much control over. Words come out from our mouth without control when we drop a glass (full of good Chateau Haut-Brion wine!): “merde!“. The same when someone cut in front of you: “connard!“
It’s so deep in yourself that before you reach a certain proficiency you tend to use your mother tongue in all spontaneous situations.
Knowing that, we can use it to feel more French!
Using swearing words in French or French filler words will definitely improve three things:
1. confidence
2. feel comfortable with French
3. pronunciation
1. First, in order to have more confidence, you must act and practice. Most of my students want to be confident in order to speak with French people but actually you need to start speaking to improve and get confident. Just the opposite. Practice makes perfect or at least makes you better!
2. Practice makes you comfortable, pronouncing the same words French do will somehow make you feel different than repeating “parlez-vous francais?” all day long (which is not used. Remember that inversion-style questions are not used in spoken French. Remember. Or to be more explicit Forget them!). What we are talking about here is to ‘feel’ more French.
3. You are not saying “connard” or “putain” the same way you are saying “bonjour”. There is a sort of strong acting when you say it. It’s louder, the pronunciation is often emphasized and it certainly feels different. This is a good way to stop hesitating while pronouncing a word. And working on that can be fun too!
This could be your first word in French. Repeat this on and on. Very helpful!
If you are curious about French slang, check out my list of 150 slang words in French here.