Sign Of The Times - ASL

I once expounded on the joys of giving a Frenchman a V-sign - a good two finger salute, explained its history and professed dismay at the fact that a good old V-sign, of great historic provenance, has mostly been usurped by the ubiquitous one finger salute.

Here’s the scenario. It’s your first visit to La Belle France. Your hire car seems fine and, now you’re off the motorway, you’re starting to relax. What an adventure to be happily driving down twisty French country lanes on the way to that quaint Chateau you found on the internet (the one that offered Bed & Breakfast and horse riding thrown in).

Things are looking good - recent road signs tell you that you are nearly there, what could go wrong now?

Suddenly a battered Citroen comes hurtling around the corner heading straight for you, he’s all over the road and it’s all you can do to avoid him. That’s bad enough but he’s flashing his lights at you, peeping his horn, gesticulating out of his window and screaming at you, “Cochon!” he shouts at the top of his voice.

“How frightfully rude these Frenchies are!”, you remark to your traveling companion as you turn the corner. “Don’t they remember that we saved their arses back in 1944 and what about….”

Your sensible comments stop there because you have just hit the pig in the road he was trying to warn you about.

Moments like this make an Englishman think twice about his built-in antipathy to the French.

However it is very hard to go against centuries of tradition. Which brings me to the point of this missive: how best to use a hand gesture to insult a Frenchman, particularly when driving, yet one which will leave the Frenchie uncertain as to whether he has been insulted or not. This would have been particularly useful in the misunderstanding above.

Why is it that the whole world world seems to use the ubiquitous ‘one finger salute’ that, as I recall, appeared in England in the early 80’s as more and more U.S. culture drifted across the Atlantic.

Suddenly it seemed that everyone was giving someone else the ‘finger’ Personally I never got the hang of it. Why? because I already had a perfectly serviceable hand gesture that had served me in good stead for many a year and, now that I’d moved to France was particularly apt. I’m talking, of course, of the V sign.

When offered palm forward we have the classic ‘peace’ sign of the 60’s but reversed we have the Churchillian V for Victory and “Up yours Froggie!” sign that sadly seems no longer to be used by the younger generation. Why is this such a big deal you ask? Because that sign is hundreds of years old and was forged on the battlefields of France - think Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt, think Henry the fifth exhorting his troops to battle on against overwhelming odds ( and triumphing too): “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.”

You see the thing is that a French knight on horseback was the Sherman tank of his day, virtually unstoppable. Unstoppable that is until the arrival on the field of battle of the English and Welsh bowmen with their longbows. Their arrows, fired with incredible force, were the armour piercing shells of the same day and they wreaked havoc with the French lords on their battle chargers. ‘Hell from above’ indeed.

Now those Frenchies did not like those archers at all and when they captured one they made sure that he would never fire an arrow again by chopping off the two relevant fingers on his right hand!

So waving those two intact fingers is an historical way of mocking the French! Try it next time you’re in France - it is extremely satisfying when ordering two coffees in a cafe and you are safe in the knowledge that most Frenchmen will not have the faintest idea of the significance of your ‘flipping the V’.

On the other hand you could sign up for the free 6 day French course from Rocket Languages or to the Introductory ASL (American Sign Language) video course which is free as well for LONG term satisfaction…..

No that isn’t ASL! If you enjoyed it though here’s what happened a few months later……