Lost in Translation, and Soccer Subs

I had an embarrassing exchange with one of my students in class the other day.  We were having a small group discussion about business, when in the back of the room I hear some laughter.  I start to circle back to them, and I see they're already interested in getting my attention.  One of the students looks up at me and goes "Teacher, when do you use 'mother...f*ck'?"

"Come again?"  I respond, with a hint of a smile on my face.

He repeats himself, with a deadpan expression.  Alright, he asked for it.

"It's a very dirty word," I respond, trying to figure out the most delicate way to get around this one.  "People often use it when they're really angry at somebody, or trying to inject a lot of emotion into an idea.  Often, it is used as 'motherf*cker', or just 'f*ck'.  Does that make sense?"

He looks at me with a confused expression on his face.  As I'm trying to figure out another relatively sterile way to explain things, he begins writing in his notebook...

"Matter Fact"

"Oh.  You're talking about 'matter of fact'.  Please ignore everything I just told you."

**********

I also watched a soccer game the other day, where Chile played Spain in some International cup.  I have no idea which, but the game itself was great.  Chile went up 2-0, and was looking really strong through halftime.  But then, of course, since I was rooting for them, the Spaniards came back and won 3-2.  Motherf*ckers.

The game also shone light on one of my new favorite aspects of soccer.  Obviously, the "flopping" isn't going anywhere in soccer - that's just part of the sport.  But everytime one of the players went down, the cameras would cut over to the bench.  And there'd be one guy on the bench whose eyes would light up, just a tiny bit.  Then the guy would get up, and start running fine, and the sub would slump back into his seat.

Then another guy would go down, this time really selling the injury.  The guy was in pain!  Smash camera cut to the bench, where 4 different subs hopped up and started stretching out/warming up their legs.  Then the guy gets back up, and jogs back into the play.  The subs all dejectedly take their seats again.

So now I've come to enjoy the flopping a little more, just because I know there are people out there who are bugged by it more than me - the substitute players.