"I listened!"

My mother .... was a pure woman .... from a noble family. And I, at least, know who my father is, ..... you pig-eating son of a whore!

Antonio Banderas, The Thirteenth Warrior

Remember the sequence in The Thirteenth Warrior where a reluctant Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan, played by Antonio Banderas, is making his way north with the Vikings?  Every night he sits by the fire, ignored by his fellow travellers as they speak in their own language.  However, as he sits and listens, night after night, he begins to pick up a word here and there, then another, and is finally able to respond to a chance comment about his mother, to the amazement and suspicion of the Vikings.

I've been in Paris for a few days now, and sadly I'm still in the "word here and there" phase.  However, I think I'm taking the right approach in just trying to get the concept of what I'm hearing, rather than do a word for word translation in my head, and so far this has worked pretty well.  And, to the best of my knowledge, no one has been offended by anything I've said - at least, I'm pretty sure they haven't made any comments about my mother.

- Sid