http://gawker.com/5874804/

 

(Note:  contains prominent use of a "bad word")

 

One thing that "cultural conservatives" don't always realize is that American popular culture, even (sometimes especially) the more uncouth aspects of same, often carries western values along with it.

 

Perhaps they'll forget half their vocabulary and replace it with the F-word like we have.

In the Netherlands they swear in English, even when otherwise speaking Dutch.  It's disconcerting, to say the least, to hear f-bombs and A-hole dropped constantly in a conversation that you can't otherwise understand.

In the Netherlands they swear in English, even when otherwise speaking Dutch.  It's disconcerting, to say the least, to hear f-bombs and A-hole dropped constantly in a conversation that you can't otherwise understand.

 

I experienced the same thing when I was in Holland. 

 

I was sitting around a dinner table, when the father asked me, "Mike, do you like the Blink 182 song "F@(% a dog?"  My daughter let me hear it yesterday, and I thought it was funny."  Yet this is the same father who would reprimand his children for swearing in Dutch.

 

The simple answer is, swear words do not sound as bad when heard in a foreign language. They almost sound like fun, play words used for/by children instead.

Dutch does have a lot of words that sound like the F-bomb like "vaak" (often) as well.

Emphasis and tone made it pretty clear they weren't saying "vaak" when I was hearing it.

Maybe they were imitating a duck? Qvack!

a lot of foreigners swear in english. just yesterday i heard some guys from ghana doing the same thing and it made me laugh. thanks to our media american curse words are universal.

Seems like foreigners also like hearing us swear in their language. A couple friends and I were on a local tour bus in Berlin when we came upon some construction that was jamming up traffic. My buddy goes, "Scheisse!" (shit). The whole bus broke out laughing.

a lot of foreigners swear in english. just yesterday i heard some guys from ghana doing the same thing and it made me laugh. thanks to our media american curse words are universal.

 

They are often the first words small children and non-English speakers pick up, in part because we tend to emphasize them when we say them.

 

Seems like foreigners also like hearing us swear in their language. A couple friends and I were on a local tour bus in Berlin when we came upon some construction that was jamming up traffic. My buddy goes, "Scheisse!" (sh!t). The whole bus broke out laughing.

 

That word in Rumanian is "cacat".  I had to explain to a die cast operator who spoke little English that a certain type of casting defect was a bad part.  I showed him the defect and said "cacat".  He busted up laughing, and never passed another part with that defect.

Seems like foreigners also like hearing us swear in their language. A couple friends and I were on a local tour bus in Berlin when we came upon some construction that was jamming up traffic. My buddy goes, "Scheisse!" (sh!t). The whole bus broke out laughing.

 

or scheisster too, right? i learned that one from the 90's hit movie run lola run. ha.

 

same thing happened to me. i was clearly the american on an elevator in france packed with locals when a couple loudmouthed brits came on for a few floors. when those two got off it was quiet again so i said, "ros bife!" and we all bust out laughing.