Author: Tord Romstad
Date: 15:06:17 11/03/03
Go up one level in this thread
On November 03, 2003 at 16:27:50, Alastair Scott wrote: >On November 03, 2003 at 14:20:42, Tord Romstad wrote: > >>On November 03, 2003 at 13:32:47, Robert Hyatt wrote: >> >>>However "absolute idiot" != "fucking idiot" by any stretch. >> >>To me, the stretch is not very wide. This is probably mostly a cultural >>and linguistic difference. Sexual words don't carry as strong negative >>connotations in Europe as in the US, and the phrase "fucking idiot" probably >>doesn't look quite as offensive to most Europeans as it does to you. > >Oh? ;) > >As a determined non-swearer (because, where I come from, such words are used to >improve the rhythm of the sentence) I dissent! The direct translation of "fucking idiot" into Norwegian sounds so ridiculous that no native speaker would ever use it, and if somebody *did* use it, it would probably be considered too comical to be offensive. :-) I am also a determined non-swearer, by the way, but I try not to judge others by their style of language. >>When using a foreign language, it is easy to overstep the line with >>profanities. A remark which sounds only mildly offensive in one language >>will often sound much worse in another. This should always be kept in >>mind when reading posts from contributors whose native language is not >>American English. > >Just don't use them at all. If it can't be said in plain English it's not worth >saying ... This is very good advice, especially when speaking a foreign language. Tord
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.