This afternoon I went to a popular retail store in a near-by town, and as I was walking across the car park a woman and child were coming in the opposite direction. I believe the woman was the child's grandmother (or great-grandmother, she looked ancient) Anyway the child said something I didn't catch and the grandmother (or great-grandmother) said back to the child in rather a loud voice :- "DON'T F****NG SWEAR !!" I would not have believed it if I hadn't heard it with my own ears
I must say, the older I get the less I like hearing swearing in public, especially if it's used extremely frequently. It loses any expressive impact unless it's only used occasionally, anyway. I wouldn't tell anyone to stop it or swear less but probably just disassociate from them. Nick
Years ago, at work the swearing was usually one word after another, most of it pretty hard swearing, but it was accepted as normal. The difference was you didn't do it at home, but now the eff word is used all the time in the street, there are a few others less heard but they do crop up from time to time. Something happened around the time they restricted workshop calendars. Around that time swearing outside became worse, and often by those that objected to the calendars.
I do know a lot of swear words, and even how to spell them, but there are very few occasions where they are useful. I've heard people use them as adjectives, adverbs, nouns, verbs, etc which leads me to wonder about the amount of education the person doing this has missed having such a small vocabulary. That said, I have let one loose on occasion thus demonstrating my lumberjack rather than lady like behaviour. And at those times, I do think that I'm justified!
I know lots too and I know them in Welsh as well, but I seldom use them (except at home when I don't think anyone can hear me ) But one day in my workplace (I was a social worker) a certain annoying colleague got on my nerves so much that I told her to eff off in Welsh, and I think I shocked everyone in the room, because I don't think they had ever heard it said in Welsh and also because they'd never heard me swearing ... You should have seen the looks on their faces I must say that was the one and only time .
@pete Well, it's all a question of social context, isn't it? I don't mind it at the pub with my male pals and it's common with manual labourers, nothing wrong with that, really. But I would hardly do it at a dinner party or family gathering with elders and/or ladies present. Some women, particularly in their 20s are much worse than the blokes! Puts me right off the girls I find attractive. Of course, it's entirely possible that that's why they're doing it! @Michael Hewett I too used to be a bilingual swearer but unfortunately you can't really upset enough people by swearing in Greek in the UK, so I've given it up. Nick
Where Miss Jiff used to work Lorry driver comes in and had a bad day and starts F-ing and B-ing Miss Jiff's Ex took in for about 10 minutes (which was go going for him) so Ex started back at driver, driver then say " your swearing in front of my wife" and driver still F-ing & B-ing, after driver unloaded he then was with Miss Jiff and the driver sayed to Miss Jiff That bloke out there swore in front of my wife, and which the driver was still F-ing & B-ing in front of Miss Jiff, so Miss Jiff said " well you have just swore in front of his F-ing wife" you are now BANNED from coming here again Miss Jiff then phones the drivers boss which they know very well and said the driver XXXX is now banned, the Boss Laff's his head off (not in a bad way) as he know Miss Jiff would only ban some one because of a big problem, Well the Boss then said to Miss Jiff "that's good as we wanted to sack him a long time ago now we can , when driver got back to his yard his P45 was waiting for him
I swear at work. How much and in what context depends on who I'm speaking to. Being in a senior IT / project management role I need people to trust me, because people are naturally suspicious of anyone that wants to automate their work or make their actions more easily traceable. So when I'm in meetings with senior management I keep it clean and intellectual, so they trust me to do my job professionally. When I'm in the factory talking to the production lads, or the lorry drivers, I become Mr Vulgar, so I'm one of the lads, then they tell me or show me whatever I need. The funny thing is everybody knows I do this, and seem to be respected for it. We previously had a colleague who never adapted his lingo to his surroundings. He didn't last long. The production lads were scared to tell him anything cos he wasn't one of the lads, and management didn't like him because he couldn't get any information out of the lads and he couldn't speak the management lingo. It's a shame really because he was a good lad and had all the technical skills, he just lacked the ability to gel with the people.
I worked in factories with a mixed staff. I would swear with the boys but never if there was a lady present. Mind you, one factory I worked in was mainly women and they swore like troopers. Even then I never swore in front of them.
When I lived out in the sticks when I was a young man, I used to get the bus into town to go out for a night out. The bus only ran hourly, but about 5 minutes before the regular bus, if it was nearly shift change time there was an extra bus mainly for the ladies that worked in the clothes factory. One day, a few minutes early at the stop, and keen to get to town as early as possible, I got the factory bus. The driver asked me, as discretely as he could, if I was sure I didn't want to wait for the regular bus instead. I told him no it will be fine. The driver tried to warn me a couple more times but I was thinking, I've heard they can be rowdy but how bad can it be, so I paid my fair. As soon as I got my ticket there were cheers and the kind of lewd comments. I just smiled at them and tried to show no fear. I knew I couldn't get off the bus until we got there because that would make me look weak, but I vowed never to get the factory bus ever again. No harm was done, but a young man getting on the bus was clearly a novelty for them, and the entire journey was just random chants, mockery, and blatant innuendo. It was very cringey, but it made a good story when I met up with my mates so I guess we all won in a way.
