darkweasel:

andogigi:
Personally, I try to learn swear words in a foreign language but I don't use them myself. This isn't because I'm a goody two-shoes. I just feel swearing in a language that isn't your native language makes you look like an idiot. I've encountered too many foreigners trying to swear in English who totally screwed it up. They didn't know the meaning, got the context wrong, or whatever. What's more, you can't say "Oops, I'm sorry. I didn't intend to say that."

I like listening to Eminem's music although my first language isn't English - I think that at least then you learn how swear words are used in English.

BTW, I couldn't imagine using a language like Japanese where, well, the tenses and pronouns you use can make a sentence extremely impolite. (OK, it must be even harder for a native English speaker, as German at least has a distinction between informal (singular "du", plural "ihr") and formal "you" ("Sie"))

I would have to warn against using Eminem or any music like that to learn how swear words are used in English, I was talking to a mexican once and they were trying to use "U.S. slang" which was more like "hoe", "bitch", and all the other words you find in rap + RnB (is that the right name for the genre), but in reality it can be highly offensive to use that language. Most popular music and colloquial do *not* go hand in hand in my experiences (mind you I don't listen to Eminem)...

But it's actually not that strange using different levels of politeness, provided you experience the language in a practical way, it comes naturally. It's like colloquial vs formal pronunciations in English where you might leave off the 't's at the end of words (e.g. ca') but then pronounce the t's with aspiration when you want to be formal (e.g. cat). Or it's like how you use different words when talking to different people, etc.