I agree, aybee. The usage of cursing is quite different depending on region and socialization, I think. For example, in my home dialect, we use much more and worse or at least very different coarses than in ordinary ‘standard’ German. So, while I can use some swear words as funny reference (or even a compliment) to my buddies at home, I can’t do that in other areas of Germany or people will be offended. Moreover there’s of course a difference between informal language of teenagers and that of grannies (even though I would not say that grannies never curse… ).
In English I got the impression that while European speakers curse a lot, Americans tend to speak more politely.
I guess, it is a quite difficult field, but I find it interesting, too.
I was a little bit afraid about releasing this collection, but I’m happy to know that you like these lessons. I personally think it’s very interesting to be able to listen to this kind of informal language. I’d love to be able to study lessons like these ones in English, seriously.
@Fingerhut I agree with you that there is kind of a general feeling that Americans tend to speak more politely, but then, in American TV shows o movies, you listen to a lot of slang and coarse language. So yeah, probably Americans or English swear less than Spanish, but they swear anyway, so to me, it’ll be really interesting to have this in the library!!
We are in a language learning site, so don’t be ashamed, we are not swearing in the real world, we are just learning the language and its culture!!
While I think learning curse words is useful (you need to know when people are cursing you), am I feeling a sense of overpraise of this kind of content in this thread?
Street language and vulgar language are two completely different things. I find that some of us in this thread are mixing the two.
Personally, I would not mind having this kind of content in the library, and I thank the authors for their effort. But I wouldn’t encourage or explicitly ask for more of this in the library, even for other languages.
I personally am not referring to the cursing, but the more informal way of talking. It just so happens that Spaniards curse a lot. I’m just kidding, but seriously, this is more like content on tv or the radio that I can’t understand. They’re speaking faster, the rhythm is a little different, and the conversation is not as structured. This is why I like it so much. It’s the first content in the library in awhile that I have to make an effort to understand, even though the percentage of unknown words is not that high for me. At any rate, they’re not cursing THAT much in the lessons. It’s really not a lot at all.
@edwin I think you have completely misunderstood the goal of this lessons. We are not trying to teach students curse language or vulgar language, we are just trying to be natural and speak the way WE all (or most of us) speak in Spain. This is not South Park. We are not insulting each other and the words we are using they are not strong at all in our context. That’s what we are trying to highlight. I think that’s the main point and the good thing of this collection. And something I’d like to find in the English library.
It doesn’t make sense if you translate them in your language because you won’t get the point of them. You have to understand tha’ts the way we speak and you have to consider these words and expression in their context.
Thank you Angela for your explanation. I think that you just nailed it!
Albert, I understand what you are trying to say (I think). I just want to separate the two types of language usages in the discussion: street and vulgar.
You may say that this is how common people use the language in Spain, I admit that I cannot prove it otherwise, for I don’t live in Spain.
One thing I find weird though. Occasionally when Berta popped up one of those words, you started cracking up. So is this a common practice during street conversations?
In 1964 when I lived in Paris, I had a friend, a Spanish girl, a very straight laced, prim and proper girl (far too prim and proper for my taste), obviously part of the Franco aristocracy. She was very liberal in her use of jr and co. When I hitchhiked in Spain and caught rides with all kinds of people, including truck drivers and the wealthy people who had cars in those days, it was confirmed to me that in every day speech in Spain, coarse language is very common. I might add that Spain under France was a society where people were unbelievably hospitable, and you could leave your wallet on the sidewalk and no one would take it (or so it seemed).
The Cantonese are also liberal in their use of vulgar language, as you know Edwin, although the Spaniards beat them.
By contrast, in Swedish and Japanese you rarely hear a vulgar word.
Languages are all about conventions. In English, swear words are not as common. I must admit that I do not like to hear them. But in Spanish it is different.
Edwin, in this case it’s not a matter of street or vulgar language. It’s just informal language, you don’t have to be an uneducated poor low class person to use this expressions. Or, as Berta said before, a drug-dealer-mobstress. They use another kind of expressions.
I can tell you that when I laughed at something Berta said, it was not because of the words she used, but the meaning of the sentence, the context, the way she said something… I don’t know, I can’t remember, but I can tell you that NOONE would laugh at all listening “coño” or “joder” or any other of this common expressions. We don’t consider curse words, just a way to express intensity reinforce what you are saying. If I wanted to curse her or insult her I would use many other words and in another tone. Any Spanish person would be confused about that. You’ll clearly see when someone is using curse words to insult you.
Actually, in the (advanced) German library, I’ve found some podcasts that also use coarse words, if you want to call them like that.
However, it’s not cursing at all. It’s just informal speech. It’s like you say ‘damn good’ - you don’t really damn someone by that, do you?
In my opinion the real ‘acid test’ in these matters is what you can say to a police officer before getting busted.
In Germany, I’m guessing that you might get away with saying to an officer: “Sie sing wohl geistig behindert!”
But if you said something like: “Ach, fick dich ins Knie und fahr in die Hölle du Scheissbulle!”, there is a real possibility that they would arrest you and charge you with Beamtenbeleidigung.
The S-word is very often used in colloquial speech in Germany. The problem is that you must know when it can be used! As a learner you should understand but better avoid it.
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I’m just kidding, but seriously, this is more like content on tv or the radio that I can’t understand. They’re speaking faster, the rhythm is a little different, and the conversation is not as structured. This is why I like it so much. It’s the first content in the library in awhile that I have to make an effort to understand, even though the percentage of unknown words is not that high for me. At any rate, they’re not cursing THAT much in the lessons. It’s really not a lot at all.