Casey Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 My Colonial Fuckin' Oath Trashy! By the way, here's an old Aussie bush saying from where I live, "Never call someone a cunt. Call 'em a dead cunt ... 'cause cunts are USEFUL!" Casey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 It's been said there's a time and place for everything and I guess that would include good round Anglo-Saxon words. Here's a story I was told happened in the 50's in the town where I live. We had a fellow who used to work in the wool industry as a shed hand, and a good enough one he was too. However there was a strike in the industry in the mid-fifties, and he, being temporarily out of funds, applied for Public Assistance (that's what the dole was called back then). He fronted up and was told in one of those irritating cut-glass accents by the woman behind the counter, "Mr Ryder, yew state in youah application tha-at you own one house and a share in another. Ah am sorry, but we re-ally cannot see our way cleah to granting yew Public Assistance". To which he replied in very much a bush accent, "Yair, yer right missus, but you want to remember, I ain't a white ant, I cain't eat them fuckin' houses!" Casey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Delete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Delete. Apologies, I don't know what happened there. Casey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trashy Posted March 20, 2007 Author Share Posted March 20, 2007 aye, and it twere just as funny the t'ird time I heard it as the first! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 The line has to be drawn somewhere, and I draw the line where I think the maximum benefit for my daughters lies. They may have ambitions of rising above their father's modest socio-economic level, and I don't want language to be an impediment. It seems that you are thinking along the lines that swear words are indicative of a lack of education or vocabulary. I disagree that this is always true. Trashy, I think you're missing the point Ro-bear is making. He wants his children to have the natural ability to express themselves in respectable English as "respectable" is defined by their society. If society decrees certain words to be less than respectable then there is little he can do about it. But he can teach his children language that will allow them to climb the corporate or social ladder if they are so inclined. He wouldn't want a thirty-year-old daughter coming home and saying, "Dad, I just found out I was turned down for that promotion because you never taught me to speak decent English!" I think people can learn it as adults if they want to and work hard enough, but what's wrong with teaching it to kids so it's natural? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trashy Posted March 20, 2007 Author Share Posted March 20, 2007 I think people can learn it as adults if they want to and work hard enough, but what's wrong with teaching it to kids so it's natural? No, I understand what he's saying, and I agree that kids should be taught proper English. Hell, I was reading when I was 4 and 5 due to phonics. I just disagree that knowing how to speak properly is not possible if you also know and use swear words. I'm not saying to learn a few vulgar words and then stop there. That would be ludicrous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 I think people can learn it as adults if they want to and work hard enough, but what's wrong with teaching it to kids so it's natural? No, I understand what he's saying, and I agree that kids should be taught proper English. Hell, I was reading when I was 4 and 5 due to phonics. I just disagree that knowing how to speak properly is not possible if you also know and use swear words. I'm not saying to learn a few vulgar words and then stop there. That would be ludicrous. Okay, I won't try talking for anyone else at this point. I do want to make a point for myself. I get the impression you think that anyone will learn proper English and that the focus on teaching a child proper English is unnecessary because they will automatically learn it. However, this is ludicrous and totally unrealistic. If a child only hears slang peppered with so-called vulgarity, that child is not going to learn proper English. He/she might understand it when spoken by others outside the home, but learning to express themselves in it will be very difficult and will require a great deal of personal effort and practice. Take my own experience as an example. We spoke, and continue to speak, Pennsylvania German in the home. I have barely heard enough vernacular English to give anyone a true bawling-out in that language. I learned a lot in the last ten years and perhaps I could do it now but I doubt it. I have to think so long and hard to come up with English equivilents and by that time the moment has passed. I am sure the same would apply to a person who never hears anything BUT English slang and/or vulgarities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gooneybird Posted March 21, 2007 Share Posted March 21, 2007 Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits. Fart, turd, and twat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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