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Post by rdywenur on Aug 19, 2006 4:22:18 GMT -7
200 fined for swearing in public Polskie Radio 8/16/06
City guards in Lodz, central Poland, handed out almost 200 tickets for swearing in public within just one month. Over 500 persons were instructed about the regulation which bans dirty words in public places. Guards say that people swearing in public, especially in open air cafes and bars, constitute a huge problem in the summer. Vulgar words are used by men and women alike. The majority explain that they did not realize it was an offence.
I can just picture this happening in USA. We'd probably have a revolution on our hands. Come on now. Everyone knows the words they speak are either offensive or not. And in a country that is probably 100% Catholic......were they asleep during religious instruction.
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piwo
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Post by piwo on Aug 19, 2006 7:20:57 GMT -7
rdywenur wrote:hmmm.... to be honest, when I was in college I worked as an apprentice painter (yes, my first of two affiliations with the trade unions ) Working new home construction, with all the others "trades", the thing I learned most that summer, was how to swear. Got to the point where without thinking, I could slip 3 or 4 F-bombs into a sentence just asking someone to pass me the salt at lunch and didn't realize I was doing it. When totally immersed into a culture, one adopts to it, often without realizing it. I know many people who were born in STL area, only to move to NY, Boston, Florida, Alabama. Every one, without exception, adopted the local accent and speech patterns, without believing they had. I'm betting I could detect colloquial accents in most everyone out there if we were to meet. And there's nothing at all wrong with that, it's just natural. People adapt to their surrounding. Unfortunately, profanity is the ugly side of this adaptation. SOOOO many people cuss and swear, and I hear mothers with small children dropping F-bombs all the time. Those children will recite it back without even blinking and will grow up using it like you used "darn it" when you were a child. I think people 30 years ago used curse words to make a statement or insult, now I think they are just words mindlessly parroted. Throw in Hollywood's obsession with it, and it has crept into the daily vernacular of our society and shows no sign of abatement. I was out to dinner with family a few weeks ago and there was a group of 35-30ish folks at the table accross the isle. So much swearing and vulgur language, that the guy in the table next to them was about to stand up and challenge them, when his wife physically grabbed his arm and gestured to let it go. The apeared to be in their early 60's, and he was clearly upset with this language being used around his wife. This was allways the way it was: a time and a place for everything. This wasn't the place, but to the younger people, there just was no wrong place. That this is the case in Europe doesn't surprise me. There are far more similarities between cultures in todays world then most will want to admit to. This is just an ugly one. Thats what I think, anyway.
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Post by bescheid on Aug 19, 2006 8:09:30 GMT -7
[/quote] Come on now. Everyone knows the words they speak are either offensive or not. And in a country that is probably 100% Catholic......were they asleep during religious instruction.[/quote]
Interesting situation that of Poland and the arrest for public swearing. Being that of a primarily Catholic country, but then, people will be people bearing with them all the strengths and weaknesses that are inherent within them.
I think though, the situation is more likely to be in those areas more adapt to the use of cursing {group pressure adaptive reaction} people do seem to mimic what they admire or exposed to in saturation.
I think piwo describes that best with his experience.
And yes, also have I found my self using rather descriptive verbiage {cursing} in a pressured situation {A spontaneous Declaration} and most of the time, not within hearing of others.
Interesting subject, or indication of moral decay. I once heard from one of my many bosses long ago in another time and place. It was a lessen in personal responsibility.
{What ever you do or say, make sure you will be able to do or say within a court of law, or, infront of your wife}
Charles
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piwo
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Post by piwo on Aug 19, 2006 8:56:44 GMT -7
{What ever you do or say, make sure you will be able to do or say within a court of law, or, infront of your wife} Charles Well put.
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Post by rdywenur on Aug 19, 2006 12:34:29 GMT -7
Piwo...I agree with all you said and understand the ways of speaking. I am very aware of guys speaking what we call "shop talk" here in the USA. It just that it baffled me to think someone could respond that they weren't aware they were being vulgar. So conditioning also makes you ignorant. I was not judging here.
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piwo
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Post by piwo on Aug 19, 2006 14:21:15 GMT -7
Piwo...I agree with all you said and understand the ways of speaking. I am very aware of guys speaking what we call "shop talk" here in the USA. It just that it baffled me to think someone could respond that they weren't aware they were being vulgar. So conditioning also makes you ignorant. I was not judging here. No, I didn't think you were judging at all... I was just a little embarrassed that I actually found myself in that state at one point of my life..... Now I only swear in my head, and in the pool hall, where it belongs ;D ;D ;D ;D
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nancy
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Post by nancy on Aug 19, 2006 18:43:00 GMT -7
It just that it baffled me to think someone could respond that they weren't aware they were being vulgar. rdy, Perhaps those people meant that they were not aware it was an offense for which they could be fined ("punishable by law"). When some words used here on the forum are replaced by *****, we get accused of censorship. I think it might be more a matter of taste - I don't need to hear all those F-words, etc. but other people are very used to hearing them and are not bothered by them. But to be charged zloty for using them - that is a whole nother thing!
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Post by rdywenur on Aug 19, 2006 19:41:49 GMT -7
Thank God for America where freedom of speech rings loud unless of course you are cussing at Bush. ...Okay who wishes to bail me out of jail.
Nancy and Piwo ...okay I get it ...You should hear me when I'm driving. I even scare myself. (I am alone always) ...not that I don't swear ocassionally ......only when I am reeeeeeeeealy mad.
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zooba
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Post by zooba on Aug 21, 2006 5:55:55 GMT -7
Well, I have heard of this innitiative and find it ridiculous. The police instead of chasing the criminals and dog owners, who don't clean after their cats, chase the cursing people. And not because I curse (I have never used the f word) but it seems to me a waste of their time. I find it repulsive when people habitually curse, like spitting meaningless stream of f words (in Polish k words). I guess it came from Holywood and their hidden admiration for the criminal world, has infected Polish movies and finally life. I understand you need sometimes let off the steam (I don't know the proper English expression) but there are so many different ways to do that. Having young children even this can be difficult - we have made up our own family curse words, rather funny, never offensive.
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Post by hollister on Aug 21, 2006 7:08:08 GMT -7
I find this rather amusing ... Number one I live in an environment that for good or ill - there is a lot of cursing! I think it is part of being a soldier. Wayne did not use "those words" very often before going back on active duty - but now? There are many.
But that is not my main comment here - this is what I find confusing. The guys here AND my friend from Poland back up at home - will NOT curse in Polish but they DO curse in English without (it seems a second thought). I asked about it one time and was told that in Polish it is not polite to use curse words (left unsaid was the assumption that it WAS okay to curse in English?)
The guys here use the term "Jesus Christ" often but do not see it as a curse word - where as I do. To them it is simply a verbal utterance that expresses annoyance or disgust - to me it my Lord's name. It doesn't have that connotation to them.
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piwo
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Post by piwo on Aug 21, 2006 7:13:09 GMT -7
And that was the perfect English expression! Good points! While I don't solely blame Hollywood, you are indeed correct of it's influence. And when you don't have a script, just lace in 100's of F (or K) bombs for shock value, maybe a bare breast or two, and you have a "summer blockbuster". The kids will eat it up and repeat it regularly. Just like a bad comedian: good ones can make you laugh at life and the surrounding insanity, others just need to swear a lot and try to shock you into laughter.
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Post by leslie on Aug 21, 2006 7:32:44 GMT -7
I fear that this is a situation that is not going to go away as the young people nowadays use the full range of curse words in their vocabulary as second nature - and as young people perpetuate, the habit will almost certainly continue.
I have to admit, even as someone with strong religious feelings, that sometimes I have to let off steam, and in very serious situations, a strong curse word seems to be the only way to express my feelings. As I said above about young people, the trend is not only with them. I note (unless it is the company I keep!) that swearing is much more rife among ordinary (decent) people than it ever was. I don't think we can even define how strong a word has to be before it is considered swearing/cursing -at one time 'Oh bother' was a strong way of letting off steam! I would certainly draw the line before words that have an obvious sexual connotation, but unfortunately these are the ones that are becoming more prevalent. Leslie
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