Swearing as global language!
Are ‘bad’ words necessarily bad?
Recently I saw a great movie called ‘The King’s Speech’, which led me to this question. First of all, I recommend everybody reading this blogpost and everybody not reading this blogpost to watch this movie because it is funny and interestingly themed. Besides, I recommend everybody to pay special attention to the swearing in the movie, partly because it makes one of the funniest scenes and partly because to me this scene says a lot about the role swearing plays in society. Lastly, I would like to recommend everybody not to stop reading after this part, because this post might give you something to think about.
First of all, let’s analyse the different types of cursing around the world. I recently visited the beautiful country Thailand and saw an amazing …show more content…
Cultures in Arabic countries or China care about their family more than the American culture or the West-European cultures. This means insulting family will be taken very seriously in Mandarin for example, where insulting someone’s cào nǐ zǔzōng shíbā dài (your ancestors to the 18th generation) is taken extremely seriously. All in all I can conclude that culture influences cursing as much as it influences every other type of language. I think the producers of ‘The King’s Speech’ had this in mind too.
The film tells the story of King George VI, also called ‘Bertie’, and his struggle to overcome his stutter. When Bertie becomes king after his brother abdicates, he decides to hire a speech therapist called Lionel Logue. The therapist has some interesting methods including putting steel balls in his mouth, singing while talking and gargling with warm water to improve his speech. The most funny and interesting scene though is where the king is told to swear. Below you can see a fragment:
Lionel Logue: You don’t stammer when you
Are ‘bad’ words necessarily bad?
Recently I saw a great movie called ‘The King’s Speech’, which led me to this question. First of all, I recommend everybody reading this blogpost and everybody not reading this blogpost to watch this movie because it is funny and interestingly themed. Besides, I recommend everybody to pay special attention to the swearing in the movie, partly because it makes one of the funniest scenes and partly because to me this scene says a lot about the role swearing plays in society. Lastly, I would like to recommend everybody not to stop reading after this part, because this post might give you something to think about.
First of all, let’s analyse the different types of cursing around the world. I recently visited the beautiful country Thailand and saw an amazing …show more content…
Cultures in Arabic countries or China care about their family more than the American culture or the West-European cultures. This means insulting family will be taken very seriously in Mandarin for example, where insulting someone’s cào nǐ zǔzōng shíbā dài (your ancestors to the 18th generation) is taken extremely seriously. All in all I can conclude that culture influences cursing as much as it influences every other type of language. I think the producers of ‘The King’s Speech’ had this in mind too.
The film tells the story of King George VI, also called ‘Bertie’, and his struggle to overcome his stutter. When Bertie becomes king after his brother abdicates, he decides to hire a speech therapist called Lionel Logue. The therapist has some interesting methods including putting steel balls in his mouth, singing while talking and gargling with warm water to improve his speech. The most funny and interesting scene though is where the king is told to swear. Below you can see a fragment:
Lionel Logue: You don’t stammer when you