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Comment by seadan83 | Hacker News Reader

There is a rule, never swear in a foreign language, or meow at a cat, you just don't know exactly what you are saying. Saying fuck is very context dependent. It can make you seem familiar, in a formal context that would be unwelcome (ie, we are not friends so don't talk to me as if we were pals (eg: tu, vs vous in french)) It could be a sign of directness and frankness. It can be somewhat comedy, or it can be crass, or it can be ignorant and uneducated (ie, no other way to Express yourself without cursing, a limited vocabulary) It also depends on how often one curses and hears them. High schoolers curse every other sentence, but when their (teacher, parent etc) curses once and for the first time in years, it means seriousness and is powerful. So something like "you little fuck" can be all the way from endearing, to the most serious of threats

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I understand the sentiment, but can’t follow the rule. I meow at cats whenever I meet them. It just always seemed the right thing to do. Granted, I don’t know exactly what I’m saying when I meow (or otherwise, really) - but then I don’t know what they’re saying, either, so I figure we’re even.

In any case, none of the cats I’ve meowed at over the years have ever seemed too offended - perhaps I’ve just been lucky. Barking at dogs has been a totally different story, though…

When you work as a foreigner in Japan, you can be afforded a lot of leeway in business custom and etiquette - as you as you are polite. You are assumed to be a well-meaning Gaijin who doesn't know better/proper form.

I've always assumed it is the same with meowing at cats: "we appreciate your effort. At least you didn't shit in our litter box like Jerry"

Meow at your cat and you might just learn something. I’ve successfully learned my cat’s “language.” Thankfully it’s a small vocabulary. Unfortunately, they know that I know what they want when the subject of cat treats comes up.

Funny enough, our second cat learned the local dialect after joining the family. I guess the moral here is to just gauge the room and hope for something fishy to come out of the cabinet.

Cats only meow to communicate with humans, they don't make the sound around other adult cats. It's a holdover from kittenhood that turned out to be advantageous at getting human attention, so when they self-domesticated, so they kept it. So basically if you meow at a cat you're just saying "I'm baby".

"There is a rule, never swear in a foreign language"

I'm an anglophone - en_GB.

The word fuck has been adopted by pretty much the world as a naughty expletive that generally doesn't cause complete outrage but is expressive enough to be generally outside normal and polite conversation. I think it is a triumph of people getting something right: As a complex species with disparate concepts and languages, we have managed to pick a single word to cover quite a few concepts and situations. Fuck's time has come (ooerr).

To be honest, I'd like to be able to swear in a foreign language (I can manage German and French so far but without much enthusiasm). Please feel free to reply with your finest swearing and put downs.

I'm an anglophone - en_AU.

The rest of the world seems to have never got the memo about the affectionate uses of the word cunt.

Same in some parts of the UK—north east of England in my case. It's fine among friends, but I'd never say it in a business meeting or to my grandmother. It's all about the context and delivery—calling someone a cunt will be taken very badly indeed if you do it in the wrong situation.

The rest of the word fuck them instead of simply noting them. You sound like a stamp collector 8)

> Please feel free to reply with your finest swearing and put downs.

How about strange?

I binge-watched all of Farscape in under a month during college over a decade ago, and "frell" (usually in the form "frelling ____") seems to have become a permanent part of my vocabulary. The word is a 1:1 translation of every meaning of "fuck", used very liberally in the series.

There's a bunch more swears and work-inappropriate sayings they also leave "untranslated", but "frell" was probably the most used.

Sounds like BSG and frak

The Irish deploy the work "feck" in nearlly the same way as the English word "fuck" but it isn't considered rude. I should probably know the full etymology of both words but can only comment on the Eng.Ang/Sax version which is basically: fuck. WP etc seem to waffle about wind fuckers/fokkers etc but fundamentally, I think the word means exactly what it means - that is how words work!

Feck is a bit more intriguing. I think feck really means the same as fuck but it is the Irish sticking it to the English and turning a rude word into a simple expletive that Mummy can use. If so - good job. I would love to hear some thoughts about this from someone from the Isle.

Swearing in German is dreadfully dull, you donkey who has a bird.

If you replace 'fuck' with 'procreate' or 'fornicate', it should be more polite: Oh procreation, what have you done now?

However, as Hollywood managed to promote 'fuck' as a generic expletive with no meaning, these are actually less polite, as they emphasis the meaning that was gone.

I also wonder why people write f*ck. If you want to swear, do it. If you want to be polite, don't do it. If a censoring system won't let you use fuck, be more creative. F*ck with a star just seems to say you're a pushover.

This reminded me of the video of a french guy telling an american guy about his baby: She looks like a "grosse phoque" (Chubby seal, in french)

I’m a native English speaker and I’d never dream of dropping an f-bomb in a professional context.

Unwritten cyclist rule: make the noise of the animal at the animal as you pass it.

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