For Colin Essex

KitaYama said:
Doc, I don't want to be rude and it's only based on my personal experience. I may be wrong.
I think it's not only you that is (were) used to using those words. English is a language with a lot of dirty words and the sad point is that they use them a lot of times daily. Watch a movie in English and count how many times you hear those words. You can never see this in any movie in another language.

I've studied a lot of languages in my life. I'm not fluent in any of them, But at least I can grasp the conversation. I've spent more than half of my life with people outside of my native language. I've been with American, English, French, and almost half of Asian countries. But none of them (with my experience, I may be wrong) use those dirty words as much as American.
At least English use bloody instead of Fu**** in most cases.

If you count the number of dirty words someone using in our language in a whole lifetime, it may be less than the count of those words in a single American movie.
Most of those words doesn't even exist in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Malay ......
Click to expand...

For a while I used to read a magazine called Maledicta (Latin for "bad word" or "bad speech"), which discussed vulgarity in many languages. Their subtitle was "The International Journal of Verbal Aggression." They are out of business now and have been for many years. Let's face it, they were a niche publication. I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did.

en.wikipedia.org

Maledicta - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Their articles were all over the map, discussing various body functions. According to one article I recall, there were over 130 recorded (non-vulgar) euphemisms for the act of passing gas - the simple word fart in English. I would suspect there are quite a few euphemisms for sex acts as well, but the sex-act euphemism article was a bit longer and I don't remember much about it.

Every now and then they would publish an article on what was considered vulgar in each of several languages. The words you bemoan and decry might not exist in certain Eastern Asian languages, but not because their citizens don't swear. Instead, they have other phrases that they use - phrases that to western ears would sound bland - because to a large degree, it is what that culture holds highest that also leads to the language that is lowest. In many western cultures, a family's mother is held in the highest regard, so vulgarities would include insults to one's mother. (I hope I don't need to be specific here.) Anyway, if you want to find the ultimate insult in a culture, look for that which the culture reveres. The insult won't be far away.

And by the way, I'm a bit thick-skinned. (Goes along with being thick-headed, I think.) I didn't consider it rude.
 
I think this thread is getting out of hand, so I'll try to bring it back on track.
The video posted was a man reviewing hospitality / catering in the UK. During his review he chose to use unsavoury language. My comment is that in that context (a review) his use of expletives was excessive and uncalled for - note I said, in that context. It's just my opinion, that's all.

I'm in no way against swearing, christ, I do it myself, films with expletives in them are fine, providing its in context. In fact the odd expletive can be very funny, in the right place.
Col
 
I've found that as I have gotten older, swearing and using the f-word grates on me much more than it used to as a young man. Back then, I probably thought it was cool to use it! In the UK, we tend to use the word "bloody" quite a bit. Less offensive but gets the point across.

Regarding the food thing, when someone says, "The UK food is bad" I find that highly patronising. Essentially it is saying, "Our food is better than yours!" Are we saying here that if a chef comes from India to the UK, that chef suddenly loses their culinary skills, but if they go to the US, they retain them? Or do we mean that somehow chefs are unable to learn chefy type skills if the land they are on is in the UK, rather than the US? Something to do with the laylines perhaps, or a magnetic field disturbance due to the location?

I could understand the argument a little more if the country was poor, since the quality of the raw materials may be lower. However, even that rule does not necessarily apply. Just look at Thailand. Poor country with low wages yet delicious food.

Myths perpetuate because it makes us feel good about ourselves. "We are better than them, just look at our food! Plastic cheese!" :LOL:
 
In line with the original post's comments, I will add that it is an old saying in the USA that "someone's taste is in his mouth." Given that a person grows up in a particular culture and is accustomed to it, new foods can be jarring. If the man in the video grew up in certain parts of the USA, it would be no surprise that he would have misgivings about other styles of pizza, styles that aren't delivered in a cardboard box (because that way, the flavor of the pizza is similar to that of the box.)

I have eaten in many ethnic restaurants and have found that most of them had enjoyable cuisines. I really enjoy Chinese, Italian, Indian (Asian, not native-American Indian), Mexican, Greek, and even Ethiopian the one time I tried that. I'm less of a fan of German and Norwegian, which I have tried on my travels. Then, of course, there is Cajun (as a sub-culture). Whoo, boy! I liked that cuisine so much that I married a Cajun. This November it will be 29 years and we haven't killed each other yet.
 
On the swearing: Joe Pesci's mother was a guest at the premiere of Goodfellas.
Afterwards she asked him if it was actually necessary for him to swear so much.

On the food: Wasn't it in the USA where they rebranded pizza as a vegetable so that it could be fed to school children as one of their five a day?
 
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Joe Pesci didn't write it, direct it, or produce it, he's just an actor reading some lines.
 
Cotswold said:
Wasn't it in the USA where they rebranded pizza as a vegetable so that it could be fed to school children as one of their five a day?
Click to expand...
Not sure, but it wouldn't surprise me at all...
 
NauticalGent said:
Not sure, but it wouldn't surprise me at all...
Click to expand...
www.nbcnews.com

Pizza is a vegetable? Congress says yes

www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

How To Turn Pizza Into A Vegetable

On Tuesday, Congress decided that pizza is a vegetable. I have to imagine that this news instilled confusion in many Americans, as many Americans are: familiar with pizza; familiar with vegetables; and sane. But, according to the geniuses in Washington, pizza is a vegetable for the purposes of...
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

QED
 
ColinEssex said:
Just beginners. We just had our 51st.
Col
Click to expand...

Well, there was an impediment for us... I'm not her 1st husband. Had to get that out of the way before we could do anything. But I wasn't the home wrecker... HE was, cause he already had wife #2 lined up and ready to go. He's now on wife #3 but he can't afford to dump this one. She'll take his valuables and I DON'T mean cash or jewelry.
 
England's infamous "fish and chips" I found out is nothing more than (essentially), a corn dog (in other words) and french fries!

what a ripoff.

Maybe we should do what the Brits do - take something commonplace, dress it up in fancy lingo, and pretend it's fancy too!

Corn dogs shall henceforth be known as "Beef Maiz Knippers"

Yes, the food there is not very good and I do not think the "old buildings" is so cool. A few is great for a pictures and ambience, but when the 13,000th place you've stopped in doesn't have decent bathroom facilities or air conditioning or decent ventilation or just cleanliness, it's not as cool any more
 
Isaac said:
England's infamous "fish and chips" I found out is nothing more than (essentially), a corn dog (in other words) and french fries!

what a ripoff.

Maybe we should do what the Brits do - take something commonplace, dress it up in fancy lingo, and pretend it's fancy too!

Corn dogs shall henceforth be known as "Beef Maiz Knippers"

Yes, the food there is not very good and I do not think the "old buildings" is so cool. A few is great for a pictures and ambience, but when the 13,000th place you've stopped in doesn't have decent bathroom facilities or air conditioning or decent ventilation or just cleanliness, it's not as cool any more
Click to expand...
Only our American visitors from over the pond think fish and chips is the height of british cuisine. It's not our fault if you want to believe fake news! :ROFLMAO:

(No one in England eats fish and chips for michelin starred food - it's usually eaten as you roll out of the pub completely pissed and need something to fill your stomach and soak up the alcohol before you get in to a fight on the street)
 
Isaac said:
England's infamous "fish and chips"....
Click to expand...
My wife and I had the opposite experience. The place we stayed at had the best Fish and Chips we had EVER had...Long John Silver and Captain D's contributions were solely lacking. Not that they are good but I mention them for reference.

My darling bride NEVER eats the same meal on consecutive days...but she cheerfully made an exception in this case. The beer was just fantastic too...

Edit: Mushy Peas rounded out the meal...if you haven't had them, your life is incomplete! As far as the "simple pub-food" goes, wholeheartedly agree, but I am a simple man so there it is...
 
When Wifey and I were in Toronto, we found that everyone ate at pubs in the evening. So we found one and ate there. First thing I learned was that lamb stew and chips was a poorly spiced stew with oily French fries. However, it was palatable. Bland but palatable. The second thing I learned was that at the time, the Toronto pub patrons had about the same extremely negative opinion of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team as the New Orleans bar patrons had of the New Orleans Saints Football team. (That would be American football.) That would have been several years before the Saints finally won a Super Bowl and the Lombardi Trophy.
 
Since the topic of food came up. In the US, the continental breakfasts (served at hotels) tend to be inedible, especially since Covid. Recently we visited Montreal, CN. The continental breakfast, at the hotel we stayed at, was A+. Fresh fruit, fresh croissants, hard-boiled eggs, and really good coffee using real plates and silverware. The atmosphere of the hotel's restaurant was also very welcoming. Quite a difference from US hotel breakfast areas.
 
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