11.2- Class
"yes, please explain us what this means"
-My Indian professor asking me to explain the nuances of various English profanity in a historical linguistics class as we were studying liguistics issues related to profanity and "taboo word" subjects. (sex, bathroom topics, derogatory racial comments, and just common "cuss" words)
The class of Indian, Mexican, and Korean students, and visiting Mexican professors gave me the rare moment of being in the minority and the only native English speaker and thus the only expert on English profanity.
Its harder than you would think to say every "bad", "dirty", and "derogatory" word you have ever learned in a class of graduate students and professors, and then to have to say them over and over again so the non-English speakers can get the spelling right.
posted by Brady at 6:26 AM
2 Comments:
how interesting. in that setting, you're trying to explain the stigma surrounding a few letters that have been strung together. to the hearer there was absolutely no context for offense. weird.
indeed,
but the ingrained social etiquette that I have been trained in for 28 years, made it REALLY WEIRD for me to "cuss" my head off in a class of professionals.
It seems analogous to Med School students looking up the "buisness" end of unmentionables and talking all nonplussed about them...except they are going to make more money than me.
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