We all know that we shouldn't swear in the public, or even in front of the elderly. But on some cases, we don't think to swear. On things like accidently dropping your favourite phone to the hard ground, or a sudden bump when you are driving made you blurt out the f-word or s-word without thinking much. I've checked with some of the old Neurobiology notes I have under my bed, and also this website: How Stuff Works - Swearing and the Brain and confirms that swearing is a lot to do with impulses, and not on thoughts. Our brain is a really strange computer. Our head doesn't process and judge everything!
The strange thing is, what if the person didn't know swear-words and have to swear? Or the brain is wired in such a way that the person would use a dirty word in the vocabulary? And according to that webpage - it's four times easier to pick up a swear-word than a normal word. When I was studying in a secondary school with rowdy students, the other "foreign" language was Mandarin, and guess what - first few words I picked up without thinking were the nastiest ones. Our impulses do seem to "learn" things really fast - I believe it is all for survival. Remember the "fight or flight response"?
Yeah, and I think we have wired our brains to recognize a swear word as a "weapon" to use against our enemies, and thus triggered when we are stressed.
Believe me, some people can be very sensitive about that word "shit". Once in the secondary school, I whispered a "shit" and I got reprimanded by the teacher immediately! Also, once I said "fart" in the public (in a popular shopping center), the old foreigner (I believe she was an Englishwoman, hence the slang) got a shocking glance at me. That other "f-word" is also not pretty welcome among older people. In the States, I've read that very young kids are trained not to use both of these words: they have to resort to using "doo-doo", "number-2", "cut the cheese" or stuff like that.
I learned "shit" and "f--k" when I accidently stumbled a graffiti in an apartment when I was 6. My parents went bezerk when I said that for the first time! "Hey dad, what's a f--k?" was that first question. Needless to say, I got reprimanded.
Hahaha... If Ryan asks me that, I must remember to tell him - "That's how we ended up with you!" Hahahaha!!!
Sooner or later any kid would just pick this word, even at pre-school or school. Swearing is very, very common and any parent should be prepared to explain to the kids why not to use it. Yeah, sometimes I do have a very sharp and strong memory. My ma was twisting my ear as a punishment real hard when I said that!
Swearing is okay, but when it becomes a habit, it becomes difficult and could lose one a job easily. Meanwhile, I heard from someone else that the manager was cursing all the time to his workers (because of a tiny mistake). The thing is the swearing habit is inside a very large company - where younger workers are there too. In such large companies, there are rules which prohibits people from using offensive words. If the thing goes reported, the worker could be suspended or with disciplinary action. I do know managers do suffer from extreme stress due to the pressures from the upper management, but to verbally attack a worker due to a small mistake could be a risky thing to do. There are times that we need to control the impulses. It is never easy!