I swear, I swear

As pointed up recently in the local media, common usage of foul language has become a plague in Poland. Presence of swear words used in abundance in workplaces, in public areas takes nobody aback. It is no longer a domain of blue-collar-worker males. These days people from all walks of life swear and this no longer is a reason to be ashamed. I cannot deny I am an exception, I do use foul language, at times a lot or even too much, yet I my (lame) excuse is that I have rules.

Much depends on circumstances in which one curses. In a casual conversation, unless in a specific circle of males and the talk is not heard by no one else I see no reason to use foul language. I also detest using it too frequently instead of a comma. When women (with some exceptions of those which also swear and I have palled up with) are around or when I talk to people I am not familiar with I also hold back from swearing. My major principle is to throw curses at a specific situations or behaviours, not against a person, therefore I refrain from insulting people personally.

In which situation do I find swearing acceptable? In anger or impatience to let off steam. For me, in terms of getting irritation off my chest it works perfectly and immediately. To a moderate extent, foul language is tolerable to emphasise some phenomena or describe some events. Funnily enough, I seldom swear behind the wheel (which does not mean I do not get infuriating by other traffic participants), although Poles excel at aggression in their cars which could be a topic for a different post.

In practice 90% of foul language flows from my mouth in the office… This prompts me to smoothly move on to another topic, namely #metoo, but let me leave it off for a separate posting. Not having a good weekend for work-related reasons (fretting rather than toiling away and to avoid confusion, nothing to do with #metoo), I will catch up some time later. Keep on hoping karma always returns.