Welcome to my very own making-a-big-deal-out-of-nothing thread.
I have an officemate who uses the F-word every other minute like a wind up doll. “F this”, “F that” ,“the F-ing tree is in my way”, “that’s F’ed”, “is the prof F-ing mad?” (this is where he self combusts) , etc. As much as I can relate to his frustrations, me being a bona fide freshie with little or no swearing skills, inherent or acquired, it gets to me after a while.
So I am trying to understand this. Is it the norm these days? Is it one of those ‘put up or shut up’ scenarios that nobody told me about growing up or when I was boarding ‘the boat’ here ? How does a muslim brother deal with it?
wait till you start using it urself, the first thing after going to any english speaking country is to learn the Gaaliyan. they are more useful then proper grammar.
I guess this comes under "culture shock" (or adaptation).
Anyway, I for one Do Not swear. Sometime when I even had to say curse word in western, I would not say it regardless what the situation. At first I felt that its immature or somefin, but over time I have realized that I got more respect because I was strong enough to do the right thing. Yah, I am surprised myself for people understanding :)
I am in the phase where I say "bitch" every 3 sentences on average. I can't help it. Ill go out of it though, I hate cussing but its a diiiiiiiiirty habit I picked up from my angel friend.
It's not normal, but it does happen quite a lot. I never used the F-word very often, but I went through a phase where I started swearing more, and decided to make the conscious effort to stop, as I didn't like the way I sounded and didn't feel like it did anything but fuel my frustration.
I don’t think it’s normal at all to swear so regularly … then again, it depends on the environment you are in. None of my friends swear, nobody in my family swears and I very rarely swear … it will be once in a blue moon where I say the “f” word. It’s simply unattractive and it looks vulgar when I hear others do it, which is why I try not to swear. :halo:
I agree with Sahar, ask your coworker to tone it down. Perhaps it simply needs to be brought to his attention.
I personally think it is very impolite to use the F-word in front of friends/family. But I have noticed that it has become increasingly "normal" and part of every day vocabulary for most people. I tend to substitue other words for the curse words. Maybe your colleague needs to be told about other alternatives which are not profane.
Well that’s the thing. One would think 8+ yrs would be long enough to get over the culture shock, if that’s what it is. But then again it could be one of those ‘you can take the fob out of pind but not the pind out of the fob’ kinda scenarios.
Thanks for the moral support everyone. I think I am going to try the shock and awe approach on my coworker and curse back. Let’s see how that goes.
I agree with Mehnaz and Rukhsarbibi.
The use of such language is repulsive and anyone that believes they are making a greater impact by including these words in their day to day language are only fooling themselves.
Can you teach me how to drive, I"m so sick of hte subway In my area they’re doing construction on two subway stations and one of em is mine, so this tacks on a precious half hour to my commute
It makes me wanna curse and curse and curse and curse (jus so i’m not derailing )
Co worker cussing is a problem to you? How about a boss cussing the F expletives left and right. Add to it the boss is a woman. I managed that crap for a year!!! what a fkin bitch!
If a co-worker was swearing all the time around me, I'd give them a hint first by making a joke about it. (Cover my ears and say, "AAaah, you're going to send me to Hell. It burns it burns.") At first they may just think I'm odd or retarded. But keep letting them know each time that you don't like it. If you have to get to the point of saying it outright, then do it. It's like pollution, somebody smoking a cigarette in your face. It's your right to not be exposed to it.
If the co-worker is sensitive and smart enough they'll make a consious effort to not do it around you. But if they choose to keep swearing. Then you just have to deal with it. With some people it's just a reflex, they're so used to saying it that they think it's normal. It's not fair to you but you can only advise someone to change. This co-worker may not really care what your opinion is and that's just tough.
saima, funny you should say that. I already tried saying" Dude you are probably the only thing standing between me and my 72 hoors" which
took the discussion to a whole new direction where he ended up saying the F-word (that’s F-ing amazing and so forth) a few times more.
yea what happened to the good ol' days when kids would cringe in pain if they heard this sort of stuff.
Bhaiyon aur behnon, we all know that this will be tough to enforce, but it has to be done. Such language must be treated like chewing gums in Singapore. There will be a fine and kids that swear will get the cane/rod. Let us not despise the rod folks or shy away from using it. The rod is not your enemy, it’s your friend… :maulvidis
In my area they’re doing construction on two subway stations and one of em is mine, so this tacks on a precious half hour to my commute 
(jus so i’m not derailing 
)