Profanity in Russian speech WAS Re: HP in translation

[justcarol67]

Alla wrote:
>  
> > Come to think of it, that if I am especially stressed in my 
everyday life I prefer using English words, not russian - they sorta
feel less real as profanity, if that makes sense.
> 
> 
> zanooda:
> 
> I don't know if it makes sense or not, but it's true. Somehow 
profanities in English sound so much milder than in Russian. I don't
know if it's the same for all foreigners or just us, but I can use 
English cuss-words quite easily (well, maybe not in public :-). The 
corresponding Russian cusswords I can't use even when I'm completely 
alone, they seem so rude. 
> 
> As for the friquency of profanity use in Russia, it just depends on
 the social circle, I believe. I heard many people use a cuss-word
after every normal word, but none of them were my acquaintances.
>
Carol responds:

Funny thing; that's how I feel about profanity and obscenity in
English. I was brought up to think of curse words as rude and vulgar,
and I was actually fifteen before I allowed myself to say "Damn!" (I'd
missed the school bus, and it felt so good to say it that I said it
again. After that, well--) But certain words just feel and sound dirty
to me, and I hate hearing conversation that's laced with them. It
sounds illiterate, unimaginative, and disgusting to me. (Maybe we've
lost something since Shakespeare's time; *he* knew how to insult
imaginatively without resorting to profanity. Or maybe I'm just an old
prune. Erm, prude.)

I don't know; maybe Russian speakers or Spanish speakers or whatever
should think about how their native-language equivalents sound to
their own ears before using the English ones, just as English speakers
should think twice before swearing in French or Russian or Japanese.
Maybe a word that sounds passionate to American ears or mild to
Russian ears has a wholly different effect on a listener from another
culture. I know some Spanish curse words but I'd be embarrassed to use
them. They don't sound any better to me than their English
equivalents, maybe because I think of what the words mean rather than
how they sound. 

Maybe we should all learn to swear in Latin, which sounds, er, dead,
but is unlikely to offend or disturb anybody. Or maybe we should all
just work on making our spoken and written language more imaginative.
I'm the first to admit that English as used by the average person ("I
utilize my vehicle to attend sales events on a daily basis") is dull,
dull, dull! (Okay, it's not *that* bad, but it's getting there!)

Just a thought; not presuming to advise anybody.

Carol, who agrees with Steve that Russian sounds, to an outsider, like
a passionate language, and thinks that a Russian accent in a man is
either cute or sexy, depending on his age