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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: A rough guide to rude English (For Russians) A rough guide to rude English > print version Mark H. Teeter "Rude am I in my speech /And little blest with the soft phrase of peace..." Hah! What was "rude" to Shakespeare's Othello today seems quaintly innocent to speakers of American English. Public discourse in the United States now bristles with such a "middle-finger spirit of contrarianism," as writer Garrison Keillor recently termed it, that any utterance lacking obscenity or actionable slander might meet the tragic Moor's criteria for a "soft phrase." Capture the Season's Best Memories Get a free Sony Cybershot 10MP camera and Sony 9" Digital Picture Frame! ElectronicsSource.us.com LATEST NEWS Poland to ratify Lisbon treaty 02:41 10/10/2009 |Polish President Lech Kaczynski will sign on Saturday the European Union reform treaty, also known as the Lisbon Treaty India set to discuss overhaul of Su-30 fighter jets with Russia 01:43 10/10/2009 |India will discuss the modernization of the Russian-made Su-30MKI aircraft in service with its air force during an upcoming military-technical cooperation meeting in Moscow Medvedev congratulates Rogge on re-election as Olympic chief 22:56 09/10/2009 |Russia's president congratulated Jacques Rogge on Friday on his re-election as head of the International Olympic Committee, and pledged to strengthen ties with the IOC. more news Exactly when the New Crudity emerged is hard to judge, but some sort of linguistic/behavioral Rubicon was surely crossed in 2004, when then-Vice President Dick Cheney angrily dismissed a US senator's conflict-of-interest inquiry with the F-word: "Go [bleep] yourself." Americans have since come to accept progressively ruder standards in public exchanges, as tactfulness, self-restraint and diplomacy have increasingly been viewed as the refuge of the weak or those lacking conviction. At the same time, America's publicly acceptable vocabulary has dramatically expanded: mainstream media and popular entertainment, long the arbiters of socially admissible phraseology, now regularly include references to body parts, sexual acts and personal behavior that were confined to the bathroom walls, locker rooms and low-rent districts of my youth. Thanks a lot, Dick. It's not just Cheney's fault, of course, and the phenomenon isn't limited to American public speech. Russia's State Duma, for example, has had to warn members against referring to each other with crudities, and Vladimir Putin himself has used barnyard epithets in public. OK, so we've all gotten ruder, cruder and less concerned about it - does that mean anything practical for Russians learning English? You bet your [bleep] it does. 1. The difference between you and Dick Cheney: consequences Cheney's use of the F-word - and its regular appearance in movies, on cable television and the internet - should not be taken as a sign of its general acceptability. This word remains the most offensive in the English language, and its misuse may cost you dearly: since you're not vice-president, you lack spin doctors and bodyguards, and may find yourself offending people irreparably - or getting your lights punched out. If you are hell-bent on using F-derivatives, at least do some homework. A good primer might be Sterling Johnson's "English as a Second [Bleeping] Language," whose subtitle - "How to Swear Effectively, Explained in Detail with Numerous Examples Taken From Everyday Life" - pretty much covers it. Short of mastering such a text, however, emphatic cursing in the presence of Americans should be avoided - or done in Russian. 2. Defining the acceptable edge The list of obscenities likely to brand you as rude in American company is actually quite short - some eight or 10 words, all easily identified through Johnson or other sources. But beyond these clear no-no's, the language abounds in borderline crudities whose force and applicability are difficult for outsiders to gauge. When in doubt, Google a word or phrase and note the contexts of its hits: if they occur in mainstream sources such as major print media, you're probably safe. If they're all from blog posts and chat rooms, alarm bells should go off... Also try this simple expedient: enter the target word plus the Russian word l7;k7;l8;k7;k4;l6;k6; in the Google box. This can yield hits in slang dictionaries (often quite helpful) and in translation forums where suitable renditions for questionable terms are under discussion. Seeing what other Russian speakers propose as equivalents for "numbnuts," "dickweed," "scumbag" and so on will help you define the contours of their permissibility. 3. Free speech and rude speech President Barack Obama was recently interrupted during a nationally-televised address by a congressman shouting "You lie!" This was, most Americans agree, doubly rude - for the interruption and as "political" commentary. The offender apologized, in the end, but remains a hero to a new generation of cruder compatriots - the numbnuts, dickweeds and scumbags who lack any sense of civility or the benefits it affords us all. Well, all but Dick Cheney. The good news is that Obama continues to set as good an example as Cheney has a bad one. During a summer of public insults far worse than "liar," Obama did not once respond in kind. Be like Barack: if you don't believe what an American tells you, say "I disagree," or "I don't think so" - not "You're lying." You may be surprised at how much there is to agree on among people who keep a civil tongue in their heads. Extreme Extra Credit: What Shakespearean hero was "done to death by slanderous tongue"? Next time: Grading your English teacher: be cruel but fair. Mark H. Teeter is an American English teacher and translator based in Moscow.
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