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In a translation course I took at university they told me that when translating subtitles from English to Swedish the translators often take a lesser curse word
by Karlozkiller 10y ago
In a translation course I took at university they told me that when translating subtitles from English to Swedish the translators often take a lesser curse word in Swedish, as it is perceived by Swedes that the equivalent word in Swedish is generally more offensive than its English counterpart. So I would say it is at least somewhat general that native curse words are perceived rougher than foreign.
And both languages have many curse words that technically mean the same thing.
I also got very weird looks from students in the US when I started cursing in English there... Like I was summoning a demonspawn.
- Maultasche 10y agoThat's interesting. In German, the equivalent word to an English curse word tends to be far less offensive (with a couple exceptions), usually to the point of being either totally innocuous or just slightly impolite. It was funny to hear little kids and old ladies loudly swearing in English in regular conversation because the German equivalent wasn't offensive. I found that the worse curse words in German were usually religion-oriented (crucifix!), and wouldn't even be considered remotely offensive in English.