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It isn't just you, to be sure. I'm a native English speaker, but live in Norway. My Norwegian isn't strong enough to converse at length yet (I'm getting there)

It isn't just you, to be sure. I'm a native English speaker, but live in Norway. My Norwegian isn't strong enough to converse at length yet (I'm getting there) so most of my in-person communication is with non-native english speakers, including the spouse. Some phrases simply translate in a rude way: Norwegians seem to have a liking for the word "fuck", which has made its way into Norwegian slang as well. It can come off quite rude back home. For folks I meet that learn mostly through television, it can get even worse because the shows don't always portray dialog in a natural way.

freeflight 9y ago
> For folks I meet that learn mostly through television, it can get even worse because the shows don't always portray dialog in a natural way. Those folks should start watching some fucking proper television ;) Good point about "fuck" creeping into the slang of a lot of other languages, I've witnessed the same very often but never really noticed until you pointed it out like that. Curse words seem to have a certain attraction in that regard, I probably know the equivalent of "fuck" in like 4-5 different languages, while understanding literally not other phrases in those languages.