I admit I was deliberately generalising, because so was the parent. My culture might seem more aggressive and rude, but more often than not Northern/Central Eu

I admit I was deliberately generalising, because so was the parent. My culture might seem more aggressive and rude, but more often than not Northern/Central Europeans will tend to be less subtle than English speaking people. This can sometime come across as aggressive and perhaps even rude, even if no swear words are used. As an example: Linus refers to the term 'Management by perkele', a Swedish term referring to Finnish management, that he himself uses. The word »perkele» is generally considered on par or worse than the English term 'fuck' (in the context of a swear word). Effectively, this term could be translated to 'Fucking Management', but whereas in Sweden this term is used rather publicly, it would hardly be conceivable to have such language in an English-speaking environment. It's not that we are completely casual with swear words, it's just that they usually have a context, like you said; about something. Against someone is generally frowned upon. (Although, the latter reasoning usually have people objectify the person they are really swearing at.)