one expat's life in Korea
See, ever since I learned in French class that most of the worst swears in French involve curses on the church and holy things, I've sort of paid attention to the way you can learn something about a culture by what people talk about when they hit their thumbs with hammers. While France today is fiercely proud of being intentionally secular, the fact a lot of French curse words invoke God, hell, church-doors and such, gives an interesting clue to French heritage, and the development of the language.
Conversely, most of the English swears that are used most often, and considered most crass, involve body parts, and body functions. I'm not going to list them off here, but you know the ones. (Swears on the comment board for this page shall remain up only if they are discussed academically, rather than simply posted for the fun of writing potty mouth on the internet, thanks.) I think those very bawdy words provide an interesting clue to understanding the focus on things, and a tendency toward materialism evident in English speaking cultures.
about this once -- Korean culture developed in a very different place and along very different lines than them western cultures, and asked her, not to rattle off all the Korean swear words she knew, and teach them to me, but to clue me into the general subject matter of Korean curses.
told me that the most commonly used words bring a person's status low -- you're a dog, an idiot, you're a fool, you're dirty and low -- that's the general gist of most Korean curses.
Swearing is a funny thing. Swear words are the most onomatopoeic words in almost every language -- that is, of all classes of language, they're the words whose sounds most perfectly match their meanings (other than real onomato- poeias, like "bang, crash, splat, boom"), and frankly, they're delightfully fun to say -- just forming the words with your mouth can be a good catharsis, because a good swear requires your whole face to say it. The Korean "worst word" (18 -- you know the one) requires your whole face to say it properly, as does the English "worst word" (the F-word) as well as the new "worst English word"s -- the ugliest racial slurs.
Mon Jul 7, 2008 3:31pm EDT
LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - North Korea renewed its criticism of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Monday, accusing him of "rude behaviour" and saying he could not be negotiated with.
The North's official KCNA news agency quoted a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF) reacting to an interview Lee had given to Japan's Kyodo News.
The North appears to have interpreted comments made by Lee to mean that the issue of the North's nuclear disarmament ought to be discussed at North-South summit talks, despite this problem being at the centre of international six-party talks.
The nuclear issue is not thought to have been previously discussed at bilateral meetings between the two Koreas in June 2000 and October 2007.
"It is absolutely intolerable to overturn the north-south declarations ... it is rude behaviour," KCNA quoted the unnamed CPRF spokesman.
"It is quite clear that it is impossible to sit at the negotiating table with such a man."
. . .
Writing by Matthew Jones)
© Thomson Reuters 2008
