I have been is Switzerland for 6 months and could rant and rave about many things that drive me mad but if I had to pick one thing I really hate its the public radio stations playing music laden with the F-word.
My 10 and 8 year old have never been exposed to this before but it seems almost unavoidable now.
We were even treated to a song that uses the F-word 12 times while in King Jouet buying toys!
Why do they not use the clean versions like on UK radio?
rant over!
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I have been is Switzerland for 6 months and could rant and rave about many things that drive me mad but if I had to pick one thing I really hate its the public radio stations playing music laden with the F-word.
My 10 and 8 year old have never been exposed to this before but it seems almost unavoidable now.
We were even treated to a song that uses the F-word 12 times while in King Jouet buying toys!
Why do they not use the clean versions like on UK radio?
rant over!
It's a foreign language. You probably won't be hearing that many German songs with swearwords.
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They are exposed to worse at school and in thier social circles. Don't be prissy and educate them about why such words are bad and should only be used by adults that understand them.
Grief, next thing you know we will be living in a nanny state, al la UK and I will have to find a new ****ing country to go and live in.
Last edited by colinwheeler; 25.08.2011 at 18:05.
Reason: Bloody EF censors me all the time :-(
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I find such a close resemblance with some words ... I try to avoid even using them ... in case I get them mixed up and use the wrong one!
ie...... pflicht (duty), pflock (peg), pflücken (pluck), flicken (repair) and its close cousin the F word that sounds like fikken without the P....however you spell it.
So I try to avoid using those so I don`t Pfuschen them....
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I have been is Switzerland for 6 months and could rant and rave about many things that drive me mad but if I had to pick one thing I really hate its the public radio stations playing music laden with the F-word.
My 10 and 8 year old have never been exposed to this before but it seems almost unavoidable now.
We were even treated to a song that uses the F-word 12 times while in King Jouet buying toys!
Why do they not use the clean versions like on UK radio?
rant over!
I hadn't realized that the UK had really, REALLY, become the 51st state nowadays.
There is no such thing as a 'dirty' word, just words that should be used appropriately, in correct context and in the right company. That being said, I tend to swear, sometimes a lot, and I have a 4yo. I curbed my language a whole lot when I had her but...there are times, e.g. driving in Boston traffic, where swearing is a natural response. The terrifying part is that she heard it, and at some point a while later, used it in correct context... I was both ashamed and proud. I think the current advice on kids who repeat words that might be a bit...precocious...is to ignore them and to neither laugh nor scold them for the use. You can't shelter them from the words, but you can teach them appropriate use.
That being said, the first time I saw the show "The Osbornes" or whatever Ozzy Osbornes TV show was called, without all the *bleep*bleep* it kind of took the amusement out of it. I'm a recovering Catholic though so that might have something to do with it.
Actually, now that I think about it, what radio station is playing modern enough music to contain profanity? Maybe the toy store was as surprised as you were since most of the radio stations play the greatest cheap hits from the 70s most of the time.
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I suppose some foreigners believe it funny to go around the US saying bollocks to everything, and similarly I imagine the need for Swiss rappers to use the flicken word is using the same inane childish humour.
It isn't a question of a nanny state, it IS simply very offensive.
I suppose some foreigners believe it funny to go around the US saying bollocks to everything, and similarly I imagine the need for Swiss rappers to use the flicken word is using the same inane childish humour.
It isn't a question of a nanny state, it IS simply very offensive.
I remember back when 'wanker' became a popular word for 'jerk' or 'idiot' in the US and I had to remind friends what its original meaning was... You can tell by the accent who is using the words in the right context and with the offensive meaning.
In music, though, it's hard to avoid and, really, it's not a question of use, it's a question of use, context and audience. I swear like a sailor in the kitchen or behind the wheel, but not when out with friends..unless it's a group of friends who, after a few beers, swear as well. It's too easy to be offended by certain words (though I will admit I don't enjoy casual or inappropriate use), so I suspect in this modern age it's easier to be less offended and educate kids in what the words mean and in what context they are appropriately used since censoring their use worldwide simply isn't going to happen.
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my two year old pronounces frog as f**k.
the first time she did it, I was really shocked and wondered where she learned it. It took some time to find out that she meant something very different
I guess swearing in a foreign language doesn't sound so bad
Maybe that's why we say "pardon my french"
Plus the Swiss don't seem to need to censor as much as the Brits do. Same thing with public nudity/nudity on TV.
It was a shock to me too, when I was first here - but now I actually don't mind it at all. Sometimes things can be over-censored in the UK.
Hold on a mo, people .... this is Swissieland - a land of paradoxes (nice way of saying hypocrisies).
Just to drift off track for a second and delve into the world of Swiss TV (kind of related).
Yep, swearing (in English), nudity are common (and it appears, accepted); inappropriate adult program trailers in between kiddies shows also prevail ....... and yet when The Simpsons come on (SF-DRS), there's a warning that it's not suitable for anyone under 14.
I know the humour is on several different levels (which is clever and subtle), but I'll happily let my 4yr. old watch it (Halloween specials and a few others excepted), but she won't be laughing at the same jokes as me.
They've just installed one of those irritating infomercial telescreens on our bus to work. It flickers away near the driver, compelling you to stare at it, only to be treated to useless snippets of uselessness, such as the fact that 'coca' is the world's second most well known word...
As if that wasn't bad enough, it is sponsored by some company with the slogan "shit happens". As if that wasn't bad enough, their advert always seems to come straight after some news article about a child being savaged by a pit bull terrier or drowning in a lake, thus:
Vierjähriges Mädchen von Pitbull angegriffen und getötet
SHIT HAPPENS!
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H
Yep, swearing (in English), nudity are common (and it appears, accepted); inappropriate adult program trailers in between kiddies shows also prevail ....... and yet when The Simpsons come on (SF-DRS), there's a warning that it's not suitable for anyone under 14.
Meanwhile....back in Finland, families enjoy sauna in their birthday suits and also enjoy particularly hilarious commercials involving soup, sauna, naked people and running around in the snow. Nudity is particularly boring for most of the population on this side of the atlantic.
You have to wonder, especially with kids of ~6 or so, why nudity is so taboo considering their fave topics are bodily functions and body parts.
I will agree, though, that program ratings are particularly bewildering. I allow my daughter to watch a few cartoons via iTunes (read: no commercials) but have a hard time navigating the age ratings. There was a program that popped up in the hotel we were staying at this summer, Disney Nordic, where it went from a small kids show to something that appeared to be a music video with, ahem, a sexually mature teenager and themes. Fortunately I was in the room and flipped the channel but I was like, WTF? Nudity is not a big deal when it's people rolling around in the snow after a good sauna but....teenagers doing thoe whole sex but not sex thing via a music video? Gads, I'll take naked people any day over that.
I don't think English swear words have the same gravity here as they do in the English speaking world. Liberal use of the word "sh1t" especially used to make me raise an eyebrow here and there. Now I just ignore it - although it's funny when it's used correctly...
My son and I were once walking into H&M behind a middle-aged woman who fumbled her purse out of her bag and dropped it on the floor. "Shit!" she said.
My then three year old son spent the next 10 minutes repeating it.
All I could think about was getting it out of his head before my mum visited. That would have given cause for some rather uncomfortable shuffling round and averted eyes...
Couldn't give a damn about nudity and neither could my son. Any excuse for him to ditch his clothes...
I have been is Switzerland for 6 months and could rant and rave about many things that drive me mad but if I had to pick one thing I really hate its the public radio stations playing music laden with the F-word.
My 10 and 8 year old have never been exposed to this before but it seems almost unavoidable now.
Blimey - that must have taken a serious amount of effort! I think I must have heard this word well before the age of 10 and I grew up in the rather dull 1970s. What kind of school are they at?
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I guess swearing in a foreign language doesn't sound so bad
Maybe that's why we say "pardon my french"
Plus the Swiss don't seem to need to censor as much as the Brits do. Same thing with public nudity/nudity on TV.
It was a shock to me too, when I was first here - but now I actually don't mind it at all. Sometimes things can be over-censored in the UK.
Some 40 years ago, Switzerland was for more censored and Britain far less. Interestingly, Britain now is more censored while CH was become more liberalized in these decades ....
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