Re: USAGE: Dirty words (was: USAGE: Re: Dutch v or f)

 --- Maarten wrote:

> > When I came to Polish to study, one of the first things I did was buying a
> > bunch of pornography, in order to learn the words that you cannot  find in
> > the dictionaries. This turned out te be really helpful. It gave me a much
> > better understanding of the kind of talk you hear on the street, which is full
> > of such words. A necessary prerequisite for a translator, I think...
>
> So, jumping to the ultimate conclusion, you are a advocating the use of
> pornographic texts in schools, especially in language classes?
Nope. I'm not even advocating pornography as such. But I sincerily believe that
someone who claims to be a translator just needs to know such things. And the
moralistic attitude of most dictionaries, expressed by the complete omission of
this kind of slang, has always irritated me; if I want to be moralized, then I'll
certainly go a priest or so.
Schools do not train people to become translators; they just give them a basis
for future communication and the ability to read a book in de foreign language and
understand most of it. Besides, those kids are too small for it, though guess they
are reading it anyway.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 --- Roger Mills wrote:

>>> When I came to Polish to study, one of the first things I did was buying
>>> a bunch of pornography,
I meant Poland, not Polish.

> Re Jan's original post:  In the olden days (before porn was so widely
> available), it was suggested you take a lover.
That was, of course, the second thing I did ;)

> But that might not always work, if the lover turned out to be repressed
> or squeamish about using such words........
Yeah! And not only in the old days...

> Porn videos are much more fun, but, strangely ;-),  lacking in dialogue.
Neither would I recommend the kind of pictures-only printed porn. They don't
get you anywhere ;)

Regards,
Jan

=====
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought,
wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that
happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great
comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." --- J.
Michael Straczynski

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