While buying lunch today I was standing in line behind two men and overheard them talking. While I do not make it a habit of listening in on what people around me are saying, I couldn't help hearing their conversation since they were talking rather loudly and standing about a foot in front of me. I might expect some people to curse a lot while at home or out of ear shot of others, but I was surprised to hear the two of them cursing so much and doing it so loudly that I believe practically everyone in the place could hear them.
While I personally try not to use curse words, I do not get offended if another person does. However in this situation, I believe that continued cursing and dropping the F-bomb every third word is out of line. When I looked around I noticed that there were parents in the seating area with young children, and several elderly couples, as well as probably others within hearing range who actually might have been offended by their language. It appeared to me that they had total disregard for anyone who could hear them, and they really didn't care who might be offended.
This reminded me of something my mother used to say: "When you use foul language all the time it appears to others that you are not intelligent enough to have acquired a good vocabulary and express yourself properly". While I am not saying that I assume these two men were lacking in intelligence, I am saying that constant cursing in a general conversation does tend to make a person sound less intelligent. I suppose that sounding intelligent really doesn't matter to some people, but for most of us, I believe we would like to appear as if we have some brains in our noggin and not just an empty shell sitting on our shoulders. I believe when we refrain from peppering our everyday conversations with vulgarity and cursing, and instead choose more appropriate and descriptive words from the vast reservoir of the English language, it appears to others that we express our thoughts much more intelligently.
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