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Hello!!(^o^)/ How are you? It's Mayumi. I'm fine! I connect Internet in my room. At once, I write a message!! Duane: Happy Independence Day!! o(^-^)o Did you enjoy day? What did you do in USA? There is base in my home town. Every year, the day is vere lively in base! Every time, firewolk display. It seems to be verey enjoyable!! But we don't come in base, because when we go to base, we must be permission. But on 5 May, Cheldren's Day, we can come in base, because the day is special day! When we go to there, we see many planes, listen to brass band, eat foods, see planes performance. People go out of the way to see planes performance. It's famous. I think that I feel always a fer country in USA, but the day, I feel very a near country. I'm sorry, I say to be late. m(- -)m Jo: how are you? I want to have some question. Where do you live? How dose climate in UK? Is it cold? I want to know your town and UK!! I want to go to Uk. I want to go to London and Bournemouth. Especially, I go to pooh's country!! Ilove pooh! (^o^) Please you tell me about UK. Thank you for reading. catch you later! Good night! (^_^)/~

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Happy Independence Day, Duane! America is lucky to be able to celebrate its independence from England. I wonder when we will be able to celebrate our independence from America ;) He he! (not to be taken too seriously, anyone!!!)

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Benly: I agree that you hear the "f" word much more than you used to but it is still not accepted in polite society. When I was much younger...I had an employer who was an old man..and he told me that swear words are just the effort of a feeble mind trying to express itself forcibly. I still think that is true today. I think the use of the "f" word is much more common today and it evokes a certain amount of "shock value" among the young people who use it, but I think it is still the ignorant way to express yourself. I hope it never becomes the norm. I have been reprimanded by some very intelligent people and they never used the word once and when they were through I was totally aware of the fact that I had just been dressed-down very effectively. As far as people using the word in Hong Kong, I know a lot of Spanish swear words because I grew up in Southern California. You can go to downtown Sacramento to the shopping mall and hear the young Mexican people speaking their swear words and no one around them is shocked because no one understands what they are saying.
I realize that it is just a word but as Jo has said, it depends on it's usage and the intent of the user that make it not acceptable for public use.
Let's go back to the old discussion about guns. Is it the gun itself that is bad or is it the person that uses it bad? I would use the same logic with regard to foul language. Language itself is not bad. It's the way we use it.
Glad to see you back on the board.
Today is the 4th of July. This is our Independance Day. We celebrate our independance from England. Talk about things changing over time. Now we are the best of friends. God bless the Queen!

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Hi Jo,

Thanks for your interest on this topic. The four-letter English swear word is not only used in England or America, it is also very commonly used by the younger generation in Hong Kong. I suppose every language has their own swear words. Our Chinese is also not different, but if you say out a Chinese swear word in public, all the others will look down on you and you also feel it ashamed and embarrassed as well. So everyone is scared to dare say a Chinese swear word in public.

Nowadays, most of the youngsters are very comfortable to speak out the English swear words without any embarrassment. Even the surrounding people don’t feel that offended. Perhaps they think they are more modern and speak some modern language. But in Hong Kong they are still more scared to dare to speak out a Chinese swear word.

Even the Hong Kong government is acting in a funny way, they can accept English swear words on TV and films, but it is not allowed in any Chinese ones. Does it means the Chinese swear word is rougher than the English? I think it will become a fascinating word in the future.

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Hi Jo found the website, with no difficulties (even used the postcard link to send a birthday message - thanks for that) re your message on skillswise, please email a copy of the bibliography thanks Jo