Many of them are learning Russian, and that's why they are interested in talking to me.
One of the most popular request is " teach me how to swear in Russian".
I don't know why it's fun, may be just to look like a cool guy, just to be able to make informal conversation, or something like that.
And I want to write few points about why I always refuse that.
First of all, to swear in a harmless way, it's not a easy task.
You need to understand context, person to whom you swear at, and you need to have some common cultural understanding.
It's not easy even for natives.
And, for instance, if you will just literally translate some rude words from Hollywood movie for wrong person, you could get killed.
In case if you want to do it in offensive way, better to do it by Skype or other method which allow you to keep distance. Just take a look on some video from car recorders on youtube to understand why.
I have an example, when someone had problem from just a knowledge of swear words.
My friend is a sales manager and works with Russian customers.
Once during the conversation he heard swear word from his customer.
He decided that it was offensive for him, and answered with all bad words what he knew, and hang the phone.
After a while he asked me, why that man offended him, and he repeated the conversation.
Truth was - there weren't anything offensive, that man used the word like a interjection, it is a bad habit, but not a big deal.
If my friend did not know this word it would have been okey for him, he would just ignore it, but since he knew, he take it in bad way.
In general my point is: even if you already have a good level in foreign language you can still make a lot of mistakes.
Are you sure that you want to add one more possibility by using swear words?
