I swear

If you swear too much, then you have nothing left to impress people with when you REALLY want to swear.

foreign films can help with this problem

Paraphrasing the lovely Maya Angelou here:
vulgarity is vulgarity, no matter the mouth it comes from.
I swear too; I don't like it.

I have been meaning to get more Maya.
Thanks for the reminder.

Your answers for the first two don't back up your answers for the second two.
Please elaborate, (so I can)

I put no strength in the individual word I use.
I cuss all day. I dont care.

Where I put my strength in is the pattern and choice of sentences and vocal fluctuation . My body language can swear for me when I am angry.
My eyes will defend me if Im scared.

I dont put that much power into simple words. Society calls them a taboo.. I call them a word.

If your intent does not match your words, it does not matter if you are swearing at the top of your lungs.. your point will be lost.

So true.

Mostly all I hear is noise.
Joe(and I nevermind)Nation

i don't think there's anything right or wrong about swearing, and as to it's appropriate usage, it depends on the situation

if i was in an art gallery and i saw a particularly spectacular painting (let's say breughels icarus, i might say this picture is ******* amazing (it is), but if i was in the sistine chapel looking at the ceiling, i probably wouldn't include the *******, nothing about respect for religion (especially the catholic church, despicable fucks to a man, the lot of them), some sense decorum i can't really express

you're just a potty mouth

I swear "lite" which means I use cuss words that are considered mild(er)
but while driving I can't help but swear at other drivers. Us Krauts are born
that way - and a leaded foot to speed.

I am assuming that by "swearing," you mean "cursing," and the utterance of vulgar words.

Swear words are excellent verbal exclamation points but like exclamation points there is a selected few places for them.

If you read a sentence that was overflowing with "!'s," you would rightly respond: WTF?

Likewise conversation that overflows with swear words is vulgar and idiotic in essence.

Whether one uses "like" or "know what I'm saying," "Uhhh" or "fuckin," one hardly projects an image of articulate intelligence.

I once walked into the parking lot of my apartment complex and passed two young black boys whe couldn't have been more that 6 or 7 years of age. All I heard of their conversation was one young man, with a great sense of emotion far beyond his years telling his friend:

"Ain't that a ******* shame?"

Sad that these youths were so exposed to such language at such an early age, but the one kids use of the swear word was perfect.

Another time I was walking in the parking lot of a supermarket and heard a young man of about 20 tell his friend "******* so what."

The phrase was extremely humorous only in the absurdity of its usage. The fellow who uttered it was clearly an ignoramus who couldn't string more than two words together without inserting "*******."

Sometimes it is all good and sometimes it is not.

My cousin was holding her three year old son in a bank line and he said ****! to the person behind her. She turned a brilliant red, she said. (He turned out ok in later life.)

Vulgarity is so subjective, it can really be anything. So some people swear but those same people have words which they will not use lightly because they are either of high worth or they are base. People will also accept praise and buck insults based on the same concepts of worth and vulgarity. People will judge others within cultural frames using vocabulary expressed. I have never trusted a person who says words are worthless or words are just words, they don't mean anything. That person is either lying (possibly to themselves) to shore up an ideological base that can't be shored or they are sociopaths/psychopaths.

Hate is so subjective, it can really be anything.

Brutality is so subjective, it can really be anything.

Evil is so subjective, it can really be anything.

Moral relativism is so subjective it can be used by anyone to excuse anything (and seem super-cool and wise in the process).

One can argue moral relativism or one can make note of actual cross linguistic phenomena I was presenting the latter in order to present the opinion that words do have power and words used inappropriately will offend. I have worked with languages where it is impolite not to refer to an acquaintance's genitalia while addressing him/her, and the only direct translation I can get from very conservative old ladies for coitus is "****". yet these same people will be recoil in disgust if you refer to them as pious unless they are part of the religious hierarchy.

People tend to misunderstand/misuse the original argument for moral relativism. The argument was that it is quite colonial to impose moral forms on those who traditionally do not use them. The argument has been misused/misunderstood as everything is all right because those other guys believe something else. The form of the moral may be relative the function is not. the form of the word and its contextual frame may be different across cultures, but the function is not.

I'm Scottish.
I swear all the time.
Warning, Billy Connolly swearing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skwTGJA_Iy4&feature=related

I'll be in scotland in August. Edinburgh.

Very nice!
I live maybe a half hour drive from Glasgow. Not really ventured into Edinburgh much.
Is it for a wee holiday or a long-term visit?