Job Discussion Forums

[Yu]

I am not sure if it is just me, but this is the one expression my students often use, and they do not see any problem with it... After Janice on Friends said it all the time....

So, I am just continuing on with the swearing post....

I think that as an instructor I should explain to my students some uses of swearing. I think the should know when they are being sworn at, and what the words mean and that they are offending. I would not bring up a swear word, but if they asked I would launch into a legnthy discussion about usage.

The Oh my God one is most frequently encountered by me in class. I ask why the use it... Thanks Janice, because she is who most of them learned it from. I just tell them that it can really offend Christians, and that saying it is not really showing respect to some people. I suppose I am especially sensitive to this because I had some Korean students over at my Grandma and Grandpa's house and we were playing cards, and 2 of the students kept saying Oh My God... I imagine my grandparents were bothered by this, and later I explained to my student what they said, they said they had no idea it was not ok to say that.

Other obvious swear words students may have a better idea not to say them. I explain when and who I will swear around. I.e not my mom, but ok to my dad. Not my grandparents or anyone older than me that I do not have a close relationship with. I.e. I may swear around a collegue who has an equal status to me and who also swears in conversation. Usually I don't swear first, but I wait to see if the other person does too. Never swear in front of children... etc.

[nolefan]

I've noticed that same phenomenon around my students as well.. my freshmen more so than my juniors or seniors. I filled in for a friend this past week end for some middle school privates and again, same thing: a widespread use of "oh my god"

[lagerlout2006]

It's late and I'm tired and may even be hallucinating but....

there is something wrong with "Oh my God" as an exclamatory? I thought it was cute when I heard it.

I guess it could be snide or sarcastic at times but still...
I'll reread this thread tomorrow. I don't get it.

[Kurochan]

It's taking the Lord's name in vain! Jesus Christ! Didn't you know that?!?

I had a couple students in Indiana that got mad when I said that (and I rarely do -- it just popped out a couple times).

[Old Dog]

What a load of crap! I've been around a long time and I've never heard such nonsense.
When I read the "anti-swearing" ravings in this thread, I thought, "O my God! The crazies are among us."
Girls, if "Oh, my God!" is swearing and offends you, I wonder that you get through any day without going into a series of fits of the vapours.
Grow up.
Oh, my God!

[Jolly]

[Jolly]

[Jolly]

[Jolly]

[Old Dog]

Maybe forum members could offer you a list of rough-house expressions to which you might truly take offence.

Oh, girls. Quickly. To the smelling salts. Unlace your whalebones!

Oh, my God! I've heard it all. Is it possible that you might be those boozey Bush twins in disguise who always look to me as if they might know more than their mother taught them.

[chinaboytian]

A violation of one of the ten commandments, I heard this expression constantly in my teaching college students. I taught them that it is offensive and unacceptable. Profanity does not show your high class and
reveal your high education, whether you are American or Chinese.
It's a shame the Chinese pick up on some of the worst garbage from American culture, including vulgar rap lyrics, violent film culture, and banal music like Michael Jackson.

[nolefan]

I don't think it has anything to do with being offensive or taking the"lord's name in vain"....boy did you hear them thunderbolts?

It's just a strange phenomemon that has started in my school this past semester (Fall) and is spreading fast... Just wondering why they picked "oh my god" and not "darn" or "lordy" or " jesus christ in a blender" .....

[lagerlout2006]

Thank you Old Dog!

(Was starting to think I was losing it.)

[Brian Caulfield]

I too noticed this in Korea . I guess they get it from the movies. I don't see anything really wrong with it but they use it too much . I think it is something you say when really shocked . You would use it when your best friend was hit by a bus . In this case you would be pleading for god to save their lives .
In California about ten years ago a Japanese boy was shot because he didn't understand "back off " He was at the wrong house .
You don't need to teach swearing because your students will know right away when they hear it that it is bad . I new the first time I heard tamade that it was a fighting word.
I called this guy last week an insipid , boorish ,babbling ,baffoon and he got really mad at me because he said he wasn't insipid .

[Roger]

It is annoying to almost anyone, whether we are Christians or not, because it is unnatural for aliens such as Koreans or Chinese to evoke "God" in a mood of exasperation.
It is a sort of semantic Chinglish, joining together an emotive element with a phrase that's poorly understood.

I suppose the existence in English of "oh my God" is due to a certain amount of defiance vis-a-vis the theological powers that used to rule supreme in our lives; saying it shows great emotion, perhaps frustration or anger, so much so that the speaker would ignore social and religious taboos. IT's akin to the four-letter words that we are never allowed to write in full although we see them dissimulated with an asterisk for a vowel.

I most definitely won't encourage my students to use it although I don't know how to stop them.