HACKER Q&A
📣 jelliclesfarm

How do I unlearn swearing and curse words


I grew up not peppering my language with swear words. English is not my first language. I picked up a lot of colloquialisms as I travelled and when I left my country.

I still think in my native language and English is not just a translation of language but more of a manner of mimicry.

To this day, I don’t know or say a lot of swear words or bring myself to use curse words in my language. But it comes very easily to me in English.

I also worked in testosterone soaked restaurant kitchens for a while where male chefs often insulted each other’s mothers and sisters as a friendly way to bond.

Regardless. I use English as a way to assimilate and mimic rather than consider it the language of my thoughts. And over the years, it has become rather salty.

I am not distressed by it and I do moderate it. It has no emotional value to me. Sometimes I enjoy shocking people with my sailor language because it ends up being amusing and we all have a laugh about it. Sometimes I use it to ‘bond with the boys’.

But I want to see if I can completely eliminate it from my vocabulary as an involuntary language aid. In other words, how can I be mindful of my language.

While I try to convince myself that I have control over my language, there are a lot of unconscious slips even though I also beckon the choice of words at will.

I want to conduct an experiment. 21 days/3 weeks time quit the swearing habit. Only ..is an adopted language a ‘habit’? Is this even possible?

Is there an app or something out there that could beep if I swear? Maybe I can program Amazon Alexa to do that?

  👤 yardshop Accepted Answer ✓
You don't unlearn it, you teach yourself to say different things instead.

If you just don't want to use those words, there are common favorite "clean" substitutes like "sugar", "fudge", "dang", and H-E-double-hockey-sticks! There's also an added humor factor when someone thinks they know what you're going to say and an innocent word pops out instead.

If you don't want to have the feelings and urges that cause swears to come out, practice tolerance and patience and forgiveness and gratitude, especially towards yourself.

Or just sugar all that fudge and be the bad-axe potty mouth you know you want to be!

👤 briefcomment
Force yourself to not say anything until you have consciously approved of what you want to say. So instead of saying something like normal, run it through your head, and decide if you really want to vocalize it. It takes about a second.

Swearing for no good reason is one of the few things that tanks my respect for someone. The longer I go without hearing someone swear, the more I look up to them.

👤 poormystic
Get yourself a Pentecostal mother-in-law, usually works. Anyway, people who swear a lot are usually more personally trustworthy. Are you sure you want to change?