Maybe profanity is getting diluted in America, too, but this post is about the use of American swear words in Finland. Specifically, the f-word.
I think sometimes non-native speakers of English don't have a clear sense of how strong and offensive that word is. Someone taught it to them once and told them it was a curse word and maybe they feel like they can throw it around as they would a casual damn or hell. It might seem like that's how it's done in the American movies and TV shows they watch.
But in real life, the f-word carries real weight and potential offense for a native speaker. It's the only traditional curse word that still feels like a punch in the gut to me. I do a double-take if I hear it in public and when it's tossed around by my students, I cringe. That word has been diluted here, removed from its mother country, and so on the majority of people, it doesn't have the same impact as it does on me.
As a result of the f-word's power being diluted, it's used in all kinds of strange situations here in Finland. Take a look at this (English-language) commercial for a brand of juice sold here. At the 2-minute mark, a man (whose native language is not English) exclaims in joy at seeing his family, including small children, and the expression he uses is...WTF, but not abbreviated. Huh? Or tonight, how I was at a clever and lovely and uplifting musical performance, and then randomly, for laughs, in the middle of one of the songs, a character sings an f-word. I think I was the only one in the audience who flinched.
Leaving the f-word aside, here's another way a crude American saying has been diluted. Netflix and Chill: what does this mean to you? I saw that phrase in some context here a few months ago where it was clearly being used in a way different than what I thought it meant in the US. Since then, I've asked people here what it means to them. Almost everyone has said that it means to watch Netflix, and chill. No hidden second meaning whatsoever.
And that's how American profanity gets diluted in Finland.
