My prude side coming out here. Living in a country like Switzerland with a bunch of foreign languages is actually pretty easy as most people speak English, particularly the Swiss, and a whole bunch of nationalities for whom English is a handy second language. The temptation not to learn French is pretty great, given if your 'bonjour's and your 'je suis's run dry, you can probably get your point across; seemingly everyone knows a bit of English.
But for the prude side. One of the things I'd never noticed, despite having lived in non-English speaking countries before, is just how filthy the English used in public is, this is really noticeable when you are listening to a French language radio station that doesn't play the "radio edits" you are used to in the UK. Every second word in some of these songs is "F***". But that's kind of to be expected, these are songs made by pop stars in Britain and America who are good at using expletives being broadcast on radio aimed at teenagers who want to get good at using English expletives.
What is weirdest though was our trip to Manor recently, where walking through the electronics department I noticed a monitor with the words "Mother F***er" scrolling across it. I stopped, long enough to make sure I hadn't been mistaken, and then felt really weird about giving my custom to the Swiss equivalent of John Lewis, because it used foul language in its marketing.
When was the last time you walked through Debenhams or John Lewis and saw a sign saying "Putain" or "Votze"? What would you say if you did? It's kind of a moot point, as linked to that is the question, when did you ever see any advertising on the UK high street that wasn't in English? As this is an English language blog, I've given into the temptation to use offensive words in foreign languages, so apologies to anyone who can understand them.
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