Innocent=not knowing

[Genevra Gerhart]

Dear Devin,
(Sometimes I wonder why I tried!)
However, watch out for the use of chert as an innocent expletive. There are
some Russians, especially religious ones, who are offended by it. (Vy
pochemu chertykhayetes'?) We tend to think it innocent because the devil, in
English, is. So we translate and figure it's all right. In Russian, the
devil ain't.
Soldiers, as we know, will say anything.
All the first initials of naughty words are possible, but certainly not in
any formal situation or where _any_ p's and q's require observance. These
words are dangerous to teach to young ones who don't seem to want to
understand that they cannot judge the weight of such things in another
language.
Interestingly, the acceptable words in Russian have God or the Lord at their
base. See any old dictionary.
Regards,
Genevra

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