Never be caught like a child that doesn't know any better.

When I was young, we were brought up with proper manners.  This included not cursing.  None of the younger children cursed.  However, children learn by example.  Children aren't born with fear, hate, language, or even the most basic of behaviors.  These are all learned somewhere. 

My older cousins went to public schools.  They knew better than to curse; but, were more clever than the average child.  Instead of cursing in English or any language we knew our multilingual relatives would comprehend they picked words and phrases from a country that there was no way anyone would understand.  It was even quite humorous when the younger children who knew that those words were bad, if not what they meant, began parroting them.  After all, one simply doesn't cuss (at least not back then).  If you cussed, you did so for a reason.  You hurt yourself badly.  You were extremely angry.  As I mentioned before, it's a learned behavior.  It's also not terribly difficult to figure out.  If you slam your hand in the door and say something, even if you're laughing, if it's in another language any child knows that's a bad word. 

This went on for a while until one of my Aunts heard one of the little ones cuss in this other language because he was fairly deeply cut on the rose bushes.  Although concerned he was hurt, she was equally concerned about where he heard that word.  When asked questions most children do one of two things either shut down due to extreme trauma or fear or give you the most honest opinions or answers to your questions.  Trauma is inflicted.  Fear, dishonesty and lying are other learned behaviors.  That's something to consider when you're around small children.  They learn what's considered alright from the people they come in contact with, television, movies, school, and technology.  My younger cousin who had been injured by the rose bushes told my Aunt everything. 

She patched him up.  Told all of us little ones what that word meant.  She explained at length why we shouldn't say it.  She honestly didn't need to explain.  None of us really knew what it meant to begin with; we were simply parroting the older children.  She also told us which relatives spoke that language.  We watched her walk off to find our older cousins for a chat. 

What's the point?  The point is in business and life, you never know what the other person knows or what information and knowledge they posses.  All you know is what has been shared with you and what's common knowledge.  It's far simpler to add value to a discussion than to retract or back peddle your way out of a situation you were unprepared to handle.  Never be caught like a child that doesn't know any better.