In reply to Mike Bosio a.k.a. Don Miguel.

I like that anecdote. You are right; "cultured" is a better word for the Mayans. But I have to be careful not to romanticize the situation too much. For example, they regularly say things like "estoy bien jodido!" after a night of drinking, or "vamos a chingar en el campo" when they invite you to relax with them in the countryside. But I think this isn't a factor of crudeness as much as it is use of a second language. When one isn't speaking in a native tongue, there is a disconnect from the impact of stong words.

Once I went to a trip to Germany with a pair of really good friends. We were all working on our German, and we were just good enough to order food and hotel rooms and understand directions. Some of the weird German sounds were hard for us, and we practiced them aloud all the time. One evening we were sitting at the dinner table in a fancy restaurant practicing the pronunciation of "durchfäl". Over and over and over, progressively louder, to get it right. The elderly gentlemen at the table next to us shot us a nasty look, and we realized we'd been screaming "diarrhea" for all the other diners to enjoy.