At a Q and A session after a screening of my 2005 film "Little Fish" (about a recovering heroin addict - Cate Blanchett, and an ex-footballer junkie - Hugo Weaving, set in a working-class suburb of Sydney), an elderly woman approached me to say she'd enjoyed the film, but thought "there was too much swearing and I don't think Australians talk like that."
Well, clearly they do, and there have been many occasions when I've felt the need to swear like a trooper myself. I have no objections to swearing per se. Sometimes it's the only possible response.
It's the thoughtless and inappropriate use of not just swear words, but any words that I can't stand.
If one more shop assistant responds to a request for a flat white with the word "awesome", I might be tempted to say something mildly inappropriate in reply. If my choice of coffee is awesome, how do you describe an extraordinary storm, or a stunning sunset or the scaling of Everest?
When my sons want to say something's wonderful, they call it "sick". If it's truly wonderful, it's "fully sick". Something that actually sickens them might be "feral."
But the habit that really drives me nuts is the misuse of the word "like" - eg "She's like walking down the street, and she like waves, and I'm like "Hi", and she's like "Hi", and then she like comes over and we like hug and it's like awesome".
As far as I know this originated with movie depictions of Californian Valley girls . Our kids have absorbed it via such winning lines of dialogue as " he's like totally gross." Which is another great argument for banning most American teen flicks.
I continually question my sons - " Oh, so is she like hot, or is she hot?". They hate it, but I don't care. My younger teenager commented on a friend's over-use of "like" recently, so my drawing attention to it has had some effect.
No doubt I'm going to be a grumpy old pedant in my dotage - perhaps I already am - but I believe that clear communication is worth fighting for. It would be tragic if future generations lose the rich rewards that an appreciation of language provides, and for communication to be reduced to the point of no return, just so the message can fit on to a mobile phone screen. And referencing is a poor substitute for reading.
There is such joy to be had from language and from the work of our great writers. In his book, "The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes", historian Jonathon Rose records a cowman's response to being exposed to the world of literature - he said " It was like coming up from the bottom of the ocean and seeing the universe for the first time."
I want my kids to experience that joy and richness, and to pass it on to their children. So I'll keep nagging and hopefully - they'll like #*+>ing get it.