How would you handle it?
There has been considerable commentary on the use of various words that are ordinary in one spanish speaking county, and vulgar or insulting in another.
How would you handle the situation when a spanish speaker from another country or a foreign tourist used an unacceptable word, or a word or phrase that could be misconstrued.? Would you advise them, scold them or tell them the correct word?
There of course are times that once the word has been spoken it cannot be recalled. lets just call this a daily life situation ,not a convention or business meeting.
Personally,I would not be offended by simple differences in usage. I would try to determine what was being said, then either advise, or correct, or learn something new!
7 Answers
paco, my Hispanic friends tell me when I do this. If it is in a public setting, some people laugh, then one leans over and tells me about the problem. After my face stops being red, we continue where we left off. 
The situation is very clumsy when giving patients instructions in the clinic. Some instruction words (i.e. "acostarse") have different meanings in different cultures.
I believe the worst response is to make a scene. We all make mistakes, particularly when we are not aware of all the potential meanings of words. If a Spanish speaking person made a reference as you have described, I would move past it, call him aside, explain the circumstances, and move on.
I used to work with children one-on-one in a room where we could see other adults passing in the hall and we could also be observed through one-way glass. A five-year-old girl once used an insulting slur to ask about an adult who passed by. She then seemed to look at me for a reaction. In a matter-of-fact voice, I told her we don't use that word here and I kept on with our business. There was no further discussion.
I think that making the least fuss possible would always be best for preventing embarrassment. If provocation was the intent of any remark, that would be defused as well.
I am going to speak from my experience. I am a University professor. When foreign visitors (professors, lecturers or students) come, the first thing they ask is what are the forbidden words. Students, more for fun, and to stay out of trouble with the professors; the others, to edit their presentation, to avoid the use of the forbidden words, and also to know when others are using them and why. One visiting lecturer told me: "I need to know these words, for if I hear them, I will know my presentation is going very badly". If the visitors don't ask, given the chance, I will politely ask: Do you know our forbidden words, or way of cursing?, because you must, for your own sake!
As I see things, most of the time, the forbidden words are not in themselves the issue. The problem are words that are in the "middle". Words that within a certain context will become unacceptable. And sometimes we are unaware that the context to make a word unacceptable has been set. If this is the case, I will wait for the right moment to explain the mistake in usage. Typically, the explanation is well accepted. This is how I would like to be treated in this situation.
With my english speaking friends, in a familiar context, mistakes are not really important. Although, they correct me as soon I made the mistake and explain to me why. I do the same.
If someone offends intentionally then I would tell them that they were out of line, you are not talking about people doing this on purpose and scolding would thus seem an odd course of action. In fact I would consider it rude to have a go a someone for saying something that you had TAKEN offense to. The mature course of action would be to simply tell them that their word has a different and offensive meaning in your country and offer them an alternative. I would probably do this, after first rolling on the floor with laughter pointing at them saying 'you said coger, you said coger' o algo así.
I enjoy asking Americans if I can bum a fag off them.
People are pretty sophisticated - and I (in a work atmosphere) had absolutely no problems - in Venezuela I continued speaking the way I had been taught in Spain and it was never a problem. A Cuban colleague and I were told at coffee break about the dreaded 'coger' but it was in passing and no one seemed to care at all. 
I haven't been in this situation, but what I think I would do is, tell the person "it's better to use 'this' word, some people might be offended if you use 'that' word."
My greatest fear is that I will inadvertently say something offensive and no one will say anything. I could handle the embarassment of being corrected...at least I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
