Isn't this a straw man? Who has objected to teaching people learning English about the existence of the n-word?
We are having a discussion about this taboo word right now and no-one is stopping us.
The problem is the inference from "it may in some special circumstances be necessary to mention the n-word" to "anyone should be free to say the n-word at any time without anyone objecting".
I'm not a native English speaker and I was not talking about any specific word; my argument was general. What word do you refer to by "the n-word", precisely? Can you write it down, please?
> The problem is the inference from "it may in some special circumstances be necessary to mention the n-word" to "anyone should be free to say the n-word at any time without anyone objecting".
It seems to me that these two extremes are quite wrong. A moderate middle-ground seems to be better: "anyone should be free to say any word, as long as they are not using it as a slur to insult another person".
I’m sure if you genuinely don’t know what the n-word refers to then an English speaker will be happy to explain it to you – although given your existing command of English it seems odd that you couldn’t find out the answer using Google.
> It seems to me that these two extremes are quite wrong. A moderate middle-ground seems to be better: "anyone should be free to say any word, as long as they are not using it as a slur to insult another person".
As a standard of acceptable behavior (rather than a legal standard) this seems obviously too lenient. For example, it means I could roam the streets shouting the n-word at the top of my lungs as long as I wasn’t directing it at anyone in particular.
Given the existence of a universally understood euphemism (’n-word’) it is generally difficult to use the n-word without showing a certain level of disregard for black people (and indeed anyone who’s offended by racist language).
No need to be sorry, you didn't do anything wrong. If anything, I'm much more hurt by the prospect of a world where taboo words cannot even be discussed about, than a world where random weirdos insult me on the street.
If you want to be sorry about something useful, please make efforts so that taboo words can be used safely, at least when talking about them! Millions of people are learning English every day all over the world. How can you even teach these people about offensive words without mentioning them?