In contrast to the rest of the book, this chapter discusses not what to say in and how to speak English but rather what is not socially acceptable to speak about in North American culture: from offensive language and profanity to sensitive topics such as sex and politics. These taboo subjects differ by culture, and EFL speakers who come from cultures that are more direct might find themselves saying something inappropriate – just as chatbots can sometimes generate offensive content. The developers of chatbots like ChatGPT have programmed filters to prevent them from generating offensive text. Those filters are based on the norms of the developers themselves, most of whom are based in North America, and this can make a chatbot’s refusal to answer some questions seem excessively careful through the lens of other cultures.

Although the internet has removed geographical boundaries, transforming the world into a global village, English is still the most dominant language online. New forms of online communication such as emoji and memes have become an integral part of internet language. While it’s tempting to think of such visual communication formats as removing the cultural barriers – after all, emoji appear like a universal alphabet – their interpretation may rely on cultural references.