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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
I think there is a general respect for languages here and that people know that English is the "common tongue."
Socially, language is largely accommodated here. You will find certain neighbourhoods with bilingualism that goes beyond the expected French/English in Quebec. In Chinatown, you have national banks with Cantonese in the signage. In Koreatown, you have Korean signage; in Greektown, Greek signage, etc. The same goes for street signage, etc.
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i hear you BG. English is obviously accepted in Australia as the only common language. We have laws that state that all signs in other languages need to be translated into english as well. Fine, i have no issues with that.
But we would never accomodate to change street names or signage to accomodate other cultures. Not in the same way ive seen it in asia, africa and across the middle east. And that's the difference is see. asian and african countries are far more accomodating to outsiders than westerners are to outsiders.
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Originally Posted by MeltedMetalGlob
My old lady's Chinese, and so are all her friends, so whenever they all get together it's a cacaphony of Mandarin babble... and my understanding of the language doesn't go beyond counting to 3 and the word "gui-zi" which means "foreign devil" (similar to gweilo or gajin in other Asian countries- so I know when they're talking about me.)
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ok, you have to translate this for me.. in aussie slang, 'my old man' refers to my father, and 'my old lady' refers to my mother. from what im understanding, 'my old lady' in your context refers to your partner?
lost in translation - english-english
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Originally Posted by snowy
I have heard people make remarks, certainly, but one thing that I think is important to remember is that those remarks are often made in ignorance. The war over ignorance everywhere will never be won if those fighting it call retreat and move back to places where they are more comfortable. Further, during the fight they might find that they have greater support in their wider community than they first thought. I am pretty sure the mosque in my town did not know how much they were valued as a community resource until my town rallied around them after the firebombing. The pity here is that it took a firebombing to bring that to light.
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as much as portland is an accepting state, i also find that people here at TFP are more accepting. they tend to be well educated, well read and generally open minded. if i ever move to the US, im moving in with you and zombie
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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
I think English speakers are spoiled, as at least throughout Europe it is considered the main "business" language
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its the englishmen here that have decided to not only not integrate into the culture, but be as rowdy as possible in the process. The culture here doesnt enforce that people must integrate, but to blatantly go out of your way to rubbish its lifestyle by being as english-like as possible is something else. on the odd occasion when you find an arab or indian that doesnt speak english, ive seen englishmen mock them because of this superiority they think they have over them.
sometimes i think its the political mandates the english had over many of these countries that forces the people to feel subserviant to the english masses here. this is especially the case with the indian subculture here. when i first moved here, my workers kept referring to me as 'sir'. so i told them that my name wasnt 'sir' and that they need to be calling me by my first name. They were absolitely shocked when they heard me utter those words. They told me that in all these years that they were dealing with westerners, that they'd never called their managers by their first name. By the end of 3 years they were calling me by my nickname.
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Originally Posted by Charlatan
People who have an issue with immigration don't understand long term growth.
As a migrant worker, it is an eye-opening experience to be on the other side of the issue. I highly recommend it to anyone concerned with immigration.
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spoken like a true expat
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Originally Posted by citadel
It doesn't bother me in the least if it's just their conversation, like going into a neighborhood business to talk with some people from "back home." I know from experience it's comforting to hear words you recognize when you're a long way from home.
Teaching your kids another language will probbaly give them a huge advantage in life. No matter what field they're in, where their life takes them, they can always put it on a resume. Even if they're living in an area where they don't need to use it a lot (or ever), it's a skill that's easy for a child to pick up on, and one that can benefit them for the rest of their life.
It also gives them a unique look at their own cultural history. There's phrases and fables that can only be grasped by someone who understands the nuances of sentence structure and local jargon. Those little things that get lost in translation are a noticable loss.
Another thing, just because you're teaching your kids their language doesn't mean that they have to speak it all the time. If they go to a school, college, workplace or social gathering full of xenophobes or racists, they'll always have the opportunity to keep their other language as private as they'd like. Let's be honest, the kind of morons who'll give your kids crap about their names wouldn't feel any different if your kids only spoke one language.
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i dont intend on teaching my kids english 24x7. i grew up only speaking arabic at home up to the age of 5. my parents knew id pick up english in the school system, it was no issue to intensely learn arabic at home at a young age.
these days, its much harder to teach them only arabic in a western country. heck, its hard enough to teach arabic only in an arabic country! in a way that is sad, because my kids probably wont have the proficiency that i enjoyed, which is why i want to stress on the arabic language in their early years.
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Originally Posted by KirStang
I think the "insult" is partially fueled by a western superiority complex. I can't even begin to describe the panoply of emotions that I feel when someone tells my (naturalized) parents to "go back to where you come from."
In the coming years, *should* the "Eastern" countries become stronger, it will be interesting to see how perceptions of cultures are tolerated.
In Taiwan, the big swinging d*ck imperialism of the United States is felt greatly--the perception that the USA is a great country and that "we should strive to be like the USA" is very strong. In fact, so much so that English language classes are taught along side Math and Geography.
Is this a legacy of Western dominance post WWII and imperialism? When a country is so strong that it makes sense to be inviting to them? I don't know.
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Kirstang - did you ever get those comments too? as a grew older, i got those comments less and less as time went on. It might have been for different reasons. but the first 10 years were probably the hardest.
Like i mentioned earlier, my wife still gets abused from time to time, but that's usually when something in the news pops onto the front page of the papers. she's been told to go back to where she comes from on more than one occasion. on one occasion after 911, she got chased off a train because she obviously looked different.
its also interesting that you mentioned the copy-cat mentality of the East towards anything Western. i see it a lot here in the middle east too. Modernity isnt such a bad thing, but blatant copying for the sake of being more western is cop-out to your own culture.