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’Kassenbon’ means racism in German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6594 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 9 of 26 13 April 2015 at 2:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree, but finding a suitable wording can help a lot with processing an experience and having it acknowledged.
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| Kronos Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5258 days ago 186 posts - 452 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 10 of 26 13 April 2015 at 2:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
That is completely normal. If you buy just one or two items cashiers will often ask politely if you want the receipt, "Brauchen Sie den Kassenbon?" You can either say no thanks or yes and take it, it doesn't matter. Maybe one should mention that nowadays Germany has so many immigrants, people of foreign descent and travelers that in many supermarkets they are actually in the majority among customers, and sometimes even among cashiers. I have never witnessed a cashier making fun of any customer for whatever reason - they would not want to risk getting fired anyway. So better think twice before you file a complaint. What you met were probably just stupid people; it is also not entirely clear that they were making fun of you (though it may seem so) and not of something else you didn't understand. I have been a number of times in situations where I thought people were laughing at me, but on close inspection I realized that in most cases they were not and I had misinterpreted their behavior. Edited by Kronos on 13 April 2015 at 2:48pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cthulhu Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7220 days ago 139 posts - 235 votes Speaks: French*, English, Mandarin, Russian | Message 11 of 26 13 April 2015 at 2:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Of course racism is more than that, I never suggested otherwise, but what lazy assumptions about race were made here? Did they assume the OP couldn't understand German because he's not "Aryan" (Something most Germans wouldn't do in my experience), or did they assume he couldn't understand German because he BLATANTLY couldn't understand German? And yes, stupid jokes can be racist or xenophobic, but they can also be about the weather, or about the inconvenience of being stuck waiting at the checkout for whatever reason. If I had a dollar for every time I made a joke about some jerk with 18 items in the 10 item or less line, I wouldn't be wasting my time on the internet; if that jerk happens to be of a different race, that doesn't make me a racist. My point is just that the OP really doesn't know what was going on, but they're assuming the worst and so many people are reinforcing that interpretation regardless of the consequences. Edited by Cthulhu on 13 April 2015 at 2:59pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6594 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 12 of 26 13 April 2015 at 3:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is not just about you though. Sounds like the person was hinting that you were preventing him from putting his own purchases on the conveyor belt. It's entirely plausible to me that he channelled out his frustration in a derogatory way and I'm not excusing him, but to me this is exactly the fine line between not being accepted as you are and needing to adapt. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6700 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 26 13 April 2015 at 3:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It is fairly obvious that the old man was rude and the cashier may have joined in. It is also fairly obvious that this example of rudeness doesn't have to be racism. But unfortunately it is also fairly obvious that the linguistic aspect of this thread is minimal, and HTLAL is a forum for discussions about languages and language learning.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6594 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 14 of 26 13 April 2015 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
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| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4530 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 15 of 26 13 April 2015 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Funnily, I was at the MediaMarkt (an electronics store) in Berlin today to buy an LED lightbulb. As I was going to pay I put my bank card in the card reader a little early and the supervisor standing behind the cashier (apparently the cashier was being trained) told me in what I thought was a fairly condescending way that I should have waited until I was told my the card reader to put the card in. OK. Then as I was leaving they asked me if I wanted a receipt, and I said no, but the supervisor obviously thought I really should take it, so I then said yes, and I could hear laughter after I left.
But you know what? The damn lightbulb didn't work when I got home, so I really glad I have a receipt and am going to return it tomorrow. :) ----------- As an aside I do think Germany has a fair amount of racism, some of it relatively subtle, some not, but I don't think this is any more than say Greece (Golden Dawn anyone?) or many other countries in Europe (or for that matter most parts of the World). 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| nikolic993 Diglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 3777 days ago 106 posts - 205 votes Speaks: Serbian*, English Studies: Italian, Mandarin, Romanian, Persian | Message 16 of 26 13 April 2015 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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