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Tags: Discrimination | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Tollpatchig Senior Member United States Joined 3816 days ago 161 posts - 210 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Maltese | Message 25 of 119 12 December 2013 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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When I was in Germany, I used German most of the time and only used English when I got lost. No one was upset with me for using English with them, maybe because I asked in German if they could speak English.
Here in the States I have no one to speak German to so I don't have to worry about stares since I talk to my friends in English. I tend to keep the fact that I can speak German under wraps IRL since being Black and bilingual is rare here and I don't know how people would react if I spoke it out loud. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4178 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 26 of 119 12 December 2013 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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The closest I've come to any of these situations was a few weeks ago in Mexico. Two of us were on a cruise and we docked in Cozumel (where I figure it's assumed that if you don't speak Spanish, you speak English). Some of the merchants were pretty pushy and would almost jump in front of you to convince you to buy something. After trying to ignore it ended up with yelling and probably something not very polite being said (I don't know, I don't speak Spanish and the girl just stormed off!), we resorted to speaking in Polish to pretend we didn't understand English. One of the women looked genuinely confused that we were speaking Polish; not so much a "wtf" but more of a confusion that two people who very likely appeared to be Americans weren't speaking English.
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| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 5914 days ago 707 posts - 1219 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 27 of 119 12 December 2013 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Nice tactical deployment of Polish there, Fuenf Katzen!
Yet another advantage of learning languages :) 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5143 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 28 of 119 13 December 2013 at 9:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Polish can actually be very useful like that. 15 years ago when I was on the Canary Islands with my family, we were constantly acosted by time share sellers. At that time I still remembered a little Polish, so my husband and I would just go straight into Polish. Most people had no idea which language it was, and the few that did just assumed we would not be able to pay for a time share anyway. Of course these days, when Polish economy has a strong growth, they might not make that assumption anymore, but at the time it worked like a charm :-)
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| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4431 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 29 of 119 13 December 2013 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've actually heard English people complain about the "rudeness" of the folk in rural Wales. Apparently the locals all "started speaking Welsh" the minute the visitors walked through the door.
It doesn't seem to have crossed their mind that native Welsh speakers actually use their language with each other on a daily basis. Edited by beano on 13 December 2013 at 12:07pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| wber Groupie United States Joined 4110 days ago 45 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Vietnamese, French | Message 30 of 119 14 December 2013 at 4:36am | IP Logged | ||
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As a Vietnamese-American in the US, quite a few times I've been put into the situation of damned if you do and damned if you don't.
One time, I went to this new barbershop to get a last minute haircut for a family party. Since I looked like a zombie because of just having finished my final exams the day before, I came into the store and greeted the guys in the store in English. These ignoramuses then had the brilliant idea that Asian guy with fluent English = not possibly knowing any Vietnamese. They then thus launched into a tirade of insulting me and mocking me in various manners in Vietnamese while cutting my hair. Suffice to say, when my haircut was done they got no tip and one of the guys even cried. Second time, the opposite thing happened. I was accompanying my mom to one of her doctor's appointment. While there, I was talking to my mom in Vietnamese so this bitchy receptionist thought we didn't know any English. While she was explaining things to my mom, every word she said was laced with a condescending tone directly implying "you're not worth my time" and she wore her woefully accented English as a bad of honor and a symbol of her superiority complex. When I finally got the chance to speak to her in English, let's say she went from extremely rude to extremely meek and quiet. Then there was this time at the DMV ( Department of Motor Vehicles) but it doesn't count because everyone knows that the DMV is literally hell on Earth. I really don't mind these little instances since they only people who embarrass themselves are those ignorant people in question. It also reminds me of how lucky I am to know two languages and no one can tell which one is my native one ( vocabulary notwithstanding). It's so fun messing with people's head at times. :) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tea oolong Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4225 days ago 28 posts - 33 votes Studies: Korean* | Message 31 of 119 22 December 2013 at 5:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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How about when we wish to practice
our L2 in whatever westernized country? If I attempt to speak Spanish in a Spanish speaking country, my efforts are applauded. Try the same in America to a fluent bilingual, its insulting to the listener. Or may get ridiculed or ignored in another host country. Snobbery is a border hopper. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3806 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 32 of 119 22 December 2013 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | ||
They mistook Hebrew for Spanish. Hugh. Damn, I don't think Americans will ever learn such dissimilar languages such as Mandarin when they can't even speak English correctly and can't even *recognize* a language that is relatively similar to English. (Spanish) And a lot of Spanish is spoken in the US. Not really discrimination, but I remember in middle school my friends that took French would make fun of us since we studied Spanish. They would say, "A lot of people speak Spanish but you'll just be able to speak to poor people." I would imagine that a lot of the stares are innocuous and just people being curious. If I hear a foreign language in the US I perk up my ears since I want to know what language it is at least. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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