Is this racist ?

Good move Mogrim, junior has validated C2 English in the first term at uni. C1 German too perhaps because we watch so much German TV. The English at home thing broke down in lycée and we now have conversations that start in one language, finish in another and swap depending on what’s being talked about.

For those in the UK, sit on a bench in town with your eyes shut and listen to people talking as they walk past, especially the children, I bet you can hear where their parents are from.

You have no way of verifying that, unless you stop each one. The ones who you can’t tell, you’ll think they are local when they aren’t.

I’ve heard a French person speak with a perfect generic southern English accent, and I really really concentrate on these things and have a good ear, so I can almost always tell. But not always. Also overheard a conversation with a girl of about 12 and oriental appearance in a shop who had a pure Cardiff accent. At the end she turned to her mum and spoke Chinese. Also – having spoken to alpin’s girlfriend on the phone, admittedly not for long, I would not have known that she was not English.

It is possible. You just can’t tell if you don’t ask them 🙂

Nonsense

OK, if you say so.

everyone has an accent

Yes, everyone has an accent, to some extent. All I’m saying is that many struggle to differentiate me from a native speaker.

I can have a pretty good guess at which region French people are from

Some accents are easier to place than others. I suspect you’ll struggle to differentiate someone from Rennes from someone from Tours. Or someone from Saumur from someone from St Malo. I work with a lot of Swiss people, and if speaking to them in French they will assume I am French (though my name gives it away…), because the accent is quite clearly not Swiss (to them), but some French people will wonder if I might not be Swiss. Some French people can tell the difference between a Marseille accent and a Toulon accent, but most Parisians can’t, and probably (warning : unsubstantiated claim 🙂 ) even fewer Lillois can. I didn’t say I had no accent, just that my accent is fairly difficult to place, and fairly difficult to place me as being a native English speaker – if only because most English speakers have a much stronger English accent when they speak French, even if they are fluent.

As it happens I have a fairly neutral accent when I speak English, but most native speakers will pick up on a few markers that suggest I’m from north of the Watford gap. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to guess where I’m from (apart from a vague “the top half” type of guess). Partly because I’ve been away from there for so long, I expect, and partly because I’m not really “from” anywhere in particular, having moved around quite a bit in my formative years. But you’re right, we also pick up accents from our parents, so I can understand directions when I’m in Newcastle 🙂

Everyone is more or less sensitive to accents, and some people can pick up on things that others can’t. If you want, give me your phone number and I’ll call you, then you can decide if it’s nonsense or not, and we can both report back here afterwards. 🙂

Anyway – none of that really matters. But I do object to people telling me when I’m allowed to speak English to my own children, and when I’m not.

EDIT :

Edit: how would you feel if you kept hearing the equivalent of the “n” word or “white honky” ?

Paranoid? 🙂

The last thing I expected this thread to turn into was linguistic willy waving, but there you go, STW in action.

That is why I love it here.

😉

To the OP – racist? Not particularly. Xenophobic? Absolutely.

I remember as a kid feeling unsure and a bit intimidated hearing other people talking to each other in a language I didn’t understand. However I thought about my reaction to it, and realised that I shouldn’t feel bad about it, so it became okay.

If more people did this instead of coming up with bullshit reasoning about what other people should be doing based on their own ill conceived gut reactions, the world might be a better more friendly place. And yes I know I’ve just done the same thing.

Mit freundlichen Grüssen,

This thread is like 21st Century politics in microcosm.

(1) OP asks a question about something he found unsettling, something that lots of people probably feel the same about.

(2) Other people call him a racist for asking.

(3)Question doesnt get asked again and resent simmers.

(4)Resentful person quietly votes for nut job who appears to answer the question albeit at the extreme.

I actually think the right-on (but dim witted) bunch have more to do with the success of Farage/Trump etc than actual racist ever could hope for.

Some people are really good at imitating, some do it professionally, not just accent but intonation, register. There’s usually a give away though.

In Britain you can tell how much someone’s education cost by the public-school accent.

An accent can result in discrimination[/url]

A brummy accent is less of a problem in France than London.

Brilliant, so Trump and Farage succeeded exactly because of the people that didn’t vote for them.

I think the responsibility for the xenophobic, insular ans selfish direction of western politics is firmly on those who support such things. True, the left has offered little in the way of alternative solution and all the moaning hasn’t helped.

But let’s look at what actually happened, rather than what fits your narrative.

OP asked for our opinion, we gave it, he then said we couldn’t give it, because he’s definitely not racist. We then pointed out that it was a bit silly.

If the OP is full of simmering resentment at being called racist (which very few have actually called him), maybe he shouldn’t post questions on STW that have a pronounced racial tone.

I’m far from racist

Yeah you are. We all are. It’s hard-wired into us – we feel more comfortable and safe around people “like us” and we naturally are uneasy, or fearful, of those who are “different”. Doesn’t have to the skin colour or cultural origin, it might be you are on a bike and I’m in a car, or I’m a mountain biker and you’re a roadie, but that’s how we make sense of the world around us and evaluate what’s a threat and what’s safe.

We can’t do anything about that, but we can do something about it manifesting itself in appropriate actions or words, if we acknowledge that it’s there and make an effort to get past it. It’s the people that just pretend (to themselves) that it’s not there that come unstuck.

That’s why the phrase “I’m not racist” is most often followed by “but..”

Careful edlong, logic and reason have no place here, too much of that and it’ll be your fault when Le Pen wins in France.

A few years ago one of my balls swelled up to about twice its normal size. I looked at all the NHS direct stuff online and decided I needed to go to the doctor.
When I got into the consulting room, the doc asked me to take my trousers down and lie on the couch thing. Just as he placed his hand on my enlarged ball his mobile rang. With his free hand he answered it and had a conversation that wasn’t in English. I was a bit put out. Might I be a racist?

Rude and unprofessional yes, racist no.

Answering phone – rude in the extreme
Speaking foreign – irrelevant

When I got into the consulting room, the doc asked me to take my trousers down and lie on the couch thing. Just as he placed his hand on my enlarged ball his mobile rang. With his free hand he answered it and had a conversation that wasn’t in English. I was a bit put out. Might I be a racist?

Nope. Just a massive bawbag.

With his free hand he answered it and had a conversation that wasn’t in English. I was a bit put out.

I suspect you’d have been more put out if he’d answered with the same hand he was holding your ball with.

Maybe it was the callback from the Nagasaki Testicular Centre of Excellence?

I wonder what he ended up having for his diner ??

And whether he told his wife … “You know when you rang me earlier? I had the biggest ballcock you’ve every seen, in the palm of my hand… Past the gravy pet”

surprised you found it strange being a londoner, its pretty much an everyday occurrence here, in fact its more of a shock to hear people conversing in English on the Tube!

When I got into the consulting room, the doc asked me to take my trousers down and lie on the couch thing. Just as he placed his hand on my enlarged ball his mobile rang. With his free hand he answered it and had a conversation that wasn’t in English. I was a bit put out. Might I be a racist?

Imagine the same situation except that now you’re a cowboy in a Wild West town and the Dr is conversing with an unseen speaker in fluid Creole language via a tin can attached to a string, all the while looking you in the eye as he inspects the swollen article.

Will you pay the doctor in nuggets, coin, favour or bullets?

Haven’t read all the thread, so apologies if this question has been asked already. But does the question refer to the ladies or to the OPs reaction?

Either way not a black or white issue – oops

With his free hand he answered it and had a conversation that wasn’t in English. I was a bit put out.

I’d be put out he answered the phone whilst examining me, tbh.

the doc asked me to take my trousers down and lie on the couch thing. Just as he placed his hand on my enlarged ball his mobile rang. With his free hand he answered it and had a conversation that wasn’t in English. I was a bit put out. Might I be a racist?

Well on the one hand…

[Ah do it yourselves.]

I’ll just point out that I welcome such links – and try not to use automatic translation on them (often it seems to miss important bits, and certainly doesn’t give a good feel for the tone).

Personally I actually welcome people speaking non native languages – I reckon it makes for a more interesting world rather than a monocultural one. Is it rude to eavesdrop on conversations being had which people assume others won’t understand? I’m not sure I ever did reveal to the German mum who took her little girl to the same playgroup I took my son to that I have fairly reasonable German.

Oh and since I’m resurrecting this having just found it, earlier in the thread there was the suggestion that at work everybody should use the native language of the country they’re in. Does that include for example engineering firms in Germany?

I had a similarly unsettling incident I would like to report. Today I walked past a couple in the street and they were deliberately speaking a foreign language, near me!

Which emergency service should I call?

It’s rude, no matter where they’re from.
I wouldn’t go through a checkout talking to someone else on the phone, because that is also rude.
It is courteous to give your attention to the person you are dealing with.

Had anyone called xenophobia?

No, what’s his number? I’ll call him now.

Imagine the same situation except that now you’re a cowboy in a Wild West town and the Dr is conversing with an unseen speaker in fluid Creole language via a tin can attached to a string, all the while looking you in the eye as he inspects the swollen article.

Will you pay the doctor in nuggets, coin, favour or bullets?

Is this a Westworld spoiler?

Will you pay the doctor in nuggets, coin, favour or bullets?

I hope it’s either code or a trick question!
Off to Melbourne next week, I doubt I’ll be able to count the number of languages but I just know they will all be talking about me…..

I don’t know what it was, but it was in my view the best response to this whole sorry thread. Yee hah. Ride ’em out!

No, what’s his number? I’ll call him now.

The contact number is 0208 612 7000 for xenophobia

The contact number is 0208 612 7000 for xenophobia

😆

I couldnt give a crap. My wife uses her language around her friends all the time because there are words and meanings that dont really exist in English….and my brothers wife converses with her daughter in her language in public…to make sure she grows up bilingual.