Job Discussion Forums

[blackmagicABC]

My wife (Taiwanese lady who just shouted "if you don't get away from the comuter I am going to stick it where you don't want it") has a great take on this issue.
If you are offended by being called anything in Chinese then either learn the language correctly or spend every day that you are here being offended. She says she doesn't really care which it is but I know she does. She is such a sweetheart.
Between what I said and what Steve said anyone should have a perfectly clear understanding of the issue. You really have no reason to be offended. It is an innocent "name" for the group we belong to. There is no other meaning outside of context to it.
PS I am pretty sure SanChong would have said exactly the same.

[stunnershades]

Everyone is trying to put in their "professional perspective" but I think when it comes down to it, we all get treated about the same and feel the same way about this issue.

[blackmagicABC]

[TaoyuanSteve]

[BJ]

A little off topic, but I do remember when I was about 5 years old, at a clinic with my mother, I saw a black nurse, and apparently said, mom there is a choclate lady, at which she smiled and said that it was the nicest thing anyone had said to her. That was Nottingham in 1959, very few colkoured people lived there then.

She could have taken it the wrong way, but obviously coming from a child, there is very little racism , and purely an observation. So no I dont mind. If I am called an American I always correct them and say no Im ENglish. Nearly always the parents smile, then children look a little puzzled until the parents explain.

My advice, listen to how its said, and the body language will normaly tell you if it is meant offensively. And if its a child smile, point and say chungwaren, the parents will laugh.

[jwbhomer]

I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned gwei lou (rhymes with "gay low"), a derogatory term for whites still in use in China, or Guangdong at least. My students were always surprised that I knew that word when I mentioned it in a little discussion about "politically correct" language. I never objected to being called a gwei lou, but I'm old and have a thick skin.

[blackmagicABC]

[JZer]

[JZer]

[blackmagicABC]

[TaoyuanSteve]

[blackmagicABC]

I thought it was 佬 but like I said it is not my strongest language. Again not really applicable here but as for context. Imagine you are in a pub playing darts with your friend and you have a great round and he says "Gwei Lao" it is not offensive. It's a joke. We should spend more time on the context than on the exact translated meaning, although it is difficult to understand the context if you don't undertstand the exact translated meaning.

[TRUBADOUR]

We are all ignorant of something - be it others sensitivities regarding racial language or the understanding of another language. Ignorance on either side can lead to miss-understandings, offense and paranoia.

I agree that the Chinese are quite straight forward (without the PC hangups many of the users on this forum will have) about 'calling the kettle black.' I find it makes things easier; I like it when people are open about how they feel or what they think. Language does that anyway, as all those Heideggerians out there will well be aware.

Mostly it is a mere statement of something they consider to be an self-evident fact. Which it is, as far as it goes.

One should certainly be prepared to look at these things in the spirit of a visitor in a foreign land.

[Serious_Fun]

[TRUBADOUR]

you're the first one to notice. I consider it a play on words in a word - I'm tru(e) bad door - poetic, street AND psychedelic , don't you think? Would J. Dowland approve, that is the question.

Except typing head-down, no excuse for not spell-checking, though..