Job Discussion Forums

[cwc]

Excellent point. This all started with me informing. The boy was so afraid to accept his error that he freaked out and complained to the Mods. Poor soul can�t deal with being wrong.

[Guy Courchesne]

Interesting stuff. Here's something that came up before, though awhile ago.

How do you all feel, in Mexico, to hear people use words like 'guero', 'la negra', 'los palidos', or 'la chinita'? One of my Korean students gets called 'la chinita' all the time and hates it. Not sure sure how she would feel if called 'la coreanita' though.

[ls650]

[cwc]

I fail to see your point. Please refrain from accusing me without proof. If you have proof, post it.

[cwc]

[M@tt]

wow, we could do another whole thread on slurs in mexico. but, that would be boring.

i'm surprised spaz has such strong connotations in the UK, mostly because i've never in my life heard anything about the word being related to epileptic seizures. i have always heard it used to mean someone who is hyperactive or over-reacting to something. i've been in classes for years with students and even teacher with epilepsy, and this never came up. the next time i talk to someone with epilepsy i'm going to ask them how they feel about it.
and for the record, i thought the comments bby people in the article were also stupid and insensitive. can you really compare his comment to the blatantly racist remarks about the food he would be serving?

[grahamcito]

[Samantha]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic

[Cdaniels]

*Cretin is the oldest and probably comes from an old French word for Christian. The implication was that even people with significant intellectual or developmental disabilities were "still human" (or "still Christian") and deserved to be treated with basic human dignity. This term has not been used in any serious or scientific endeavor since the middle of the 20th century and is now always considered a term of abuse.
* Idiot indicated the greatest degree of mental deficiency, where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot guard himself or herself against common physical dangers. The term was gradually replaced by the term profound mental disability.
* Imbecile indicated a mental disability less extreme than idiocy and not necessarily inherited. It is now usually subdivided into two categories, known as severe mental retardation and moderate mental retardation.
* Moron was defined by the American Association for the Study of the Feeble-Minded in 1910, following work by Henry H. Goddard, as the term for an adult with a mental age between eight and twelve; mild mental retardation is now the term for this condition. Alternative definitions of these terms based on IQ were also used.
"Retarded" is now following this pattern, as it becomes less used as a technical, specialist term it will probably gain acceptance as a generic insult. I'm afraid artificial attempts to instill sensitivity in the general public are doomed. "Crazy," I think is also too entrenched in the lexicon to ever go away.
I happen to be born "illegitimately." If I let myself get offended every time the term 'b-astard' was used as an insult, I might be unable to socialize at all!

[cwc]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Tiger Woods has apologised for comments he made during a television interview after the U.S. Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday.
"Tiger meant nothing derogatory to any person or persons and apologises for any offence caused," Woods's agent Mark Steinberg said in a statement issued on the player's official website.

The cool thing is that even though he didn�t mean to offend, he apologized. Class!!!!!!! Once again, it is not the SPEAKER, it�s the LISTENER.

[cwc]

[absolutaaron]

CWC � I agree with your position to a certain degree (if I understand it correctly) I think word ownership by any group is a dangerous thing � I don�t think that anyone should feel entitled to exclusive use of a word. I also appreciate the power of a word and its ability to injure or put someone down. All this considered � I�m conflicted with the hyper-PC mentality of our culture. Which brings me to my question � you CWC used a phrase in an earlier post �JOTO EME ESE� � I�m not entirely sure what you meant by that phrase � but I do know what Joto means-- and I certainly find it equivalent to �f -a -g� � which is offensive. Now � I appreciate your stand that the responsibility falls on the listener � but how often are you prone to throw out the �n-word� (ownership prevents usage) in front of a black person or the f-a-g word in front of a gay person until that person is offended and tells you to stop. I don�t think that this argument would be applicable to the obscure or uncommon word � but when a word has a dominant social sting to it --- why use it?

This is a tough topic � I certainly don�t mind examining and complicating my hypocritical use of language.

[M@tt]

i'm just enjoying cwc's preaching about tact.

[Cdaniels]

[Samantha]

Ahem... Check out the name of his school. Could there be a connection to this weird thread?