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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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 Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 1:59 pm Post subject: |
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Dear bulgogiboy,
Don't count Russia out just yet. Sasha's just hitting his stride. Bye, bye Uganda.
Regards,
John |
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denise
Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Posts: 3419
Location: finally home-ish
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| Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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Another possibility: it's really affordable here! Back in the US, there's no way I could afford to go out (for a drink or anything else... dinner, coffee, movie...) as often as I have been able to everywhere I've lived as an EFL teacher.
I agree that this job certainly does attract a lot of people who can't cope back home, and they may well have been heavy drinkers before arriving in their new homes/jobs.
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bulgogiboy
Joined: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 803
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| Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:17 am Post subject: |
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| I found drink really affordable in the US. Booze from a shop seemed very cheap...? Drinking in bars there was certainly no more expensive than drinking in bars in Korea. Do you mean it's your bigger salary that makes it affordable? |
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denise
Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Posts: 3419
Location: finally home-ish
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| Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 11:08 am Post subject: |
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| bulgogiboy wrote: |
| I found drink really affordable in the US. Booze from a shop seemed very cheap...? Drinking in bars there was certainly no more expensive than drinking in bars in Korea. Do you mean it's your bigger salary that makes it affordable? |
Yeah... the cost of living is so cheap here, and I don't pay rent. So pretty much all of my income is disposable... Rough life! 
I know I won't be going out anywhere near as frequently as I do now once I'm back in the US.
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fladude
Joined: 02 Feb 2009
Posts: 432
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| Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 5:53 am Post subject: |
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I had a pretty bad drinking problem until I started teaching here on the reservation. Seeing how negatively alcohol impacts some of the local kids has really made me rethink drinking. Its one thing when you see a grown man or woman out drinking, and its quite another when you constantly see teenage kids drinking themselves into a life of misery and despair. You obviously care about the kids (or should if you are a teacher) and to see that sort of thing.... well its disturbing. I have watched this one really beautiful girl just ruin her life on booze. It bothers me.
I still have a drink sometimes when I travel back to the world. But I would never drink here. |
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bulgogiboy
Joined: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 803
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| Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 11:04 am Post subject: |
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| Are they Eskimos? Do they make their own moonshine out there? |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
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| Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 12:53 pm Post subject: |
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Are they Eskimos?
'Inuit' is the PC term, I think, but am not entirely sure. Fladude? |
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fladude
Joined: 02 Feb 2009
Posts: 432
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| Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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Eskimo means eaters of raw flesh. Its a term the white man put on the Yupiit, Aleuts, Inuit, Athabaskans, Alutiiq and other native groups who live in the arctic and sub arctic regions. It can mean pretty much any group that lives in an area without firewood, since those groups all ate raw meat (at least sometimes). Normally such an area is in the high arctic, although some groups like the Aleuts live farther south but on islands without trees. I'd prefer not to say the exact group that I work with just so as not to offend anyone. I will say though that the term Eskimo itself though is not a term that I would use. I'm not into political correctness, but I do like to be accurate... Using that term is similar to calling an Apache a "Red Man" or something to that effect. It just isn't accurate and can be offensive to some people.
I haven't seen anyone make moonshine, although it probably happens. If you think about it, alcohol is simply very difficult to regulate, especially since its legal in most places. You can just buy it someplace where its legal and smuggle it in. There are even native towns where alcohol is legal, so trying to control it is pretty much impossible. |
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gaijinalways
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 2279
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| Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 7:50 am Post subject: |
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To be an Eskimo...
http://community.livejournal.com/linguaphiles/3564676.html
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Linguistically, it's a valid term. Anthropologically, it's a fairly vague term -- not to the point of uselessness, but it's not great.
There was a recent myth that the word "Eskimo" was an insult, with various tales spreading that it meant "eaters of raw fish", and various other supposedly derrogatory terms. There's no historical or linguistic evidence supporting this assertion, but it seems to have stuck enough to make people very emotionally adamant that it's a bad word. There really are some externally-assigned ethnonyms out there that are perjorative, but Eskimo isn't one of them.
It is, as noted, kinda vague, but then "Inuit" is used vaguely too, for "North American Eskimo", when in reality there are a whole variety of self-designations, including Yup'ik, Inuit, Inupiaq, Inuvialuit, Kalaalisut, and various others.
The best word for all the people "commonly thought of" as Eskimos (and no others) remains "Eskimo", linguistically and culturally. Some people may have a small tantrum when they hear it used, but that is neither my problem nor yours.
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| What is the etymology of "Eskimo"? I've always heard the "eaters of raw fish" designation, and the Oxford English dictionary seems to concur. |
Note: this seems to be where the fladude got his idea.
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No language in the area has any plausible term that sounds anything like "Eskimo" that means anything like "eaters of raw fish" (the closest is an Abenaki word, but Abenaki is not a plausible source for the name given the time period the name is first attested in). Also, all of the neighboring languages also ate raw fish/meat, and could not have considered it an insult. Both halves of the myth do not stand up under even a small amount of inspection.
The etymology remains uncertain, but there are two main theories that are both very plausible: either an Ojibwe word meaning "snow-shoe makers", or an Innu-Aimun word meaning "they speak a different language". |
or not? |
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gaijinalways
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 2279
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bulgogiboy
Joined: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 803
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| Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:08 pm Post subject: |
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The problem is, that once a term is widely perceived to be derogatory, it in effect becomes derogatory, regardless of whether or not it was in the first place. Does that make sense? 
Anyway, this topic has digressed far enough I think. |
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gaijinalways
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 2279
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| Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 2:33 am Post subject: |
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| The problem is, that once a term is widely perceived to be derogatory, it in effect becomes derogatory, regardless of whether or not it was in the first place. Does that make sense? |
No, not really. When you say "widely" perceived, it's hard to know what you mean.
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| Anyway, this topic has digressed far enough I think. |
Yes, drinking when I feel "eskimoish" is better   . |
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fladude
Joined: 02 Feb 2009
Posts: 432
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| Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 3:13 am Post subject: |
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| gaijinalways wrote: |
or not? |
Bro, not to seem high handed, but I live in an "Eskimo" community. I'm not getting my information off of some internet Wikipedia like website. I have spoken to members of this community who represent its cultural heritage, some of whom have PHDs and teach at colleges. I am sure that they are completely qualified to discuss what the term means, where it came from, and how they feel about it. It would be insulting to suggest that a group of people who have existed and lived on this earth for thousands of years can't come up with their own name for themselves and that they should simply have to take whatever name some white people decided to label them with.
In this case, it is their belief that the term, Eskimo, means eaters of raw flesh. True or not, it does not matter, because its not their name. Also whether they are offended by the term "eaters of raw flesh" or not is not the point. It is true that they sometimes eat raw flesh, and not just fish, but raw seal and the like. But no group of people wants to be identified by one of the dishes that they eat.
Today most people who live in the arctic own a regular stove, just like people everywhere else. Most dishes are cooked. There are still a few things which either because of tradition, or taste, are still eaten raw. I have eaten some raw whale myself (so I guess now I'm an Eskimo...). That is not the point though.....
The people are offended at being labeled something which is not their name. Whether some white man on the internet believes that the term means something other than "eaters of raw flesh" or not, is again not relevant. Even if we could find a time machine and prove that the word originally meant "snowshoes" that would not make people happy about the term. It is not the name of their people. These people have names and have had names for thousands and thousands of years. Call them Yup'iit, Athabaskan, Aleutian, Alutiiq, Inuit, Inupiat, whatever, but don't call them Eskimo because its not their name.
Last edited by fladude on Wed Oct 27, 2010 3:36 am; edited 1 time in total |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 3:36 am Post subject: |
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| Just like I will not accept being called "Scotch" ! |
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fladude
Joined: 02 Feb 2009
Posts: 432
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| Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 3:40 am Post subject: |
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| scot47 wrote: |
| Just like I will not accept being called "Scotch" ! |
LOL and now I feel like I need a drink. ESL does drive a man to drinking!!! |
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