Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Geckoman]

Texan Woman Told to Remove American Flag From Office
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,522659,00.html

Why was she told to remove the flag?

Because "a woman who immigrated to the United States from Africa 14 years ago, complained about the flag to upper management."

You'd think the immigrate would have some appreciation for the American flag. After all, she "chose" to immigrate to the United States.

[Manner of Speaking]

I'd love to hear the story behind this story...it sounds as like she was one of these so-over-the-top people constantly chanting about "how my daughter is a hero in eye-rack" types that she finally got on the nerves of everybody around her.

[Big_Bird]

[Leslie Cheswyck]

From the article:

[mole]

[Big_Bird]

[Koveras]

[JMO]

I have a co worker who says a-rab rather than ar-ab. I had no idea such people actually existed.

[mises]

[mole]

[agoodmouse]

[Leslie Cheswyck]

Anyone remember this song? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n5oiGID9mM&feature=related

[Adventurer]

[Manner of Speaking]

Research in linguistics has shown that when two languages come into contact with each other, they often seem to compete for dominance, almost as though the languages themselves were living, 'fighting' entities. Every language has rules in its phonology that allow certain sound clusters while excluding others. English, for example, allows certain consonant clusters, while Japanese has almost none. It's common, therefore, that when certain English words become incorporated into the Japanese vocabulary, their sounds are changed to become closer to native Japanese phonological rules..."suh-kee" for "ski", etc.

However, most educated individuals are capable of learning how to pronounce foreign-language phonological combinations...assuming they don't have a condescending or patronizing attitude towards the language or towards foreign languages and cultures in general.

It was common during the time of the British Empire, for example, to "anglicize" many foreign words for concepts and place names that originated in "inferior" cultures and regions. Examples abound: "Bombay" for Mumbai; "Peking" for Beijing; "Tsingtao" for Qingdao, "Cairo" for Al-Qahira, and so on. Anglicization was often, though not always, part of a process of suborning native cultures to make them more like the dominant culture, and was/is a form of imperialism.

The "eye-rack" thing is something along the same lines. It is derived from the sometimes-still-used - and deliberately condescending - practice of referring to people whose ancestors came from the region south of the Alps as "eye-talian". And it is used regardless of the fact that the correct pronunciation in English is (IPA) /ɪˈr�k/ or /iˈrɑːk/.

Since the act of invading Iraq was a deliberate revival of 19th century colonialism, the condescending name-change among some should come as no surprise.

[Tiger Beer]