[merylsilverburg]

Originally posted by Redpyramidhead

I may have a bit of an unpopular opinion about this, though, but I believe I am in a special position to be jusitified in it. It is this sentiment against people who do not speak or write english perfectly as if they are lesser people, therefore do not have the right to speak their opinions. This is wrong.

Red, let me make one thing clear: I would never make fun or harass a person if they do not speak English well or if they have a hard time. Why? Because I know how hard it is to learn a new language and the difficulties to go through it. Again, why? Because my parents both do not speak English that well and I know they've struggled for a long time to learn a few and even now, they don't know how to speak fluently. I never said that people who don't speak/write English well are lesser people and should feel inferior and never voice out their opinions. This girl wasn't someone who was voicing out an opinion! She wasn't saying she thinks the jar said "pennies" or "penis". No...she arrogantly stated that I spelled "pennies" wrong and told my mother that "I should be more careful of what I write" because she thought she was right. She is a person who thinks she knows everything just because she goes to college, both her parents are professors, and just because we're "restaurant people" we're the inferior ones who didn't go through a proper education.

Half of my family is Colombian whose first language was spanish. They have had to deal with not being taken seriously and had to listen to this "learn our fucking language or shut up mentality their whole lives." English is not an easy language to learn if you do not grow up with it and even if you did learn it you are still likely to make a few honest mistakes in spelling and grammar for the rest of your life.

Yes, and my parents are both Taiwanese and Taiwanese/Mandarin is their first language. They also had to deal with the whole "fucking stupid Chinks, learn our language!!" problem.

Obviously...the girl was wrong about what the jar said and perhaps she was being arrogant about telling you off about your imaginary mistake, but it is not right to blame her for the language barrier part, IMO.

Again, I would never blame a person for not speaking English properly if it is their second language. Let's just say if the girl came up and asked, "Is that how you spell "pennies"? It looks like "penis" to me." and once she found out that she was wrong and apologized, then hey! It's all cool. But again...she did not do that. She acted as if English is her first language and came up thinking I didn't know English, when in fact...I do. You're right, Red. It's her annoying arrogance that drove me to become furious at her and parents. So, indeed...I do blame her in this situation, only because she thought she was higher in status than everyone else.

Yes they were jerks for staring at you, but ....I dont know...I guess I would be more laid back about the whole situation. I would just find it extremely hilarious and laugh the whole thing off. You can't take things too personally or you'll drive yourself nuts.

Maybe you're just more carefree than I am...but I don't see how you can find this situation funny. Let's just say if it was a Colombian person who knew how to speak English slightly and came up to you (and of course, you speak English fluently) and stated "You spelled "penis" instead of "pennies", did you know that? You should be careful what you put out in the world" and walks away. And...the person's family is looking at you with a smug look on their face and thinking you were a total retard...would you be laughing? If you say "sure", then fine..you're just more carefree than I am. However, I am not that type of a person and things like this piss me off to no end. And yes, I know I cannot take things personally, but are you asking me to not get angry at that moment? Because that is something that I cannot do whether I want to or not.

And finally, it is probably none of my business, but I do not understand your contempt for asians. It's not like all ethnic groups don't have their faults. You just have to deal with them and focus more on us all being capable of different kinds of imperfections as human beings. I could say all kinds of things about hispanic people and white people, but I'm not going to because it is counter-productive just to complain.

My contempt for Asians come from the fact that I just feel strongly about imperfections/faults than normal people do. Reasons for this: that's just the way I am, my feelings goes deeper into private matters, and my character judgement is eerily accurate. But that's not to say I don't feel strongly about other ethnic groups' faults. I, too, can say many things about different groups...however, I spot advantages as well. For Asians....yes, there are advantages and good things...but because I grew up and dealt with pure Asians and their cunning ways, I just have a more dislike for my own race. And because I can spot fakery easily and know the personality of a person by looking at them, it doesn't make my situation any better. Of course, what I say might not make sense to you (nor anyone else for that matter...which is why many tend to think I'm a huge racist), but I don't expect you to understand because my reasons are too complicated.

To clear things up: what I said isn't to say that all Asians are terrible, terrible beings. No... there are some wonderful and friendly Asians who are great to hang out with and get to know. But, the flaws tend to stand out more for me and in the end, my feelings usually change for the worst.
As for the girl, I'm sorry if I sound rude in saying she is annoying because she is so arrogant, but that's just the way I feel and the way she put herself out.