Some people annoy me to no fault of theirs because when I take a step back and look at the situation, the assumptions they make are probably valid. But I don’t like it when people simply assume my lack of knowledge in something by virtue of me being a foreigner.
“Wow! You know how to use chopsticks!?”
Excuse me. I think the Chinese invented the chopsticks.
Being around mostly Japanese people most of the time, I use Japanese as my main language of communication. Sometimes during a conversation when they say something that I find doesn’t make sense or requires more information or if I’m shocked and repeat the word, they would assume I don’t understand the word I just repeated.
A most recent conversation went like this (a couple of hours after I requested a colleague to send me a file I needed):
Colleague: すみません、まだやってないです。あとでお仕置きね。 (I’m sorry I haven’t done it yet. I’ll receive punishment later.)
Me: お仕置き！？(Punishment!?)
Colleague: グーグルで検索して、「おしおき」の意味 (Look it up on Google what oshioki means)
If I weren’t a non-Japanese, that conversation would’ve ended with laughter after my response. But because I’m a foreigner, the default assumption was that I didn’t understand what “oshioki” meant and was given the advice to look up the word on Google. If I don’t know a word, I will ask what it means. Don’t direct me to Google as a default response. Not only does it demean my knowledge, it also shows your lack of interest in explaining it to me if I indeed do not know the word.
I seem to be getting angrier by the day. Perhaps the best solution is for me to take up anger management classes and get my shit together instead.
I read somewhere before that being “accommodated” in a society isn’t quite the same as being accepted.
I think it’s a phenomenon across all countries- just like in SG, we accept the immigrants as citizens, but actually differentiate between “new” citizens and “home-grown” citizens.
On the other hand, I can actually put it to good use like you know how sometimes the things we say sound different in our heads than when we actually articulate it? If I say something that comes out meaner than I had thought it would sound, they will also typically brush it off as “he’s a foreigner, he doesn’t know better.”
That’s a really positive mindset! ?? Glad that u feel much better now. 🙂
There’s always 2 sides to a coin-it’s technically impossible to always enjoy all the advantages.
not sure if your colleague is weird or kinky
Haha! And she’s almost 50.