I immigrated to the US at the age of 8. I’m Asian. I think I mastered the language at like probably 12 or 13.
I recall often in my life, people always assumed I didn’t speak English for some reason. Like before I had a chance to open my mouth, that question gets asked…
Not sure if it was because I was perhaps being quiet and unaware I was being quiet, so they made an assumption based on that, or if it had to do with how I look.
I kinda always felt a bit uncomfortable.
“Perpetual Foreigner” kind of.
I’m gonna give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it was just maybe I was quiet. But still. A white kid could stay quiet and I doubt the first thing a person assumes is oh he must not speak english.
Um… sorry if this is a weird ask, but those of you who live in immigration countries, have you ever been asked “Do you speak [Language of the country]?” Have you ever made an assumption about someone?
Kind of the opposite. I’m an immigrant in a white country, but I’m also quite white. The amount of times someone has started a conversation about how immigrants are all terrible and lazy and should be deported back to their countries, assuming I will just agree with them, is insane. The few times I have told them I am an immigrant myself I get the “you know the ones I mean” argument and it makes it so much worse.
I’m in Germany. I don’t get the “you’re okay because you’re white” thing. I get treated like crap as soon as they realise my German isn’t fluent. It’s an absolute nightmare, I feel incredibly isolated. I live in BW. In Brandenburg people were much nicer, some people even spoke English.
I’m learning German, but I’m old and already speak 2 other languages fluently.
My mom immigrated to Canada from Ireland in the 70s and no longer has an accent. The amount of times other old white people talk negatively about immigrants to her is ridiculous. She never ceases to tell them she is an immigrant and how important all the people even now immigrating are for our country.
The only reasons our population grew was because of immigrants, without them who is going to take care of all the old people with children that are working so much they can’t raise their own families.
During holiday in Spain I was at a bar whose barkeeper migrated to Spain a couple years before
And complained about immigrants taking jobs
This speaks more to the area I spent my teenage years, but I’ve been asked that because I “looked Mexican”(to quote the ones who asked). I was born in the U.S, lived here my whole life, my parents are white, English is my native tongue. Sometimes I was genuinely happy just to be asked if I spoke English, and not get a racial slur thrown into the mix.
It fucking sucks. It did give me a harsh lesson in judgement, though. One I can thankfully say I walked away from feeling like a better person.
I live in Japan, a white person, and some people will assume that I don’t speak Japanese. The reality is that there are a great number of international tourists and there aren’t that many non-Asian foreign residents, so sometimes people make bad assumptions.
Usually it doesn’t much matter, isolated incidents meh, but occasionally when it happens on a regular basis over a few days or weeks, it can definitely get irritating as fuck.
But look, if my response to “Konnichiwa” were delayed by five seconds, I would definitely expect them to say “Hello”. They tried Japanese, it failed, so they moved on… And if that’s what you’re experiencing, I sympathize, because probably it is going to stay that way for the rest of your life.
I mean I think its slightly worse if you are in an immigration country. If I was in a country with very few immigration, I’d understand and I’d just accept it. But the US, where I’m at, is literally built by immigrants, and a lot of naturalizations and non-white people being born with citizenship, so… it kinda feels a bit worse, if you know what I mean.
Japan, in contrast, is a mostly homogenous society with very strict immigration controls, and it has never been an immigration country, so I do not fault them in anyway for thinking that way.
The question gets asked… In English?
How so you not answer “no, sorry; never seemed worth learning. I only know that sentence and this one explaining it.”
The question gets asked… In English?
I think the expected answer is either “Yes”, a variation of “a little bit”, or just complete silence or looking confused.
So how do you avoid the ‘fuck you’ answer?
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“Many of the people who work here are Spanish, can you communicate with them?”
How did they even get hired if they get upset at that question? They should already know who they will be working with everyday.
I also live in SoCal again. My dumbass took French in highschool. I can run a Spanish or Chinese speaking kitchen, but I wouldn’t say that I speak either language. Hell my French is basically useless because I haven’t had any practice in 20 years.
I hate assumptions, but specially assumptions of ignorance. (Like this one - people assuming you don’t know a certain language.) So, thankfully, I tend to avoid being the aggressor in this sort of situation.
Um… sorry if this is a weird ask, but those of you who live in immigration countries, have you ever been asked “Do you speak [Language of the country]?”
No but I’m asked fairly often where I’m from, because apparently I speak Portuguese “like a foreigner”. It doesn’t sound like micro-aggressions, unlike in your case (as there’s no assumption of ignorance), but it’s kind of annoying when it happens in the city I was born, like, some of my grand-grandparents already lived here.
As a European, when I was in Thailand no one ever asked me if I spoke Thai.
Sometimes I would ask if they did as a joke.
I bought a chocolate bar out of the vending machine at work. It was a gift for someone else. A lady in the waiting room asked me if I was pregnant.
i call that passive aggressive, like you said excuse you, or “no offense”
Just respond back in perfect English, no sorry I don’t, do you speak “whatever” Klingon would be good then go learn Klingon and try carry on the conversation
Q’plah, p’tak!
In Japan for a.decade. I get asked all the time by people who don’t know me (I speak japanese well enough to handle anything in my family life though sometimes get help with non-routine medical and legals stuff for be safe)
I just watched this glee episode last night and cringed so hard.
Sorry you get othered so much. I wish ya the best.
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Maybe I’ve had different experiences from you, but I’ve almost never been asked if I spoke English. I do talk quite a lot so they’ll probably hear me first, but I also live and work in high immigrant areas.
I’m white and born and raised in the US but I had a speech impediment as a kid that resulted in people asking me where I was from, assuming I was from another country.
Lol.
Conversely, I’m ethnic Chinese but haven’t spoken mandarin for over a decade, if I ever visit China, I think they’ll probably think I have an intellectual disability or something, at least until I explain that I mostly grew up in America.
