Thread: Oy, Britishers, help me out here!

The whole thing is just a tad rediculous to me. I grew up in a culture where it was well known that no one was considered any better than any one else. We all had a "name" of some sort, and taking offence to it was unthinkable and we all got along better than two frogs in a pond.

But I guess I'll just have to scratch out another word from my English vocabulary..........at this rate English will soon become quite an easy language to learn!!LOL

In Australia things aren't (at least, weren't) as emotionally charged as other places. Aussies couldn't give a flying f@#k about nothin'. There are always extremes of course. The police kill Aboriginal people off like flies in some areas.
I'm not saying it's the same, but I was actually a minority at my high school, believe it or not (despite being white). The Lebanese would ask "Are you a skip?" (Aussie) as their foreplay to deciding whether or not to try beat me up. Rather than deem them racist, I deemed them egoistic in general. Though, that's easier to do for some, I admit. What elicites response from me is unchecked arrogance. Attitudes that have become acceptable, when really they're destructive. I generally save my energy for the covert stuff that can actually have a chance at tricking people into accepting secretly destructive behaviour. So, Pravit (and others) my lack of response to the post wasn't ambivalence, but confidence in it's inability to trick someone into thinking "oh, he's got a point there". I know some don't feel in a postion to be diplomatic. But I do, so I do resist the urge to get upset when I can. So TATY, you don't have to admit you were serious, but can you perhaps realize where they are coming from? You've admitted somewhere that you were gay on this forum. Surely there's times when certain words get to you more than it would get to a straight person.

If I don't think my response will give something new to the table, I stay quiet. That's why I didn't say "that sucked". It wouldn't be new info., so it wouldn't disarm a bad attitude.
I do think DDT has a point. Such words gain strength based on the heat of the responses it recieves. Which isn't to presume one should just let it slide. It's just something to be aware of.
On the football field, if I called a black guy "so and so", I'd have been suspended for the whole season. But, black guys knowinly demeaned us white players because we weren't alowed to respond in kind. If we told the referee, we'd be laughed off. And no-one stops you from calling the big prop forwards 'fat sh@ts'. I do hate arrogance, but no more in relation to race than in relation to a 'nerd' being allowed to be outcast. We're allowed to disrespect people who don't have a civil rights movement behind them. That's what tests my resolve. I don't specify who I stand up for. I only stand up if I think the arrogance has a chance at working.

Originally Posted by brett

The police kill Aboriginal people off like flies in some areas.
.

An interesting side note. Did you know that Aboriginal Police Trackers cannot seem to be able to track a wanted person if he is another Aborigine? Somehow they always lose them in the rocks or something. The police have to bring in a white tracker if they want to catch the guy..
Apparrantly, as good as the Aboriginal trackers are they are only reliable when tracking a white criminal. Funny how that works! ....Just a little Aussie culture to lighten things up!

I saw an (alleged) Chinese man in the bush today. Reading this thread reminded me of the irony of slurs toward Asians in Australia. Why irony? Many 'Asians' here are more Aussie than white people are. This guy was, for a start, in the bush. He was wearing floppy hat and shirt, and was cutting up a felled tree to prevent danger of the drying leaves causing a bush fire. As one would. I know heaps of REAL true blue Aussie blokes who'd rather drink a beer than think ahead and prevent a bush-fire.
I started to conversed with this guy. His Aussie accent was broader than mine was. By a long way. About 45yrs worth of accent. (I'm betting he's never been to China in his life). To think that he'd be the one that people call out of car windows "go back to your own country". He's more Aussie than alot of the rich people that live around my area who wouldn't want to get their hands dirty so would opt to call "The Tree Surgeon" instead.

White red-necked beer-drinking Aussies who call "go back to your own country" from their cars don't go near the bush. Except the ones that go in there to actually 'start' the bush- fires. (Woah, low blow. Beneath the racism radar, because it was directed against whites).
I thought the irony, and the timing of this meeting was cute, so I thought I'd share it.

Understood. But, you see, I needed at least one non-Asian person to agree with me, otherwise it would make me seem like I was jumping at trifles and that such behaviour is acceptable among non-Asians. However, I think TATY got the point, since he's shut up about it and doesn't wish to grace this thread with another response. And I agree with you that he would probably be irritated by the use of words like "fa*got" or "queer." Anyhow, it was interesting to hear about things down under. Are there a lot of Asians there?

I've heard statistics at around 6% of the population being Asian. But if one was to find statistics for Asians a given 'city' (hence excluding outer semi country suburban areas) population, looking around, I'd say Sydney could be anywhere between 10-13%. It's all the large towns rolling up and down the coastlines of Australia that have not so many Asians. So, the 6% overall statistic does no justice to the Asian feel of the capital cities of the States. At least Sydney, anyway. Theres a huge Arabic population, perhaps 3% of the state of NSW (Sydney's state). Same deal, it 'feels' much larger, because they're all located in the inner suburbs. And, Greeks. Melbourne (Australia's second largest city) is the second largest Greek city in the world. Only Athens in Greece itself has more. But keep in mind, that probably says more about Greece not really having major 'cities', per se. Greece's population would be sprawled evenly throughout it's nation, rather than localized into one city. So, it's a bit of a 'glamorous' claim. Nevertheless.

Don't forget about the Italian population who, as far as I'm concerned, without, there would have been no good food in restaraunts or coffee, in the entire country.

Speaking of which...hey Brett, are those two cafe's on Kellog Street in Kings Cross still popular?

Originally Posted by DDT

Don't forget about the Italian population who, as far as I'm concerned, without, there would have been no good food in restaraunts or coffee, in the entire country.

Unfortunately though, these days it's never the Italians who run the Italian restaurants. It's some businessman getting trigger happy with the 2 minute frozen pasta packs.
But, Leichardt is Kicking BIG TIME!!! Wow. They have a whole courtyard with 20 restaurants jam-packed Fri-Sat night. One thing I dislike about Italian restaurants though, is they have a tendency toward good looking 'male' waiters. That sucks! Though, I guess the women need to cop a break some of the time. It's usually men that are well served in regards to the waiting business.

Speaking of which...hey Brett, are those two cafe's on Kellog Street in Kings Cross still popular?

I don't know that place well, I don't frequent you mum's neck of the woods.

Oh yes, I remeber Leichardt, That's where the cops used to tell me to go to pick up my car after it had been stolen for Saturday night joy rides.

Originally Posted by Pravit

Understood. But, you see, I needed at least one non-Asian person to agree with me, otherwise it would make me seem like I was jumping at trifles and that such behaviour is acceptable among non-Asians.

I agree with you 100%, of course. I didn't respond because I came across this thread when your stunning

Originally Posted by Pravit

Fuck you.

was the last posted item, and it seemed to pretty much the most succinct and appropriate response. Didn't have much to add, really.

I would have to agree with that one. I think Pravitt pretty well got the point across there. But I, being the wonderful and considerate fellow that I am, was not so sure that Taty was trying to be mean, so I gave him "the benefit of a doubt" on that one.

Originally Posted by DDT

I would have to agree with that one. I think Pravitt pretty well got the point across there. But I, being the wonderful and considerate fellow that I am, was not so sure that Taty was trying to be mean, so I gave him "the benefit of a doubt" on that one.

Oh, I wasn't giving him the benefit of the doubt at all. But "Umm...DOUBLE fuck you!" seemed like a rather feeble response, ergo my silence. I supposed I could have banged out a tirade about the Power of Words, but let's face it, Taty doesn't care, or he wouldn't have posed that shit.

I did not mean to say that you were giving the benefit of a doubt. I meant that I was. I did not want to believe that Taty meant it that way. Perhaps I am naive, though.

Obviously, insensitivity does need to be addressed. But there is a difference between insensitivity and fascism. If not in principal, in degree. And we're all insensitive to some degree.
And on the issue of TATY's non-response since. Maybe it's because we're all paying him out. No matter if you are a bad person or not, you still do have the right to stand up for yourself. And ignoring us may very well be his way of doing so. But as Pravit has already said, he's probably already got the message. No use us flogging a dead horse. Though, sometimes flogging dead horses is irresistable when we've nothing better to do. (Which explains the amount of posts I'm contributed to this thread. Just one would probably have been enough from me, really).

Hello. I haven't replied becuase I don't view this part of the forum much, and haven't looked at this thread since I last posted. Anywho, I wasn't being serious. Lighten up people.

Originally Posted by brett

(Which explains the amount of posts I'm contributed to this thread. Just one would probably have been enough from me, really).

"I'm contributed" = mixed tenses, anyone? it should be "I've contributed"

--Feel free to ignore me, I make worse mistakes when speed-typing all the time


--Robb Hammack

P.S. for those who don't regognize me, there's a good reason - I'm new here!
Just learning the Russian alphabet so far, so most of the stuff in the russian forums is beyond me (but not for long!) I do, however have a good to exellent grasp of English (American Variety) and will be glad to help with english whenever I can.

What is your native language RobbHammack?

Brett makes a lot of typing mistakes, but he is a native English speaker, dear RobHammack.

TATY: I am aware that it was a joke, but many people(including myself) find those terms offensive, so don't use them.

I'm an American ;o)

I'm aware it was just a typo, which as I said (and Pravit ALREADY caught me in another thread) I make more than my share!
Sorry if my meaning (humor rather than a serious correction) didn't come thru.

I've had no formal training in english or language in general, beyond some (mostly forgotten) classes in high school - but I've been a voracious reader for most of my 41 years and have always been interested in etymology of words and phrases.

I became interested in the Russian language recently due to SPAM, lol
For some reason, my mailbox was flooded with spam about "beautiful russian brides" - then I was asked at work to take a look at some source code (I'm a Software Developer) and found that the comments were in Russian!

I'm happily married with three kids, so I don't think a "Beautiful Russian Bride" is in my future, but dang some of them are cute! I became interested in just WHY they were looking for "A Foreign Prince" instead of the guy next door, so I started to do some reading via online translator in public forums for russian women - I'm sure I don't have to tell people here how hard it is to get the true idea of what they are trying to say that way! Anyway, it convinced me to at least attempt to learn russian before my brain completely fossilizes.

Robb

Originally Posted by Евгения Белякова

What is your native language RobbHammack?

Hard as it may be to believe, American English!
I've just started to study the Russian alphabet, but I think your forum name in translit would be Yevgeneya Belyakova ? is that somewhat close?
(I'm doing it from memory here - about an hours study yesterday)

--Robb