The "Gentleman Scholar, " from Slate -
When purchasing items from your corner bodega or, say, a carryout sushi place in an American city, where the native language of everyone working there is unmistakably clear, is it more polite to address the people working there and conduct business in their language of origin, or your own? I have been told that even if you are fairly fluent and have a pre-existing rapport with the staff, the former would be seen as patronizing or impolite.
Thank you for your question.
Are we talking about salutations?—like, Bonjour? That’s cool, mais oui.
Basic niceties? A modest dōmo arigatō never hurt anybody; go for it.
A jolly exclamation lifted from the heart to a fond acquaintance? ¡Órale!
But if there is the slightest bit of doubt, you should bite your non-native tongue.
The pitfalls here are matters of tone. I mean, first of all, that you run the of risk sounding condescending by implying that you are reaching across a barrier to bond with an immigrant who may turn out to speak English better than you. There’s also the danger of coming across as something of a showoff, or a brown-noser, or a cultural tourist on par with those sophomoric college students who end their junior-year-abroad programs with the delusion of having been assimilated into a senior position in local society. This is not to mention that hella many carryout sushi places are run by sons of Korea.
Also, there is the problem of tone in the strict phonological sense. To take one famous example: It’s pretty easy to mix up the words ask and kiss in Mandarin Chinese and thus to earn a scowl from your waitress when all you really wanted was more duck sauce.
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/gentleman_scholar/2015/03/do_black_barbershops_cut_white_hair_advice_for_modern_men.html
No comments:
Post a Comment