joke made by my examinations officer today....

Raymond Lin · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:18

Morba said:
Again, why was it racist? Nobody has asnwered this yet, just uttered more disgust at what was said.

By stereotyping an entire race and culture.

I will elaborate.

By jumping from people's names on a piece of paper to chinese take away menu.

That implies all chinese people work in a chinese take away. Just because the only chinese you come across do, does not mean they all do.

contracteur · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:20

Raymond Lin said:
That implies all chinese people work in a chinese take away. Just because the only chinese you come across do, does not mean they all do.

My initial impression was she was implying that those names sounded like food.

TheCenturion · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:21

Morba said:
Again, why was it racist? Nobody has asnwered this yet, just uttered more disgust at what was said.

Offensive, inappropriate... great, understandable. But why racist?

I don't think it's racist. But I can see why people might think it's racist. She's saying that there isn't much difference between Chinese people's names and the names of their food.

Morba · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:21

Raymond Lin said:
By stereotyping an entire race and culture.

I will elaborate.

By jumping from people's names on a piece of paper to chinese take away menu.

That implies all chinese people work in a chinese take away. Just because the only chinese you come across do, does not mean they all do.

No it doesn't?
It implies that the main time that the woman has seen a list of chinese words was in a chinese takeaway menu.

The sad thing is that you actually believe that this woman was trying to say that all chinese people work in a chinese restaurant.

Westyfield2 · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:22

Erm, I might be missing something but rather than thinking the person in the OP meant "all chinese people work in a chinese take away" I thought it was drawing a similarity between hard to pronounce names of dishes in a chinese take away and hard to pronounce names of chinese students.

Morba · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:22

contracteur said:
She would be racist if she said after those chinese names something along the lines of "oh at least our average grade will go up with those in there"

That would be racist?

Would it be sexist to say "wow, we have 75% girls in this exam. Our average will go up with so many"?

TheCenturion · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:25

Morba said:
No it doesn't?
It implies that the main time that the woman has seen a list of chinese words was in a chinese takeaway menu.

Then she's being incredibly naive. She sees a list of Chinese words, and immediately compares it to her other experience of a list of chinese words (a menu). This would suggest that she's suggesting that all lists of chinese words/names to her sound like takeaway menus.

Raymond Lin · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:25

Morba said:
No it doesn't?
It implies that the main time that the woman has seen a list of chinese words was in a chinese takeaway menu.

The sad thing is that you actually believe that this woman was trying to say that all chinese people work in a chinese restaurant.

I give up, you just don't get it.

I explained it 3 times now.

Robbo · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:26

TheCenturion said:
Then she's being incredibly naive. She sees a list of Chinese words, and immediately compares it to her other experience of a list of chinese words (a menu). This would suggest that she's suggesting that all lists of chinese words/names to her sound like takeaway menus.

Just because a name sounds like a food item doesn't mean that she assumed the people worked there though, does it?

I'm not quite sure how you and Raymond have got to that...

contracteur · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:28

Morba said:
That would be racist?

Would it be sexist to say "wow, we have 75% girls in this exam. Our average will go up with so many"?

Yes.

Raymond Lin · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:33

Westyfield2 said:
Erm, I might be missing something but rather than thinking the person in the OP meant "all chinese people work in a chinese take away" I thought it was drawing a similarity between hard to pronounce names of dishes in a chinese take away and hard to pronounce names of chinese students.

If you look at it like that then it's less offensive.

However, 90% of the food on there are English.

Hot and sour soup.
Beef and black bean sauce.
BBQ ribs
Egg fried rice
Chicken Curry

The only phonetic chinese words in there is chow mein (translate as friend noodles) and a few others.

side note, say those Chinese words to a chinese person who doesn't speak English and they would look at you like you are insulting them as it sounds nothing like how it should sound. They are words that is put together with the English alphabet so an English speaking person can pronounce it. So, in a way, they are English words, but that's a moot point.

Morba · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:33

Raymond Lin said:
I give up, you just don't get it.

I explained it 3 times now.

I don't get it because I cannot understand how you can make the 'joke' into a meaning that all chinese people work in restaurants.
You haven't explained how you come to that conclusion, just told me what you think she meant.

contracteur said:
Yes.

Wow, so even though the stats back up that girls get better scores than boys, its sexist to use those proven stats as basis for that statement?
Thats terrible.

contracteur · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:36

Morba said:
Wow, so even though the stats back up that girls get better scores than boys, its sexist to use those proven stats as basis for that statement?
Thats terrible.

Yeah, I know. It's the same when complaining about how women have cheaper car insurance then compared with men, you hear people say it's sexist...

TheCenturion · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:37

Robbo said:
Just because a name sounds like a food item doesn't mean that she assumed the people worked there though, does it?

I'm not quite sure how you and Raymond have got to that...

I didn't say that she implied that they work there at all :confused:

. I said that it's not racist, but it was inappropriate in the context, and could be considered offensive by some.

Raymond Lin · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:39

Morba said:
I don't get it because I cannot understand how you can make the 'joke' into a meaning that all chinese people work in restaurants.
You haven't explained how you come to that conclusion, just told me what you think she meant.

Because she jumped to the conclusion of chinese names = take away menu.

It is that simple.

Just because in her life, the only words she come across is in a chinese take away, it doesn't mean chinese words only appear in take away menus.

Morba · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:41

contracteur said:
Yeah, I know. It's the same when complaining about how women have cheaper car insurance then compared with men, you hear people say it's sexist...

Funnily enough, sheilas wheels was the 2nd best quote for my renewal this year. almost tempted to take them up on it just to say im a bloke insured by 'women'

Morba · 9 Jun 2011 at 00:44

Raymond Lin said:
Because she jumped to the conclusion of chinese names = take away menu.

It is that simple.

Just because in her life, the only words she come across is in a chinese take away, it doesn't mean chinese words only appear in take away menus.

It's not that simple, in fact I think you are thinking too much about it as the simplest thought about it is as other people have said in this thread, not because they think the same as you.

Again, nobody said that there are not other lists of chinese words out there.
For the majority of british people though, the first thing to come to mind would be a chinese takeaway menu as the most common.

SexyGreyFox · 9 Jun 2011 at 07:54

lixxus said:
I don't understand why she was implying that reading chinese name sounds like a Menu in a Chinese restaurant.

Because it's a very old Morcambe & Wise or Two Ronnies sketch.
She is old generation like me and obviously remembers it but obviously you can't get away with it now.

lixxus · 9 Jun 2011 at 08:53

dmpoole said:
Because it's a very old Morcambe & Wise or Two Ronnies sketch.
She is old generation like me and obviously remembers it but obviously you can't get away with it now.

she is a racist *****. She obviously hasnt been to a Chinese restaurant and read the menu.

As for Morba i don;t understand how much explaining you need.

If a teacher is reading your name and says that it sounds like a menu. Do you not find that insultive and racist.

If your name for example is Zhang ziyi

Zhang meaning expansive bow and the meaning of Ziyi´s name
I have translated the two chinese characters Zi and yi and this is the result.

"Zi" means "child" and "yi" means "cheerful" or "happy".

And so, the meaning of Ziyi´s name must be "cheerful child"

and a idiot teacher says your name sounds like a menu.

Morba · 9 Jun 2011 at 10:06

If Paul Steak, Kevin Bacon, Claire Gammon, Franz Berger and Mr Bean were all names on a list I would expect a BBQ or mixed grill comment from the person reading it out.

The comment isn't about abusing the meaning of names or anything like that.