@average Joe. No mate. It is the old colonial mentality. We are...

  1. 3,493 Posts.
    lightbulb Created with Sketch. 80
    @average Joe. No mate. It is the old colonial mentality. We are entitled to impose our values on these other countries. After all, they're not really British, are they?

    What really amazes me is the responses I get from my fellow Australians. Even in this day and age, most of them do not see the value of learning another language. Let me give you an example of the value of learning Taglaog for instance, for I intend to live out my retirement in SE Asia.

    Righto, I am having a party at my place in Tagatay, during the night one of my Filipino guests says to me in perfectly good English. "I will go ahead." What would you think he meant? So this is how misunderstandings occur. I would then ask a supplementary question in Tagalog. One of my army friend who was in East Timor, knows the Indonesian for "HANDS UP" perfectly. But naught else. This knowledge is hardly of use, in creating a constructive discussion. Some of my dad's army mates knew how to say. "HANDE HOCH" und "RAUS" fluently.

    So the point I am long-windedly making: It is easy to hate, distrust, or be suspicious of people who you know nothing about. One of the first tricks of war, is to depersonalize your enemy. Once they are non-persons, whatever you do to them is OK. I wonder how we might perceive things, if we had spent a year or two in their country. (Maybe we would hate them even more)

    Regards....Marum.

    BTW "I will go ahead," in Filipino colloquial English = "I will be leaving early." In which case I would thank him/her warmly (using the respect terms in their language) for attending my soiree, and invite them to come over again, any time. You see the difference - I hope.








 
arrow-down-2 Created with Sketch. arrow-down-2 Created with Sketch.