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Admin
Oct
2
“You speak very good English” …
October 2, 2008 |
This is #2 of our Sophisticated Insults Series for NaBloWriMo.
At stores, banks, on the street, especially in small towns, people ask us, “Where are you from?”.
When we say “India”, they often respond with
“You speak very good English.”
Some of them are just curious and trying to make conversation. Others are downright condescending and may even add: “You don’t have THAT accent.”
When J lived in a small town in New York state, he had some European colleagues come over, who were not very fluent in English. Every single time they went out for lunch, the waiter would turn to one of the Europeans to talk about the order. They, in turn, would look at J to communicate with the waiter and restaurant staff.
The waiter would seem surprised. He/she was likely to say, “You speak very good English.”
J would respond:
“Thanks. So do you.”
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insults, MUSINGS, NaBloWriMo, Sophisticated Insults Series
Ginger vegetarian recipes NUTRITION food-photography Garlic national park DEFEAT CANCER Coconut MUSINGS Cilantro/Coriander-Leaves
This series is getting better Bee. Love this response too. Keep them coming.
Priceless!
fo shiz, baby!! you guys so crack me up while speaking to my inner (well, outer too) beyotch. love it.
aah, the number of times one gets asked that! irritating, unfortunately even if its out of curiosity.
Hi hi i love the “Thanks. So do you.”
Brilliant!
that is one perfect reply !!
this is indeed a great response! Perfect.
Bee,this often happens with me too, it sounds little wierd.Nice post.
I actually feel its a compliment when people tell me I speak good English. Simply because its not my mother tongue, its not something I am expected to know and speak well (speaking a bit conventionally). But then again, I haven’t come across a condescending comment about it
Nice one!Here is mine. Better than yours right?
That happened when I gave interviews for a job here.. I was infuriated!
I loved J’s line and the next time someone ‘compliments’ me on my English, I will use this!!
Thank U!
Thats Perfect!
Lord. As a child vacationing in the states, my family got that a lot.
Ladies on a bus: Where are you from?
Us: Trinidad and Tobago
Ladies on a bus: Wow, you speak such good english.
We dissolve into laughter, totally.
Did it get funnier? No. Just…sad…but we still laughed.
At least, they may have a clue where India is. I was doubtful they knew anything about Trinidad and Tobago (except of course English could never be our native tongue).
Priceless!…
hehehe… i must have missed the previous posts. surely is priceless
Excellent story.
Mixed feelings…in many ways, I agree with nags…I too take it as a compliment,mainly because it is not my mother tongue, and of course,like it or not, people do tend to have ‘THAT’accent when they speak, not only English, but any other foreign language, for that matter.My English tutor(for TESOL)could actually speak Hindi, not only fluently, but without’THAT’accent. And I must say, that did surprise me, and I am guilty of saying,’You speak such good Hindi’.So, if anyone asks me if I’ve always lived in the UK, because of my English, I take it as acompliment.
Again, years ago, when we lived in Kolkata, and someone asked Dinesh as to where he found his Bengali bride(which, of course, I am not), I gleamed.
But then, I haven’t had anyone say,“You don’t have THAT accent” to my face :-)
every group has an accent when they speak english. so much so that I have heard folks say “british accent”. serves the brits right for conquering far away lands!! on a related note, i always wonder how the welsh understand the scots or vice versa :-)
this comeback is reserved only for abject strangers making an obvious put down.
-j
“thanks, so do you”
Great response!
love the reply…..
I’m so gonna use J’s reply when someone says that to me in a condescending way.
Mamatha
We live in NJ where they are used to indians and so haven’t heard these comments. Then I was in denver and out jogging and someone wanted to ask me directions and prefaced it by “Do you speak english”? I was too surprised to react.
My mother who is 80 and speaks fluent english gets this comment all the time, even in the Bay Area, because people think an old woman in a saree can’t possibly speak english !
Had the similar experience…i just say thanks….sometimes just smile…next time may be i will say “so do you”.
I have to add this. When I first joined my current job back in 2004, on my first day I went out for lunch with my manager and a few others in the office. One of them said “You speak good English” and I was surprised at his ignorance for being a VP of Technology in a company, where there are many first generation desis working.
It’s happened to me.Now I know how to react.will use use j’s reply.
I completely identify with this one & thanks a lot for giving me the response I can use, the next time some one says that to me!
If this was meant as a compliment it was fine, but what they mean when they say this here in London, is that they are surprised to know that being an Indian, or ‘Brown’ as they call us here, we can still speak such good English. And British do have a heavy accent if you ask me, listen to Geoff Boycott talking and you will know what I mean. In that sense, I think we Indians are the only pure English speaking people, except of course some regional accents here & there.
I have been told so many times that I speak good English. Infact after one of GM’s colleague had visited us once, he went about in the office next day, telling everyone that ‘GM’s wife speaks great English’ as if it was such a big deal! The same gentleman was also shocked when he came home once & my in laws spoke to him in English. Leave aside the ‘good’ part, he was surprised that they could even speak English. Looks like people here straight away assume things about us!
“In that sense, I think we Indians are the only pure English speaking people, except of course some regional accents here & there.”
??
sorry, we don’t understand.
well in my one year in the US, Ive had more of “Para espanol?” by strangers whilst people in the office compliment the English in a nice way; I attribute it to my African schooling which is suprising to most ppl, but no comments so far have been condescending… and now if I do get a taunt like that, I know what to say in reply,
thanks J
Aww man that is so true and so bloody annoying !!!
I get it all the time here in Ghana and when i ‘m in Hong kONG … when you tell them you’re Indian … oh but you dont look … and your English is good … you studied outside , your from Europe ??? i’m like hell no I’m desi chick from Bombay !! n i went to a fine school there , and everyone speaks good English where i come from 1
That was a good reply:-) As for myself, it has rarely happened that I was told that to put me down…
Let me tell a little story I heard from an elderly friend who came here 30 yrs back. Forgive the length of this…
This person was refused a job in an interview on the basis “you have a problem….” . Knowing he would not get the job anyways.. he had responded saying that “the problem is not mine, since I am corresponding with u and understanding every bit of it. The problem is yours”.
lol! Omg! I’m loving it! Can’t wait to get the daily dose of insults the whole month!!
LOL But hey, I also get that line from Asians, when I work in Asia!
*snicker*
I remember saying ‘Ditto!’ in response to that comment once. Didn’t shut him up, but the fleeting change in expression was totally worth it!
It depends in which tone or circumstance … The same quest has been asked to me in 2 interviews (Bilingual positions of course), one was a trap
and the other one was pure compliment!
English. So many people don’t know what that is.
When we moved here, Medha had to take a test as she was categorized as being ESL. Dammit. Didn’t they look at the records that came from her previous school? Her lexile level was freaking advanced. She was in 2nd grade and was reading at 6th grade level. Her writing was also very advanced. Her spelling impeccable. But they insisted on testing her. I bust several arteries but I guess that ESL branch needs something to do with the funds they’re given. Her results did not surprise me: she was in the 99th percentile - would have been more but there isn’t anything more than 99th percentile. So I subject them to an I-told-you-so rant. But apparently they have to test the child if the parents fill up a form saying that they speak a language other than English at home. So in that context, she was just doing her job. I am sure this happens in other school districts and states, too, as it is part of the No Child Left Behind mess. If you don’t want to go through this, simply fill in the form saying you speak English at home. They won’t bother you.
What cheesed me off further was the test itself. Native English speakers are given a 90% grade on each part of the test. 90%? There are kids in Medha’s 5th grade class who still cannot spell simple 2nd grade words. And if tested, they would be 90%? Puh-leeeze. They must speak English well. Whatever that English is.
And no, I do not think it is a compliment when I am told I speak good English. It is always because of my skin color. It’s racial profiling. They stare at me if they do meet me in person, unable to correlate the writing in my emails to the person in front of them.
Oh and one more thing. I have a “thick” accent. Ever heard that one before? Yup. I don’t say beg or bee-yag for bag. I say cahn’t not cain’t. I say been, not ben. And I don’t drop my ‘g’ at the end of every ‘ing’. also, believe it or not, I have been told that it’s Om and not Aum - as I write it in English - and if I knew that it’s really a symbol in Sanskrit?
“And no, I do not think it is a compliment when I am told I speak good English. It is always because of my skin color. It’s racial profiling.”
thank you.
Recently on a comedy show on TV there was a skit where a group of Indian people were in a restaurant staffed by Western people. The group of diners treated the staff of the restaurant in the same way that many western people treat staff in Indian restaurants. It was very very revealing.
I agree with Nags…
Imaginary situation, if someone says “You speak good French/Spanish/German”… wonder if would that be a compliment or a offense. Strange that we are biased towards the English language.
and why would they say that only to us and not to a white guy on the same street who may be norwegian for all you know? what is the marker that makes them assume things? race.
when i see a person who looks japanese, i do not assume what he/she knows or doesn’t know. if a friend who knows my background says “you speak very good english”, i take it as a compliment. when a stranger who knows zippo about me says the same thing, it’s profiling, pure and simple.
I agree, that for one is a serious issue, people who are condescending. At that level it becomes racial profiling and not just a matter of being fluent with “a” language. I just don’t give a zilch about those folks.
“So do you” would be an awesome comeback!
I guess I am not that boiled up over this, as I find people who ask me back home as to why I speak the local language when I come from the US, and when everyone back home are trying to converse in English. Sounds ridiculous when the entire population (of that city) shares the same native language.
That for me is, infuriating!
Wonder why people find it degrading to speak in one’s own language! Who are we trying to emulate… What is up with this English craze!
Oh boy! I got to stop here… those remarks are just pent up fury… not aimed or relevant to your post
Did I mention… I do admire the way you guys write!
LOL! I’ve been told that I speak “good English,” too. ;-)
Paz
What’s wrong with an accent anyway? I think everyone has one.
Oh God, I get this so often. What’s even funnier is that people are impressed because to their ears, I sound more British than American.
I don’t really care, though, except when I switch to a southern Mississippi twang to confuse them some more.
Ah, the accent … EVERYONE has an accent! Even the Americans (and they have many). It’s just that they think that’s how English must be spoken!! Atleast that’s how I see it.
You have a great blog here. Especially love the photography!
Madhavi
Yep! I done been told I speak the English good too! :-D
Seriously though, I get very nervous when taking my mother to….(how shall I put this?….Desi-obsessed here is at a loss!…OK:) any restaurant where rice is a main starch. Potentially with thalis and katoris. Sometimes chopsticks. Because… she has a habit of interrogating the server to find out the wheres, hows, and how longs, and it invariably ends with “Well, your English is very good!”
All the while I am thinking in my head, hmmm…this person stuck here with a waiting pen and paper-pad isn’t reflecting any of these questions back to you; why continue? Personally I like to take turns; I like to treat other people as people, not as an available representative of their motherland for me to dissect and analyze. Unless they admit that they like to cook- then their in trouble! ;-)
Oh! I forgot to add: I don’t think my mother intends badly; she’s just curious. It makes her day.
I get that a lot, too. (I’m Filipino)
Thanks for the witty/sassy remark at the end. Now I know what to say
great comeback. i often get the “where are you from?” question, and when i reply “new york” (because that is where i was raised and still live) they repeat, slowly and with emphasis, but “where are you FROM?” - i know what they are fishing for (i’m asian) but i just keep insisting that i’m from new york! only once did i get a “but you speak such good english” but that was an old weird man in geneva, so i gave him an old weird man pass :-)
On most days I grin and bear it….but on some days when my patience runs low and am confronted with this asinine comment, I just give a look of disbelief and say “I better….. just like yourself I’ve spoken it all my life and you seem to be doing a good job at it too!
I love your response!
When I tell people I’m from India (only when asked) the responses I get - ‘omg you don’t look Indian at all’, ‘how come you don’t have an accent?’, ‘oh you speak English so well.’ Most of the time I don’t mind or care and actually it amuses me. I was born and raised in India and everywhere I went there, I often used to get stopped on the streets by strangers wanting to know which country I came from (not kidding). Here in US (been here 10 yrs) I get mistaken mostly for hispanic or some other ethninicity but Indian. Welcome to my world
What I meant was that most of the Indians pronounce the words as they are without any emphasis on a particular consonant or sound.