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Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu

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Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#81

Post by gridlockd »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #9

> Last Thursday in your GSBA-542 classes, Professor Greg Patton repeated several times a Chinese word that sounds very similar to a vile racial slur in English. Understandably, this caused great pain and upset among students, and for that I am deeply sorry. It is simply unacceptable for faculty to use words in class that can marginalize, hurt and harm the psychological safety of our students. We must and we will do b…

"I am deeply saddened by this disturbing episode that has caused such anguish and trauma."

We should be considering the implications of this claim, if it were true. There's a generation of young adults in this country that have been brought up so emotionally weak that they can be traumatized by a white person uttering sounds that resemble the n-word.

In other words, we have given white people unimaginable powers over the psyche of young minority Americans, because of an upbringing that shielded them from racially insensitive content.

In this case, perhaps the best remedy would be exposure therapy with Russell Peters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrsWp07BwVk

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#82

Post by murbard2 »

himinlomax wrote: post #33

I've always found the US obsession with taboo words quite baffling. I used to tease Americans of my acquaintance by pretending to be offended when they said "oh my god" (dildo in French) or nick (fuck.) Context matters a lot in linguistic, and the Sapir-Worff hypothesis is not just unproven, it's almost certainly completely wrong.

I also found it very baffling from a French standpoint. Obviously, spouting out des "gros mots" in polite society is frowned upon but the the magical thinking around 4 letter words in the US is on a whole other level.

The country was founded by puritans and it still shows in many ways.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#83

Post by lordnacho »

Symbiote wrote: post #32
mytailorisrich wrote: post #9

> Last Thursday in your GSBA-542 classes, Professor Greg Patton repeated several times a Chinese word that sounds very similar to a vile racial slur in English. Understandably, this caused great pain and upset among students, and for that I am deeply sorry. It is simply unacceptable for faculty to use words in class that can marginalize, hurt and harm the psychological safety of our students. We must and we will do b…

Students of Swedish or Danish at this university will (presumably) be ignorant of the word "slut" (end, finished), and maybe the number six ("sex" / "seks") too. "We will start the Danish course with the numbers. En, to, tre, fire, fem, fem plus en, syv, otte, ni, ti."

What I wonder about, and this has been in the news briefly, is the transformation of mening of the Danish word "neger". Somehow people are starting to think it has the same sting as term referred to in the article does in the US, when actually it's purely an archaic term for someone of African origin. People are getting upset about it and giving it a meaning from another context.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#84

Post by wazoox »

dgellow wrote: post #39
himinlomax wrote: post #33

I've always found the US obsession with taboo words quite baffling. I used to tease Americans of my acquaintance by pretending to be offended when they said "oh my god" (dildo in French) or nick (fuck.) Context matters a lot in linguistic, and the Sapir-Worff hypothesis is not just unproven, it's almost certainly completely wrong.

Without trying to be alarmist, I have a feeling that's slowly spreading to Europe too, at least France and Germany.

Yes in universities around the world this victimhood culture spreads like fire.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#85

Post by lordnacho »

DC-3 wrote: post #59
Symbiote wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Students of Swedish or Danish at this university will (presumably) be ignorant of the word "slut" (end, finished), and maybe the number six ("sex" / "seks") too. "We will start the Danish course with the numbers. En, to, tre, fire, fem, fem plus en, syv, otte, ni, ti."

I'm currently studying Danish and can't help but be amused when every 'lyt og gentag' exercise ends with 'slut'. But just as in the OP, it's not even the same vowel as the English word, so the resemblance is only passing. How absurd that careers may be ruined by using the wrong two consonants next to each other. How absurd that we call it progress.

Have you come across a "fartkontrol" yet? Or taken a lift with a light that says "i fart"?

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#86

Post by mkwx »

gatvol wrote: post #28

Again, context is everything. What an utterly spineless, pathetic response from a risk averse management type - to throw their colleague under the bus.

It is not necessarily spineless. These types thrive on "divide et impera" and occasionally ruining other people's lives.

It is all they can do.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#87

Post by LeonM »

Insanity wrote: post #38

This doesn't make sense to me at all. Like.. in Spanish the word "negro" is "black". Can Spanish teachers now no longer use that word? Crazy. It's like when chat filters (e.g in games) censor words based on the 'English' language. When I chat in dutch / flemish, my friends just see me censored for quite common words in our language. And they're often not even spelled the same as the English word that is bad.

> It's like when chat filters (e.g in games) censor words based on the 'English' language. When I chat in dutch / flemish, my friends just see me censored for quite common words in our language.

I'm Dutch and play AoE2 with some friends. The in game chat is basically useless for us. Just about every Dutch sentence will be blocked.

We tried switching to English, but every color (!) is now also banned. Asking "who is joining the blue team?" will become censored... Good job Microsoft.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#88

Post by nicolas_t »

latch wrote: post #19

This word means "uhmm" and you can hear it dozens of times in a single conversation. It sounds like an English-language racial slur, but you stop being surprised to hear it pretty quickly when living in China. The story isn't loading for me, so I don't know the context, if this was a native Mandarin speaker speaking in Mandarin... Reminds me of the time someone pointed out that "salut" the french for "hi" sounds like…

More in Shanghainese than Mandarin, a lot of my French friends were teased by their Shanghainese partners because of that.

This is really an example of a university administration that rejects culture and critical thinking in favor of quick snap judgement and celebrating ignorance. I'd expect better of universities, they should be a bastion of culture and critical thinking standing against idiocy. And instead of punishing that teacher, they should explain and make sure students understand that there are other cultures and that context matters.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#89

Post by kebman »

dgellow wrote: post #39
himinlomax wrote: post #33

I've always found the US obsession with taboo words quite baffling. I used to tease Americans of my acquaintance by pretending to be offended when they said "oh my god" (dildo in French) or nick (fuck.) Context matters a lot in linguistic, and the Sapir-Worff hypothesis is not just unproven, it's almost certainly completely wrong.

Without trying to be alarmist, I have a feeling that's slowly spreading to Europe too, at least France and Germany.

The Norwegian word for blacks used to be something that isn't allowed to be uttered anymore. It started becoming a problem only after we got a few black American migrants, and other migrants influenced by American culture to Norway. These people didn't understand the context of the word, and so they became violently offended when anyone used the word, even if the the word has always been a completely harmless description and not a slur within Norwegian culture. (Trust me, you'd know if a slur was used!) But because it offended so many newcommers, and since a synonym was readily available, Norwegians didn't think it was a hill worth dying on, and so they just cut it out of everday use. Today it is regarded as a big faux pas to use the word. Meanwhile some Norwegians still feel offended that foreigners who do not understand their culture, take to dictating how Norwegians should or should not speak. Personally I honestly don't know which is worse; offending someone because you said something with the best of intentions, or forcing someone to submit to arbitrary rules to avoid that they get offended, even if you utter such words with the best of intentions.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#90

Post by tomcam »

newyorker2 wrote: post #61

I've gotten heat for saying this in the past, but the "student" community of certain academic departments are almost looking to be offended at anything these days. The perils of social media and cancel culture...

> I've gotten heat for saying this in the past

What? Here on tolerant HN? Blow me down with a feather. I’m shocked!

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