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Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu

91–100 of 540 posts

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#91

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.

Yes it's a joke, show an exploding head in the Cinema...no problem. A naked breast...big NONO.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#92

Just wait until they figure out what the word for the color "black" is in Spanish...

For laughs, there is a hundred year old Hungarian/Serbian hard candy called Negro. The author's name was Pietro Negro, and the candy is charcoal black because of liquorice and doped with menthol, which gives it a distinctive medicine taste. People love it or hate it, I love it personally. In the meantime, more flavours are developed in Serbia, with eucalyptus, peppermint, lime, caramel... And all of them called Negro because it's just a strong brand name.

Nevertheless, every once in a while there is some wiseguy trying to make a story out of it, just ruining the fun. If we really want to take that discussion, I would argue that it's actually an homage to people of color, being so popular yet unrelated to colonialism or slavery and treated like a folk remedy for a sore throat.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#93
post #44

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.

Also with sexuality. My worry is that with the American cultural imperialism through Hollywood our European liberal approach to sexuality will become more puritanical. E.g. sex only after 18, teenage sex is more or less illegal (19y/o with a 17y/o). Friends of mine already think that American laws around sexuality are valid worldwide and sex with an under-18 is forbidden. Which is absolutely false in the case of Germ…

It's only crazy conservative states like California with the strict age cutoffs.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#94
post #56

I just watched the video after reading the article, and the video -- if it's of the incident to which people were objecting -- wasn't as cringey as I expected it to be; however , I would've hoped that an expert who was lecturing about language and culture would've anticipated the problem, and been more sensitive to it. Maybe, if he saw the problem, he could've prefaced the example with warning, or otherwise acknowled…

I think you need to be developmentally disabled to genuinely think that foreign language words that resemble curses in your language are offensive. It's not on the professor to do backflips to protect against people looking for excuses to get offended.

I'd say it's not merely a curse word, for reasons I already suggested in the comment to which you're replying: I argue that it's understandably hurtful to some, and is associated with immense, tragic, shameful wrongs towards groups of people.

Separately, could you have made your point without saying that anyone who thinks differently than you must be developmentally disabled? Would it have been sufficient to say you don't understand why someone would think differently? Or, if you were very confident, and felt some emphasis were needed, could you have emphasized with more detail in a logical argument?

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#96
post #2

It says it means "That one" in Google translate? What's up with this?

那(nà,that)个(gè,one)。 Also 'umm, uh, like, so'. English has the same thing, for example when you can't think of a word and just start with 'that, those'.

'Eh, what's that.. that, uh, the name of that function?'

It's pretty easy to mishear it, but 99% of the time you can see from the context that they're not just wildly dropping n-bombs..

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#97
WTF. There's is literally a stand-up skit[0] on this. Moreover, any quick research would show it's the Mandarin filler word. Plus, I dunno, just ask the other Mandarin-speaking faculties and students?

Do you know the number 99 (nine-nine) sounds like the derogatory term for mammary glands in Mandarin? Are they going to redact every instance of the number on campus, on grounds of potential sexual harassment?

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

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#98
For fucks sake. This sort dumbarse action sets back the cause of equality by a country fucking mile. This stuff happens when you take Dr DiAngelo too seriously and ignore what minorities are saying and just go with your ill informed guilt ridden heart.

Clearly he wasn't saying what is implied. I had assumed that "nà ge" was a slur in mandarin(when I saw the original news report). Its 100% clear from context that its nothing to do with race. Whats more the context is directly linked to the three words he says.

We must strive for equality, We _must_ help wider society by lifting up minorities.

This does not achieve this, in fact it will embolden the dickheads who want to make this a "thing" (SEE! "they" want to undermine us etc etc etc)

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#99
Incredibly tonedeaf on part of the University - they claim to fight for those that are marginalized, but how will the Chinese international students on campus feel, now that a precedent has been set that they'll have to think twice before speaking in their native tongue?

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#100
post #56

I just watched the video after reading the article, and the video -- if it's of the incident to which people were objecting -- wasn't as cringey as I expected it to be; however , I would've hoped that an expert who was lecturing about language and culture would've anticipated the problem, and been more sensitive to it. Maybe, if he saw the problem, he could've prefaced the example with warning, or otherwise acknowled…

> would've anticipated the problem, and been more sensitive to it.

People who aren't racist don't anticipate that kind of "problems" because we don't obsess about race. Furthermore, while the words may sound "problematic" to a non Chinese speaker, anyone with some fluency would probably not even notice the similarity.

Let's do an experiment. Read the following aloud (the louder the better), preferably to another person:

I AM SOFA KING! WE TADD DEED!

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