When I read stories like this I can't help but think of Newspeak[0] from 1984. From afar (not a native English speaker nor a US resident here) it feels like a form of control over people through control of their language.
Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge
111–120 of 540 posts
Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge
#112People like to blame progressive ideology for these sort of crazy stuff.
But actually, the real culprit is consumerism and customer mentality of students. The professor was suspended because the faculty is terrified from upset customers. Same goes for all cancel culture incidents.
The hyper producticised media , is using the upset sentiment to get attention (racial clickbait triggers) But it's riding the tiger, so it needs to keep pace with its own click bait to not get the customers to hate them and boycott them.
This dynamics spills onto the academic realm. Students at US colleges consider themselves customers. So they must never be made upset. They have silly optic based notions of justice. And the faculty have to comply.
This is what contemporary information capitalism does. Consumes and kill off any sort of idea turning it to plastic product and optics.
Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge
#113I 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…
Or you know, we could just tell these idiots to grow up or get therapy.
There was no malice intended here at all. If people can't even hear a word from another language that vaguely resembles a racial slur when used in a non malicious context then they probably need therapy. Not coddled.
Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge
#114> "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 better." It's unbelievable that this "un…
Yup, this "excuse letter" looks exactly like what a victim of a sham trial would write under Stalin or Mao. This is frightening.
> this "excuse letter" looks exactly like what a victim of a sham trial would write
As far as I see the letter behind the link was written by the "judge" in this "trial": "Geoff Garrett, Dean" -- it's he who wrote:
"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."
Sounds very similar! Say no more!
Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge
#115I 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 pers…
The person who uttered it is a professor lecturing on language and culture. So it's unfortunate if they weren't aware of that aspect of cultural sensitivity in language, or accidentally missed it this time.
As I said, I think this could be a constructive learning moment for a lot of people. (Though it might not be, if all dialogue is shouted&voted down by a team rivalry: between those who want to cancel everything they disagree with, and those who presume to understand the situations of everyone else and are the better arbiter of what everyone else has a right to care about.)
Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge
#116I heard nega (as in negative), not niga (as in shenanigan), are my ears off?
If you grew up speaking mandarin, you would likely hear it yet a different way.
right, but I'm just approaching it as a native english speaker born and raised in the US would hear the word. I wouldn't think it has anything to do with the N word.
As opposed to the those who think a synonym for miserly has something to do with it (they are wrong of course, but at least that sounds very similiar to the american english turned ear)
Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge
#117I guess the ship has sailed on academia resisting this nonsense
It’s time for academics to fight for the right of « scholastic sanctuary » as featured in His Dark Materials.
Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge
#118Honestly, I'm shocked everytime I read this stuff from american universities. Why is this happening? Because it's not the first nor second time that I read about events similar to this one.
Probably because the Students are the paying Customers and not Students in a Government sponsored Institution, you don't want to loose customers so you fire the employee (just a theory)
Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge
#119>psychological safety of our students Are those student's even allowed to watch the news or is "Detective Barbie" the only watchable thing?
Detective Barbie is very problematic due to extensive transphobic and gender-normative storytelling. Here at the UCC (University of Corrected Culture), we only allow our students to watch videos of kittens.
Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge
#120It says it means "That one" in Google translate? What's up with this?
A while a go there was meme on reddit called "nae nae", a Chinese song repeatedly singing "that one that one" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTkNFnDcPLA
The whole song: