Do you feel offended when Americans tell you "you have such good english" that they cannot believe that anyone else can speak in english with good choice of words and expressions.....This happend in my class yesterday whn a blondie told me aww how can you speak such good english comin from a different country....i told her we grew up watchin english channels and shows.....english school.....she just sighed ,,,,huhhhhh ...she just couldnt digest it....has also happened in so many job interviews that it just ticked me off......

On the other hand when i was in school .....ppl ridiculed ppl like me for using too much English....replying in english when asked questions in nepali....

how do u strike a balance???

 

A_P,
thank you for your comment but I still don't see the point.

May be the case with the girl pixie mentioned is different. May be that girl knew that Nepalis can speak English but still wanted to bring pixie down by comparing her to Hispanics. I don't know that. But..
I've encountered numerous similar situations when
I was growing up as a kid in the US. I can tell you that a lot of Americans
genuinely don't know that foreigners can speak English well. I took it as a compliment most of the times as well as an opportunity to teach them. Hey, if you wanna get offended and go cry to your mama, book a flight to Nepal because I don't feel sorry for you.

FF

Depends on circumstances, places and people really. Some people make deliberate comments just to belittle others. Others are ignorant and/or naive. I would not mistake naivete for stereotyping.

I think in times like these we shud listen to that little voice everyone has inside him/her called intuition. trust ur vibes.

Fortunefaded,

There was one of my friend who was always upbeat trying very hard to utter couple of Nepalese words. He use to wear our national cap round his head whenever he gets chance at random at some cultural programmes or get together. We use to praise him in the way she did to you. At first we were also perplexed when we saw this dude uttering Nepalese words in front of us.

Now the bottom line is if this person feels no shame or offended, i believe you don't have to worry about that straw- haired lady too. But if you are suffering from some sort of self admiration problems which most of our people suffer from as they come to this land i gotta say nothing about it.

Sorry, if i sound rude.

A lot of big words being thrown around here. If you are not a native speaker of a language and someone tells you that you have a good grasp of said language, I think that is a compliment. But then a lot of people from our part of the world get offended by just being looked at, so I guess this is no surprise either.

Well said Raju.

A_P,

You clearly are missing a point and going around in circles. If your Vikram Pandits and Indira Nooyis were not to introduce themselves in suites and pants, chances are, an ordinary American would definitely "compliment" them not insult.

Pixie's case is different. Sure, maybe she was stereotyped on this occasion or maybe, even that woman even tried to bring her down but it doesn't entitle anybody to make a generalization. If someone were to come up to my face ( they have ) and tell me that my English is good, of course, I would wish they hadn't said that because I went to an English medium school and my English is fairly good compared to other immigrants who come from a non-English speaking countries. But how on Earth is that American wrong in saying that my English is good? I come from a country where less than Illeteracy rate is very high, forget all this English fluency nonsense. Why should I feel offended?

Again, each to their own.

A_P -

Thats exactly my point Cowboys. Just because we grew up watching Hollywood movies, listening to Classic Rock or the Beatles and went to an English medium school gives us an entitlement to feel that we're on par with Americans? Sure, one Pukar Malla or even Designer Gurung might feel like they've achieved a whole lot ( perfectly valid of course ) but does that necessarily mean that everybody else should be entitled to feel the same way? I don't think so.

This reminds me of a typical Nepali ( or even a foreigner ) saying how Americans are dumb and how they claim to be far more intelligent and superior. How many Indians and Chinese are there in Harvard? Now compare them to the number of Americans. Just because 10-15 Indians have managed to get elected as Presidents or CEOs of different Fortune 500 companies doesn't mean bring them on equal level to Americans' achievements, does it? Take a look at scientific achievements or advancements in technology. What's being achieved by foreigners were achieved by these "stupid" Americans more than 80 years ago. So because we're stepping up, we've already risen up to the same level of Americans? I certainly don't think so.

By no means I'm trying to undermine our achievements or even the grasp of English knowledge. Sure, the fact that many of us can speak English fluently is commendable indeed but that doesn't really mean a whole lot. Now if a Nepali author ( with a bestseller ) or a college graduate with English major were to be told that his or her English were good, then s/he might feel a little belittled and the premises of validity for his/her reactions would be valid but an ordinary Nepali being told that his or her English is good is a compliment. Absolutely no need to make a meal of it. Just take it with a pinch of salt and accept the fact! We come from a country with a Per Capita Income of less than $500, so say, if an American were to tell a successful Nepali businessman and tell him that he's done realy well, he is to feel offended? I rest my case.

Most of those big shot foreigners whose names are listed on this thread actually take pride in telling people that they came from so and so background and still managed to be what they are now. If you want to be respected for who you are, try to be modest about who you are and not brag about it and maybe you can see a difference. Kanye West comes to mind.

@Pret Aatma - we are talking about compliments and offensiveness. Not rudeness. Rudeness is always offensive.

Makin a Mountain out of a mole.  He said this she said that it said this BLAH BLAH BLAH SOOO WHAT !!!!

Quagmire,

I think you're trying to say: never forget where you came from. And rightly so.

We're here in this first world country from our beloved third world.

Their grandparents had television, barbeque machines, health insurance.

Ours.. had oxen, hookah, a couple of wives, bad breath.

Every country is defined by their history, without knowledge of which, we can't be a part of it, because if we were never a part of their history, how can we be a part of them?

But that doesnt mean we look at ourselves as inferior to our white counterparts. As we learn from them, so they learn from us. We hold virtues they only dream of. This is the thin curtain where the East meets the West, offcourse, we are predominantly more than ankle deep into the West's territory, but that was our choosing.

We are now a part of its history, whether you like it or not. 50 years down the drain you will have been stamped solid into the annals of the place you are in.

 So you cannot say something like " Just because we grew up watching Hollywood
movies, listening to Classic Rock or the Beatles and went to an English
medium school gives us an entitlement to feel that we're on par with
Americans?"

If you did grow up doing those activities, they define who you grow up to be. Proof by contradiction (thank god for my linear algebra teacher): if you grew up " watching Hollywood
movies, listening to Classic Rock or the Beatles and went to an English
medium school" but in real life you acted like a very typical street chor with broken english and ONLY watched Kollywood movies.

a) you're either schizofrenic
b) you're faking it (dunno why!!)
c) DOES NOT COMPUTE ...aka proof by contradiction.

So be proud of your heritage, what little you may have, because it is those little things that are going to define who you will be :)

Pixie's small encounter is sure going to be a good story to tell over dinner.. sometime in the distant future :D

"how can you speak such good english comin from a different country"

The word "how" ticked you off?  Maybe it's the way she paraphrased her statement.

Well my point is: Some people are outrightly outspoken. They say what they see/hear. And it's not hard for them to see that most foreigners who come from non-english speaking background don't have fluent English and hence  the expression of surprise and acknowledgement on their part is justifiable IMO. It's not even stereotyping in the first place. That's why I mentioned it depends on people, places and events. What A_P is saying might apply to a cosmopolitan corporate environment whereas it might be a completely different scenario at a DMV branch office of a southern state.

Lame...discussion.
If the same blond girl were to go to Kathmandu and speak descent Nepali, what do you think we'll say? You think we'll sensitive towards her or read her mind? Anybody with a right set of mind will think "She speaks good Nepali". That is the firs thing that will come to your mind. So stop being so insecured. If you're living in a place with lots of Mexicans, it is your problem. It will NOT be the last time you'll hear those statements. Get used to it, it is not like you are being shot dead at the gas station.
You're the same person who think Mahabharata and Ramayana were real stories that really took place in history. You should have put some vedic spell on her and turn her into a monkey.

Whether you want to accept it or not, it is your insecurities. You did not answer my above question. Even if you think it was a stereotyping, then do you think your race or culture is free of stereotyping? It is a human nature. Fact-everybody on this planet does that.
I  agree it is a nation of immigrants. Her great-great Irish grandfather probably faced the same problem like you. It's nothing personal. Assuming things are human nature related, not attached to countries and origin.
If you feel yourself so smart to call me a "moron", why not we hear you spoken English? That will clear out some misunderstanding.
No offense.

Pixie, just because someone disagreed with you doesn't mean you stray off and start labeling others as morons. I'm not taking sides but you really made a meal out of what you got told. You're completely ignoring the fact that most of these Americans come across hundreds of foreigners who really struggle to muster a set of words that form a "perfect" sense! Hence, when that woman heard you speaking "perfect" English, she must've really felt pretty impressed. 

Do you feel offended when Americans tell you "you have such good english" --- Well it depends on how  he/she is saying. You can easily distinguish from the person expression. If he/she is making expression as if the whole world is falling down then ofcourse he/she is trying to offend you otherwise hell no.

I was in a christmas party a week before. they started talking about christmas and they asked me do you celebrate christmas in Nepal? I said we dont celebrate christmas like you guys do but it is getting more and more popular these days so it is kind of like yes we do celebrate.....and again they asked me --do you guys have SANTA CLAUS in nepal? i said NO. and the one old lady ask me - you guys dont exchanges gifts among friends and family in christmas  and i again said NO. and then she nicely said i just wanted to make sure that you know what is SANTA CLAUS. i didnt get offended by this. is there anything that i should get offended???  she just tried to help me understand .

If you start getting offended by this kind of things, you will get offended every once in awhile. English is not our first language so someway somewhere we lack the knowledge of english.

Americans appreciates when non-english people speak decent english.

So dont try to be oversmart. That is it.

Here's a little twist. Is the following sentence offensive? Or, should we all feel all good that we're being called brave?