Pissed off!

[rimturse]

Another salesperson at my door. I only opened the door because I thought he was here to fix the telephone, as one of our neighbours have had some problems previously. But it wasn't a telephone repair man, it was a telephone sales man.

That is not enough to raise my temper though. What did it was the way he talked to me when he heard that I wasn't Swiss German. Let me give you some examples:

"I am sure husband will no be mad if you make cheaper subscription."

"You tell husband that we are cheaper, ok? Then I am sure husband will be happy."

WHAT THE HELL? I do not speak the language fluently, but I am not an imbecile. The worst part is that I didn't open my mouth to ask him to speak properly!! It's only afterward that I realized I should have told him "Why you speak baby-talk to me? I no speak perfect German, but me not stupid." BAH!

Why do some people assume that a broken language means lack of intelligence? Or that an Asian looking person means mail-order bride?

Comments

tarzanic

[tank-boy.livejournal.com]

arrgh! this is annoying. He was talking that way in German? this is so typical! Many Swiss people talk that way to foreigners and it's really discriminating and stupid. There's even a linguistic expression for that kind of language: 'tarzanic' (i don't know if it exists in english). It's when people who are fluent in a language are talking in a simplified way because they think the other part (foreigner, tourist etc.) will understand better when they talk retard-way. Like Tarzan: "I Tarzan - you Jane!".

And how should someone improve language skills if everyone talks that way?

Sometimes, it's almost surreal: in my hometown Basel, I was stopped by police. First thing he did, he shouted at me: "You! You stop! you passport! PAAASSSSPOOORT! ID?! you car stop! you out car! you out! car out!! you here!!" - I was pissed off by his behaviour and pretended not to understand... he got angry and his collegue came to me, talking normally. I immediately showed him my ID etc. and when he asked what happened before, I said that I did not understand his collegue.

Re: tarzanic

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Ahh wish I had been that cool. We have been flooded with sales people lately - a total of 5 today.

Re: tarzanic

[tank-boy.livejournal.com]

5 a day? why is that? It never happens to me.

Re: tarzanic

[frigg.livejournal.com]

I have no idea...it might be because our last name isn't Swiss - perhaps they think we are easy "victims". They are way off though, as a matter of principle we never buy from people who disturb our privacy.

[iagor.livejournal.com]

What I like the most is, when people realize that you are a foreigner and start screaming at you, because if they are screaming, you'll magically understand them better.

Once in a store a clerk decided to shout at me once he got a whiff of my accent. I was quite annoyed at the time, so I put my hands on my hips and did a Foghorn Leghorn impressions, "I say now, I say, what's the matter with you, son? I ain't deaf, you hear? Simmer down, son, simmer down." I thought the Sears manager would split his side laughing.

But the good part is that most people relax within the first two sentences that come out of my mouth.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

lol...people normally tense at the first two sentences coming out of my mouth.

I know, it's amazing that people automatically assume that talking louder instead of simply talking slower is going to have any effect. I've heard people in wheel chairs have the same problem - that people yell at them when they talk. I personally still haven't figured out the wheelchair-ear connection.

Everybody, but me appears to have nifty reactions to such incident. I'm just duh...

[pkhardy.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, some of them do the 'ask your husband' thing even if you speak the language perfectly. My sister had her car in for repair once, and when they called to try to convince her it needed forty other things done to it she said no. So they asked for her husband's number at work so they could call and ask him! She got pissed off and gave it to them, and when they called him, he said, "Why the hell are you calling me? It's my wife's car; didn't you ask her? So why the hell aren't you doing what she said?"

Though it seems to be less and less prevalent, in my experience, even here in the Southern US (which is notorious for it, alas.)

Though maybe it's just a matter of my being taken more seriously with age. :-)

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, that is male chauvinism at its height.

I was definitely older than the salesman today, so either I'm not being taken more seriously with age or I just look young *fervently hoping for the latter*