Monday, August 14, 2006

Ok. I am ranting to all the wrong people here, because none of you who ever read this are like this . . .but I am going to rant anyway, so just bear with me.

Why are people so stupid? Especially in Pekin? Seriously. Those of you familiar with Pekin know that it has never been the capital of acceptance and diversity. So . . .Jim speaks with an English accent. They act like they can't understand a SINGLE word he says. They're all "nice" to him, in that . . ."he's from a foreign country, just nod and smile" kinda way. They know he's a good guy. They're just f-ing idiots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't people ever just LISTEN? He speaks ENGLISH for god's sake! They INVENTED it? COME ON! It really cannot be that hard.

Tips: Don't ask English people if they drink tea every day. And don't act like their accent is the only thing interesting about them. Don't CONTINUE to act like their accent is the only distinguishing thing about them long after you've met/known them. Don't imitate their accent and try to speak to them with a false British accent. It's rude and insulting. And condescending.

Ok. I'm done. And trust me, I'm not talking to any of you friends or family. I just had to go off about it to people who will read it and sympathise with what Jim's been going through. Thanks for listening. (FYI--I know most of you American folks reading this have said you like Jim's accent, and that's not a bad thing or at all what I'm referring to--I love his accent too! It's just one of many things I love/find interesting about him. Anyway, don't think I'm referring to that.)

4 comments:

April said...

(say all of this in a fake cockney accent a la Corky St. Clair) AAAOOOWWW, 'ow are 'oo, 'im? 'Ow's 'e 'ob 'oing?
'ee,'ee,'ee...

Anonymous said...

Amy,

Dude! You and I have talked about this before and you know it totally drives me nuts too! I totally agree with you. And I love the people on the speech team but when he first came here I thought they all acted like dorks as if he was from some distant planet or something and I'm just thinking, "Guys. He's just a person who happens to be from another country but he's still just a person." And yeah, english accents are cool but ya know, to them it's nothing so it really looks stupid when other people make such a huge deal out of it as if there is just nothing better. I just wanted to comment and say that I totally understand.

Kerri Rae

April said...

hey, could you ask him if he knows prince william? or dawn french? or this guy named john that went to seminary with me? i forget his last name, but it's a small country, right?

Jim and Amy Rennie said...

hahaha--yeah, sure, I'll check with him. I think he MIGHT know John.