Chinese Singaporean’s Guide to Talking to Indians

1 Nov

# Whatever you do, don’t say: “Do you speak _Indian_?”
# Not everyone in India speaks Tamil. Not every Indian is Tamil. Don’t say which part of India are you from, the “white one or black one? fair one or dark one?”
# Don’t ask your Indian classmates if his house smells of curry. Does your house smell of _chou toufu_?
# Don’t speak up in class and talk about Gandhi helping the _out casters_ if you (1) don’t know the proper term and (2) don’t know anything about Gandhi.
# Asking someone from Nepal if his country is dirty, then if his house is clean, is absurd. Asking a Sri Lankan how he “affords to live in Singapore” is just as bad.

All true stories, as are “these”:http://ballsy.wordpress.com/2006/11/01/how-not-to-suck-up-to-your-prof/.

possibly related

Puzzle /I Am Singaporean. /Short Notes /It Has Come To This /Whose Country is it Anyway /
  • Han
    walao I cannot believe got this kind of idiot.
  • raeza
    Cool! I'll keep in mind, LOL!
  • All of this sounds very familiar. Especially the part about speaking Tamil. I think it comes at least partially from the Speak Mandarin campaign: surely if Chinese Singaporeans all speak Mandarin, all Indians will speak Tamil.
  • Haha. On an unrelated note, my favourite stereotype: "Why every Malay girl is called Nur, and every Malay boy is called Mohammad."
  • Chen
    the one i heard often when i was a kid: "Indian kids are smelly!"

    i wasn't sure how i should react to that, because one day my mother brought home some Zamzam hair oil for me, and i thought it smells great. BUT when I went to school next day every kid (non-indian) in class was complaining. "Aiyer, you smell that anot?? So smelly!"

    I kept quiet.

    5 minutes later Ms Kamala (indian), our science teacher came in the class and asked who was using such a fragrant oil. =_="
  • nAl
    Amen, sista!
  • cht
    I must some of it is funny, like "do you speak Indian". But, alas, the rest is a combo of ignorance and pride. Some of us has simply lost our humility as we grow from 3rd to 1st world. During my six years stay in the US, Americans like to ask some Asians/Africans if their houses is up on trees. Bottomline is be respectful of others' culture. :)

    Cheers,
  • oh, really? Oops, I have to admit that I have done the do you speak indian thing. I guess i've always looked at it, in a literal point of you. You know, Indian languages, so can you speak any indian languages, shortened to, can you speak any Indian? ha.

    Ha, oh, the white one and black one is classic! I always say Neither! And people are like, but where else could you be from anyhow? And I go, the East! Somehow, they are so sure of how the Indians look in the South or North, but somehow, the East and West of India are not populated at all. Hmmm.
  • mitokondrion
    Bravo! I'm tired of going "no there is no indian or hindu language", "yes we come in all shades all over india", "why the hell do you want to know my caste" etc. I'm glad your school has you...wish there were more like ya
  • pod
    hey,

    nice post.

    another one that can be added to the list:

    every nepali is not a gurkha.

    i come across that ever so often in cabs... then begins the whole process of explaining the ethnic break-up of the population of the country, and where their roots lie... i swear i could write a 2500 word eassay on it anytime!
  • I believe several of those were brought down from the older generations but with no intention to discriminate. Now is a good time for us to learn and avoid any misundestandings to others :)
  • I'm with mitochondrion. The caste divide is so passe especially with most of us 2nd gen Singaporeans and beyond.
  • They are everywhere
    Oh yah, I've met idiots like this. Example like saying Indians all stinks in front of an Indian and in English somemore. I'm so surprised that they are Singaporeans, who are supposed to be more exposed to multi-racial. Guess they only go Chinatown, and their whole life they nvr went to Little Indian. And it is true, they act like Little Indian is some mine-field to be avoid at all cost.
  • stockbroker13
    Indians are rude filthy bastards. We don't deal with them on Wall St. They are sooo freakin cheap and demanding! We avoid anyone with the last name Patel. These people should learn how to bathe themself. Filthy animals!!
  • Singapore NTU
    Dude.. Why does wallstreet offer these retails shops??? To make money ryt??? If we dont safeguard our wallet, every pence flows down like water... AND!!!! Indian system of managing money is very different from American one.. U guys got Social Security.. Indians dont have that.. So they save almost 40-50% of their income.. and they spend the rest wisely.. So please dont bother yourself blaming PATELS... They have more brains than you and ur children have and I am sure they know what to do with their money... and it is none of ur businesses to interfere in how much the others decide to spend for themselves.. Dude.. get ur saving Schemes right.. The federal govt might consider taking back social security soon..
  • boy it is anna not ah neh....b
    Watever posted is very ture and thr is many more the chinese ned to learn abt the minority as much as we have learned abt u.... for example deepavali is not our new year, we have a seperate day to celeb indian new year in april and briyani is indian food not malay food, we are classified as brown people not black, thr is already a black race in the world how many races of black u wan. And Mr STOCKBROKER13, which brish idiot first conqured india and brought indians all over the world to help them, it is not lyk over grandfathers and grandmothers wanted to leave india, and we also nvr run away frm our country becoz of poor governing and communism. Watever is it we still follow our culture whrever we are not lyk we forgot our roots once we let india... wan to comment read frm chinese history to western history.... i know all history and as and indian i am proud of my history and roots. we have saris and dothis as our identy, wat u have that u will still proudly wear to work or sch think abt it.... i am not being racist... jus feeding some brain juice to some racist....
  • boy it is anna not ah neh....b
    british*
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