The reason for the question!
My new Spanish class is a free-form conversation class. We start with a theme but the conversation could meander wherever it goes. This week we discussed food and, interestingly, we stayed on topic!
Last week was drugs and the effects, both positive and negative, that they have. Eg a lot of the infrastructure of Colombia has been paid for by drug cartels therefore Colombians have a much better life.
Anyway, we meandered by the end of last week’s class and I don’t even remember how we go there but a classmate and friend of mine said that she didn’t like it when she heard groups of people speaking foreign languages she doesn’t like it because she doesn’t know what they’re saying and may be talking about her.
I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to make her feel silly but my first inner reaction was surprise. My reason being that it wouldn’t cross my mind that a group of people, talking amongst themselves, would even notice me, let alone talk about me!
And, you know, that sentence may sound like one said by someone who doesn’t realise their own worth but, as we all know, self confidence isn’t something that I lack. I just have enough self confidence that I don’t think the world needs to revolve around me and that people’s conversations probably don’t revolve around me.
I use a website called reddit sometimes, for fun. Its a site on which people post things that they have seen on the net and sometimes put on OC (original content). There are different subreddits for different subjects and a lot of it needs to be ignored because of the amount of sex obsessed adolescent boys on the site! However, there’s an interesting subreddit called askreddit which can bring up some interesting discussions. The main rule of askreddit is that you mustn’t ask something that you could find out via Google so it’s usually opinion questions and what your experience has been questions.
A couple of weeks ago was a question that asked “what do you think people say about you behind your back?” There were a lot of answers from people who believed that people would be talking about the negative parts of their personality. My answer was something along the lines of “i exist on the periphery of most peoples’ lives and I think it’s very unlikely that I’m the subject of their conversation!”
Anyway, that’s that. We have no school today due to teachers strikes, but I’m still working so I had better move!
Patrick’s close to a strike at uni, too. Saturday is the day they do or die *gulp* I did have to Asian women sit next to me on the bus and I smiled because I thought of your question!
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We used to be ‘that’ family, you know the one with all those kids…so people really did talk about us, lol
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I don’t get that … to me it’s more an arrogance that they think they’re so interesting people would want to talk about them!! LOL there is certainly a lack of tolerance in England for people speaking other languages amongst themselves, for some reason it is bad form on their part and yet English people go abroad expecting everyone go a) speak English and b) not be surprised when all they speak
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You know, I was thinking a little more about this and I realised that, although I do not mind people around me talking in other languages, I do mind if we’re in a group of, say, 4 or 5 people and 2 or 3 of them start talking in a different language. It has happened when I met the Erasmus people of Shalom, or even sometimes Naroa would speak in basque to other basque girls.
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(cont.) but because I think it’s not polite. It’s sort of excluding the rest of the people who do not talk in that language and they are not giving us the chance to participate in the conversation. Luckily, you can always turn to the other side and talk with the other person who was “excluded”, but if you’re the only one who does not talk the language and you stay there waiting for them to start
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(cont) talking in the language all of you share, it can be very awkward and I must admit when Naroa and the other basque girls did it to me, I felt very bad and put apart. Does that make any sense? I always try to talk in the language that we all share, because I believe it’s nicer. Not the same situation that you mentioned, but related, so I thought I could share my view on that 🙂
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I sometimes concern myself thinking others are judging my weight, but then I come to my senses again and remember that if they are, it’s their problem, but more likely I am not even a blip on their radar, interesting topic, have agreat day!!!
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