# I hate being that white guy, but learn English! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 22, 2019, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033 "2019-08-22T00:30:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/61 "2019-08-24T02:50:53Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > I wish I could do that in my office! I love me some Bollywood. (Hey, since the town’s changed its name to _Mumbai_, shouldn’t that now be _Mollywood_?) > > (ETA: What do you know? There’s already a film industry called [Mollywood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malegaon#Mollywood_(film_industry_of_Malegaon)).) In Nigeria, they have Nollywood. Foreign-trained health care professionals in most states must take an English proficiency test if their first language is not English, but in too many cases, it’s written only which is the easiest method to pass (in addition to speaking and writing). When I worked at the grocery store around 2000, I had to transfer lots of prescriptions every spring and fall for snowbirds, and if I was calling a Walgreens in Florida, I could pretty much guarantee that I would get a female Asian pharmacist who barely spoke English. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/62 "2019-08-24T03:04:16Z")
I’d ask what their gender had to do with it, but I’m too sleepy to be woke. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/63 "2019-08-24T06:33:36Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > ETA: I bet **Nava** lisps her Espanol. She seems like a classy broad like that. [Since we’re in the Pit](https://youtu.be/HWM6M3LVhEI?t=14). ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/64 "2019-08-24T10:00:54Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Interesting how many people don’t seem to have actually read the thread - he’s not at work, he’s a resident in a “rehab” hospital. OK my mistake. But break out the bollywood tapes anyway! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/sdyC1BrQd6g/hqdefault.jpg "Benny Lava...(WITH LYRICS) Hilarious") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdyC1BrQd6g) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/65 "2019-08-24T13:38:47Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > [Since we’re in the Pit](https://youtu.be/HWM6M3LVhEI?t=14). Careful, woman. Yesterday I discovered I have your True Name so I can have complete power over you. :eek: If I can find it again. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/66 "2019-08-24T13:51:33Z")
> [@nava](#): > > [since we’re in the pit](https://youtu.be/hwm6m3lvhei?t=14). :d ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/67 "2019-08-24T14:04:33Z")
WTF? Why isn’t the smiley showing? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/68 "2019-08-24T14:41:01Z")
Capital D : D 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/69 "2019-08-24T15:28:30Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Careful, woman. Yesterday I discovered I have your True Name so I can have complete power over you. :eek: If I can find it again. It’s the longest one on the list!:eek: ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/70 "2019-08-24T15:51:49Z")
I had a bar conversation with an Indian IT guy who works in the healthcare field. Take this source for whatever you think it’s worth, but he told me, not really to my surprise, that up to a third of the physicians in this country are from India. Some might have lived in the US for a long time and have become Americanized, but it shows how dependent the US healthcare system is on imported healthcare workers. The demands of an aging population are such that there’s a chronic shortage of care workers. Dropzone’s story probably isn’t unique and probably isn’t going to change anytime soon. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/71 "2019-08-24T16:00:05Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > The largest hindi speaking country is india and anyone that got an RN in india is probably fluent in english (perhaps with an accent). They can certainly understand english unless you have a heavy regional American accent (especially southern accents). It’s possible that they know more English than they let on and are making a conscious, passive aggressive decision not to speak with dropzone in English, but there are a lot of Hindi speakers with genuinely poor English communication skills. They might understand and be able to communicate in basic English, but not much beyond that. It’s possible that they’re afraid to communicate in English and embarrassed by their own lack of proficiency and thus deliberately avoid it and speak with each other in Hindi. Also, we’re assuming that they’re speaking Hindi and not Tamil or Telegu or something else. India has hundreds of different languages. > [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > There is already a significant incentive to learn english. The wage differential between someone who speaks english and someone who doesn’t is pretty dramatic. The difference is in senior management. People with superior language and intercultural communication skills end up leading teams because their ability to communicate enables them to do that whereas those with less proficiency remain employed in technical positions. If they can “speak” in algorithms, Java, and so forth, then they can remain employed as long as there’s a demand for their skillset and as long as the immigration door doesn’t shut. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/72 "2019-08-24T16:16:43Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > When you have people from multiple foreign countries working in a single environment, there is a need for the ability to communicate. Rather than requiring the Indians to learn Spanish and the Spanish-speakers to learn Hindi how about requiring them all to learn English. Hey, what you speak among your peers in one thing but in the workplace it’s another story. If they made that demand, they’d go out of business: the overlap between “CNA-Trained”, “Fluent English” and “willing to work pittance wages” just isn’t enough to staff places like that. Presumably they could find more people if they paid more, but that might raise their costs to more than the market will bear. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/73 "2019-08-24T17:12:57Z")
> [@The\_Vorlon](#): > > It’s the longest one on the list!:eek: Yet short by Spanish standards. That source is playing stupid on me (it seem I’ve alienated the innertubes as well as India) but I recall it begins with, no I don’t want to out her, a letter of the alphabet. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/74 "2019-08-25T02:05:56Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I had a bar conversation with an Indian IT guy who works in the healthcare field. Take this source for whatever you think it’s worth, but he told me, not really to my surprise, that up to a third of the physicians in this country are from India. Christ on a mothflapping pogo stick, I hope he at least bought you a drink before he dicked you around to that extent. What a [ridiculous exaggeration](https://www.hmsreview.org/issue/4/south-asian-disparities). > [@](#): > > […] the proportion of United States physicians [as of October 2018] identifying as Indian or Pakistani ( **4.8%** ) is greater than the proportion of the general population identifying as South Asian (1.2%) […] Emphasis added, while rolling eyes. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/75 "2019-08-25T02:16:35Z")
For what it is worth, on my thrice-weekly excursions to dialysis, the charge nurse is from the Philippines, and has quite the language accent, while the nurse I wind up with mostly hails from the Caribbean, not sure if she is from Jamaica or Haiti, but she has the best track record of hitting the fistula, but I only get about one word she says in five. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/76 "2019-08-25T03:30:53Z")
I work with an auditor at my agency who is frequently frustrated because he has struggled to move up in the organization. He is a very smart guy, gets along with people, and is an amazing auditor. But his big stumbling block is that people have trouble with his Filipino accent. He has talked to me about it multiple times and asks me (a white guy) if I ever have trouble understanding him. I tell him no, but have to remind him that I grew up in a neighborhood where most residents were from the Philippines and I also lived on Guam for a couple of years (they have a massive Filipino population along with the native Chamorros). So I’m a bad one to ask. I do tease him on occasion about being a foreigner though, because he’s from Canada. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/77 "2019-08-25T03:38:41Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Christ on a mothflapping pogo stick, I hope he at least bought you a drink before he dicked you around to that extent. What a [ridiculous exaggeration](https://www.hmsreview.org/issue/4/south-asian-disparities). > > Emphasis added, while rolling eyes. As I said, take the source for what it’s worth…which might not be much, admittedly. it’s entirely possible I misheard him as well. I’m certainly not going to the mat to defend the post. That being said, I stand by the fact that there’s a major shortage of healthcare workers and foreign-born doctors are brought in to fill that void. BTW, I approve of “Christ on a mothflapping pogo stick.” Haven’t heard that one before. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/78 "2019-08-25T15:43:52Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > As I said, take the source for what it’s worth…which might not be much, admittedly. it’s entirely possible I misheard him as well. I’m certainly not going to the mat to defend the post. I’m curious, do you not care that when you repeats absolutely absurd claims, it destroys your own credibility? ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/79 "2019-08-26T02:19:53Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > I’m curious, do you not care that when you repeats absolutely absurd claims, it destroys your own credibility? No, because I didn’t put it out there as a valid source of information and I can admit when I’m wrong. I was factually incorrect in repeating the statistic that up to a third of doctors were Indian. If I went into the discussion with more certitude, I would double down on it. It’s okay to be wrong once in a while. It doesn’t change the fact that many other times, I’m pretty fucking correct. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033/80 "2019-08-26T02:36:09Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > I’m curious, do you not care that when you repeats absolutely absurd claims, it destroys your own credibility? To be fair to **asahi** ,the statement was made with a massive disclaimer about the source of the claim and the circumstance in which it was made, and there was no endorsement of its validity. And asahi, my iPhone really dislikes you. Twice now it tried to autocorrect your name to asshole. I have no idea what you did to piss it off so much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-being-that-white-guy-but-learn-english/839033.md?page=5)