Moving to another country

Dear God that's exactly what we DON'T need - more over reaction and bigotry. It doesn't solve anything. People are different - get over it.

Kathleen

Where can you start with a post like this?

All I can be bothered to say is I'm ashamed that there are people like that in country.

Yes Holland does have different dialects and if people would talk in their dialect you bet your ass people who are around and don't understand it wil find this intimidating. As is stated before, nobody likes the idea of being talked about behind your back in a language/dialect you don't understand.
And about Germans/English/French whatever people talking their own language, if they are imigrants and live and work here they should talk Dutch, just as we want the Islamic people to do.
I don't expect tourists to speak Dutch.

Intimidating?? Because of a dialect?? :S

I don't like the idea that people talk about me behind my back - I couldn't give a damn in which language that happens.

Agreed. When you're an immigrant, you should learn/know something about the country's language and culture.

Dialects are fun - just as all the other languages you hear on the streets when walking in the cities .

Yeah... also I'm not so paranoid that I get intimidated everytime I hear someone speaking in a language I don't understand. I'm pretty sure the Chinese people at the take away restaurant don't say things behind your back either. Have a little faith in people.

I very much agree on that. It's just common sense that you learn a little about the country you live in, make some effort to speak the language to communicate more easily with the locals. But you don't have to get rid of all your own culture, religious beliefs, language etc. I wouldn't even want that! This would be a pretty boring country if everyone was like the avarage native Dutchman.

Just a thought - if an Englishman would start living here, most people wouldn't even notice if he doesn't speak a single word in Dutch, as English is a very commonly accepted language over here. There are many Englishmen, Americans, Australians, etc living over here - you never hear anyone complaining about them not speaking Dutch?

spunky used the word intimidating, I just took this over.
I guess its a too big a word.
But I think there are people who would feel unconfortable when people around them would speak in a dialect they wouldn't understand.


Agreed. But when they do it in dutch you can (would) react to it because you would understand what is being said.

I'm always surprised how people can be paranoid and suspect the worst in strangers. I think we should give the benefit of the doubt every time, never generalise or judge anyone because of a group he MIGHT belong to.
All arabs are not muslims, all muslims are not arab... An imigrant that doesn't speak your language may have arrived just a couple of weeks before... and if he's talking with another imigrant from his home country, why should he speak your language? So you can over hear a conversation that is none of your business?...

The other day I caught myself being prejudice like that... I was walking back home behind a veiled woman and I was thinking about how muslims view men superior to women, how it's humiliating and unfair etc... until an arab man came to meet the woman, they publicly kissed, hugged, smiled and went on to walk hand in hand. At first I was really surprised, it was the first time I saw such a couple be openly loving and caring like that, but then I thought "Why not? What do I know of them that justifies my surprise? Nothing. I'm surprised because I was being ignorant.". I almost walked up to them to apologise .

There's this French saying : "The cloth doesn't make the monk."

Truer than ever.


Ponrauil

it's kind of sad to see the amount of ignorance and prejudice in here.

when i was a bit younger i was a pretty impressionable guy with certain right wing ideals and bought into the whole "immigrants are just here to take our jobs and women" crap hate mongers tend to spew but some of the stuff being spouted here is just out and out ridiculous and wrong.


when i was travelling through europe i met people from every single continent in the world save antartica, all sorts of backgrounds, beliefs and religions. and you know what, save for 2 very rare examples, i got on with absolutely everyone as did they.

one night i sat in a restaurant thinking: i woke up next to a guy from ecaudor and a girl from france, i spent the day with a buch of germans, i had a drink with some scottish guys and now i'm having dinner with a dude from south korea and a bunch australians and despite being from all over the world, everyone of them are just like me and i don't feel any different here than if i'd spent the full day with my best friends.

moral of the story: it doesn;t matter where in the world you come from, 99.99% of the people in it are good, decent and honest people no different from yourself and you shouldn't let the 0.01% could your judgement.

But you see that is YOUR (or the person feeling this way) problem. NOT the problem of people speaking in another language. If people are so freaking paranoid and insecure that they think everybody is talking behind their back, they should seek counseling for their own good.

There are different languages around me all the time, but not once did it occur to me that they might talk about ME behind my back. Though I have to admit, if they did, I couldn't care less. There are always people talking about you .... who cares?

As far as people should talk in the language of the country they live in. I don't agree. I am an immigrant to the US and do speak English most of the time, however, sometimes I might talk to my dogs in German or to my visiting sister or to my son (all 5 words he understands in German) and it is NOBODIES business what language I talk to the people I interact with. The only time it is the concern of someone else is when I am talking to YOU and you don't understand. Otherwise, none of your ****ing business.


I also agree with Sara: Different languages and dialects make our world more interesting. I'd hate to see it done away with merely because some people need psychological counseling.



...and you are only 16? .... we still have such a long way to go to become civilized global citizens....

the dialect excuse is moronic too.

kev and the english guys on here have difficulty understanding me alot of the time when we meet and alot of people really struggled to understand me when i was in europe.

does that make me a bad person? should people be suspicious of me or look down on me?