05 May 19 12:00, Ward Dossche wrote to Gerrit Kuehn:
GK>> I can't help you at all with your shoddy humour, but how about taking GK>> your racism to Spa next time?
WD> Oh dear, is it that time of the month again ?
Looks like it is the time you're telling unwanted jokes again, yes...
For me, it is *always* "that" time. Just to help you understand why: I work in an international environment. I have colleagues from all over the world I work with every day, including (but not limited to) folks from China, Taiwan, Japan and Nepal. I think it is most unappropriate to ridicule people because of the way they speak or the accents they might have in your ear, especially when these people are actually not personally present (as in an European echomail conference). Doing so is insulting absent people and fostering prejudice, nothing else. It is completely counter-productive in an environment that is all about communication.
In this case the thing is even more stupid (and tells more about the education of the one who is telling the joke than about the people it is told about): People from Asia can very well pronounce an "European-style" (rolling) "r". They just have to practise that a bit because in many Asian languages there is no phoneme like that. A long nose like you would certainly give people in Asia a good laugh if you were trying to speak one of their languages, be it Mandarin, Japanese or whatever.
WD> Just relax, there's a whole life left to live after today.
Don't worry about me, I'm fine. If I spoil your weekend with this (which I very much doubt), I won't apologise.
