Re: The Linguo-Racial Complex

I've had similar experiences, but none that could be considered racial.
The most striking ones have all been in the Netherlands -- and I look
like any typical northern European:

1) I order pancakes in a restaurant, in Dutch. The waitress stares at
me blankly. I ask again. She frowns. I ask again, this time in English.
"Oh! Pancakes!" she says in Dutch (I've forgotten the Dutch words). She
uses the same words I used, pronounced the same way as far as I can
tell. Now, my one talent in life is that I do an excellent job of
pronouncing foreign words -- I've been told this so often and with such
sincerity by native speakers of said languages that I have to believe
it. I'm sure I had some accent, but it couldn't have been all that
strong...but this woman absolutely could not understand me. It was as
though any accent at all was enough to throw her completely off. But
she could understand her Indonesian coworkers just fine.

2) At Schiphol airport, I thank a rental car agent, in Dutch, for her
help (the preceding conversation was in English). She stares at me. I
thank her again. With much consternation, she stammers, in English
(which she speaks beautifully), "You're welcome, Sir."

3) I go to a job interview in Appeldoorn. My host invites some other
employees to join us. I greet them in Dutch. One fellow responded
automatically (in Dutch) then did -- no lie -- a _triple_ take. "You
speak Dutch?!?" I think he hurt his neck.

4) I'm in a bookstore in Rotterdam and checking out more Dutch language
learning materials. I wonder aloud, in frustration (in English), if
there is any earthly reason for me to keep trying to learn Dutch. Two
people nearby start laughing, and one says, "As a scholarly pursuit,
perhaps. But practically speaking, none at all. We're always going to
speak English to you."

(I don't know that this last vignette has any bearing, but it seemed
like a revealing experience to share.)

So there are expectations, but they aren't necessarily racially-based.
I suspect that the Dutch speakers I interacted with were so unprepared
to hear Dutch in a foreign accent, even a very slight one, that they
literally couldn't understand me. As if a visitor had said to me, "Tank
you very much, Sir", and, because it was "Tank" not "Thank", I was
utterly at a loss. That's my theory, anyway.

In Quebec, my reception in French depends on whether the person I'm
addressing just wants to get on with business, in which case she'll
switch to English and refuse to leave it, or sees me as a tourist whose
whims are to be indulged, in which case we talk in whichever language I
want. (The third option, which certainly does occur, is that her
English is so poor that we must speak in French...which is okay with
me.)

--larry

.

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