The GHZ Forum

So I learned today that the word "spaz" is a terrible insult in the U.K.
This was disconcerting; me being nothing more than a bloody American had always thought of the offending word as totally harmless playful comment, and have used it plenty in normal conversation and jest. I now pale to think that I may have used it here at the GHZ and inadvertently offended people.

So the point of this is: what other common North American words should I be wary of using in conversation with people from other countries?

That was from Sam and Fuzzy then? I was surprised by their definition of "fanny" in particular.

I didn't know that "toss" was a euphemism for masturbation, which is why I got a funny response when I told someone I "have to go toss out the cat."

Shut up, spaz.

*gives you all the peace sign*

*hand facing backwards*

Shadow Hog wrote:*gives you all the peace sign*

*hand facing backwards*

*is totally offended*

Wow, fanny is different, isn't it?

G.Silver wrote:That was from Sam and Fuzzy then? I was surprised by their definition of "fanny" in particular.

I didn't know that "toss" was a euphemism for masturbation, which is why I got a funny response when I told someone I "have to go toss out the cat."

Tossing out the cat doesn't have much sexual connotation. Tossing the cat, however, is questionably raunchy.

Locit wrote:

Shadow Hog wrote:*gives you all the peace sign*

*hand facing backwards*

*is totally offended*

Wow, fanny is different, isn't it?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RTxD49qBDvs

I was interested to learn from some other forum that the word 'oriental' is apparently considered offensive in the States. Is that correct? I don't think it's the case (yet) in the UK, but it seems a shame. That's a genuinely useful word. I mean, what are you meant to say instead? 'Asian?' That covers everyone from Okinawa to Baghdad. It annoys me enough when people refer to anyone of what my grandmother would call the 'slitty-eyed' persuasion as 'Chinese' as it is. NT, what's your take on this? Are we just gonna have to call you guys rice-nibblin' chink bastards from now on?

Wooduck51 wrote:So I learned today that the word "spaz" is a terrible insult in the U.K.
This was disconcerting; me being nothing more than a bloody American had always thought of the offending word as totally harmless playful comment, and have used it plenty in normal conversation and jest. I now pale to think that I may have used it here at the GHZ and inadvertently offended people.

FYI, I don't consider 'spaz' to be that offensive. It's pretty similar to 'retard'. Amongst friends no-one cares but if you say it on the train next to someone with a paraplegic brother in law or something, you might get in trouble.

Hey, speaking of getting in trouble on trains, I was a train going out of London a few years ago with-- would you believe it-- none other than Dache. I was telling him about an old ICQ voice chat thing in which Gibbon declared Martin to "sound like a Beatle". I did as accurate an impersonation as I could do Gibbon making this declaration-- that is, it was very poor and reconstituted from years-old memory, and which likely amounted to a generic American surf's-up accent and probably involved some drooling and possibly hyuking-- and some woman told me off in case there were any Americans on the train. So I decked her. (I didn't really deck her.)

Popcorn wrote:(I didn't really deck her.)

You should have. As an American, one of the funniest things in the world to me is an Englishman or an Australian trying to do an American accent.

everyone from Okinawa to Baghdad

I don't think oriental is derogatory, but certainly not as long as it's not aimed at a person, though I don't really know there either. It seems like an archaic term so it's ok for "stuff," but for people it sounds ignorant, like we really ought to know what country a person is from (but of course, we don't). We DO use the blanket term Asian, but it means the same as Oriental. There's no confusion, because if you're talking about someone from the Middle East, then we say Camel Jockey or Towel Head.

Calling a person oriental is offensive. Calling a rug oriental is accurate.

No, I don't get it either.

Thanks to all the WHITE CRACKERASS WHITIES speaking for the yellow man in my absence. WHITIE.

But yeah, "Oriental" has a politically incorrect slant (hehe) here in the USA when referring to people. I don't know why, so don't ask. "Asian" is politically correct and covers all the chinks, gooks, japs, viets, mongols, etc. Basically anybody with slitty eyes and black hair. I personally wouldn't care if someone called me "Oriental," but it would be odd because nobody uses the word like that anyway.

You don't really call Indian or other various brown people "Asian," and this comes directly from some Indian friends. They don't like being called Asian, and consider it offensive on the same level as an Asian being called "Oriental."

I'm Sri Lankan, practically India for all those geographically retarded people out there and yeah, in the states we don't really have a general blanket term. Asian doesn't really apply, but I couldn't care less if I was called Asian, just no one calls me that. I guess Indian works, even though that isn't the country my dad's from. My moms side of the family is from Palestine so I got one half that isn't even a country anymore and the other half that no one has ever heard of. Or at least hadn't until the tsunami.

Personally I don't really care at all and tend to find racial slurs hilarious. The world is too politically correct nowadays. A term for brown people that aren't Arab or Persian would be nice though, nothing like a blanketing generalization based on location and skin color to make you feel like you belong.

You don't really call Indian or other various brown people "Asian," and this comes directly from some Indian friends. They don't like being called Asian, and consider it offensive on the same level as an Asian being called "Oriental."

In the UK, it's the complete opposite, with "Asian" being almost exclusively used to refer Indian people. For example, most of the media outlets that cater solely for an Indian audience have the word Asian in the title (such as Sony Television Asia and BBC Asian Network). In comparison, media products aimed at UK Chinese and Japanese audiences never use the term Asian.

Segaholic2 wrote:I personally wouldn't care if someone called me "Oriental," but it would be odd because nobody uses the word like that anyway.

Really? Here in New England I expect people to refer to me as Oriental just as much as Asian. Neither instance occurs frequently, but I'm not surprised or uncomfortable when it does. I've never really thought of Oriental as having a negative connotation.

The best misconception I've encountered was back a couple of years ago when I had a really long ponytail. I was working at the local hardware store and this old guy, the kind you'd expect to hang out at the local hardware store, came up to me and burst out, "You Indian?" I don't think I've ever seen any American Indians in the area, and he looked like he might have found a pot of gold or something. I was too amused to take offense, and I was on the job, so I just laughed and shooed him away. (For clarity's sake, I'm half-Japanese, half-Caucasian.)

I just found the spastic thing fascinating because a few decades ago, it meant the same thing in both countries, whereas now it doesn't have it's original meaning in EITHER country.

100 years ago, "spastic" was a technical term for describing a particular medical condition. It didn't have any inherently offensive connotations. But now, the word is a negative slang term for those conditions in the UK, and a general term for any kind of spasmy or frantic behavior in the United States. In America, the word was completely removed from it's medical origins altogether, while in the UK, it shifted from being a inoffensive medical term to a negative slang term!

I have to say, though, I find it a little bizarre that Nintendo can't refer to a shaky train as being "spastic." If I say a politician is being paralyzed by greed, isn't that being just as insensitive to people who suffer from paralysis?

Esrever wrote: 100 years ago, "spastic" was a technical term for describing a particular medical condition. It didn't have any inherently offensive connotations. But now, the word is a negative slang term for those conditions in the UK, and a general term for any kind of spasmy or frantic behavior in the United States. In America, the word was completely removed from it's medical origins altogether, while in the UK, it shifted from being a inoffensive medical term to a negative slang term!

'Idiot', 'imbecile' and 'moron' were originally clinical terms for describing mentally retarded people of different mental ages. I think an 'idiot' is actually meant to be someone with the mental age of a 2 year-old.

In high school, I made a habit of calling my best friend (who is Chinese,) "Chink", and every time I saw him, I'd greet him with something like, "Hey Chink, how many dogs did you eat today?" or "Hey Chink, go back to China, you fucking slanty eyed Communist."

We thought it was funny (err... well, I did anyway,) until everybody started calling him Chink, including the white people. It got to the point where any new people he met never found out his real name, merely because he was always referred to and introduced as Chink.

...I still think it's funny, but he doesn't.

For the record, I'm Filipino/Chinese, so it's okay for me to call him that.

Also, a friend of mine who's Japanese/White once referred to herself as a "rice cracker"... I thought it was clever.

I think all racial slurs are clever. Hah, I wish they were acceptable in everyday conversation.

Rice Cracker?

THAT'S AWESOME!!!

Popcorn wrote:

Esrever wrote: 100 years ago, "spastic" was a technical term for describing a particular medical condition. It didn't have any inherently offensive connotations. But now, the word is a negative slang term for those conditions in the UK, and a general term for any kind of spasmy or frantic behavior in the United States. In America, the word was completely removed from it's medical origins altogether, while in the UK, it shifted from being a inoffensive medical term to a negative slang term!

'Idiot', 'imbecile' and 'moron' were originally clinical terms for describing mentally retarded people of different mental ages. I think an 'idiot' is actually meant to be someone with the mental age of a 2 year-old.

Exactly! So I don't see why anyone in North America should feel guilty for using "spaz" in a similar way. That's just not what the word means anymore.

I just think it's interesting that the word shifted one way over here and another over there. Clearly spaz's derivation was never really forgotten on your end... probably because you had that "Spastic's Society" charity keeping the connection fresh in people's minds over the decades.

Segaholic2 wrote:WHITE CRACKERASS WHITIES

(*´Д`)彡
　⊂彡

I'm half-paraguayan, half-spanish... which directly translates to latino, which itself translates to mexican (I guess). Taking into consideration that I wasn't born in any of those countries, that's like four altogether different nationalities.

I don't get what you're trying to say since I'm 100% Asian.

Well, most if not all of the Native American tribes migrated to North America from Asia via a land bridge during the Ice Age. So technically, you're part Asian if you have Native American in you.

Squirrelknight wrote:For the record, I'm Filipino/Chinese, so it's okay for me to call him that.

That particular phenomenon is also interesting, it is all right for Chris Rock to make N***** jokes, but should some one who is not Black/brown/African-American (help, I am unsure of what the current correct term is) made the same joke they would be ripped apart. On the same note, if I was put into a position where I needed a general term, which would it be "oriental" or "Asian"? I am still unclear For the most part I try to avoid using them, but I occasionally have need of one seeing as there are undeniably unique traits that go with certain, well, "races" I.E. the awesome singing voices that say, some brown(?) people have. It is too frickin hard to keep up with the political correctness that I must follow not offend anyone. I am of the opinion that it would be nice if I didn't need to worry about this stuff, but given the state of the worlds culture I must.

Oh, and is it possible for me to get the title of WHITE CRACKERASS WHITIE? Seeing as I am about as white as anyone could be and the fact that it's kinda catchy

No.

In Australia "spunk" is an attractive male, not jizz!