| | we had dinner with an indian family tonight. (i am ridiculously bloated >_<... probably from stuffing face with the dessert) it was interesting because we don't actually know the family. but whatever. here's to meeting new people, right?
one story the father told didn't really make me think twice until just now. as a little bit of background, he (i'll call him mr. d) was rather proud of his ability to easily make friends, find the good in people, and avoid dealing with bad people. to demonstrate, mr. d said that he had never lost money to anyone, even though he had loaned out money on numerous occasions, or given people (customers) a chance to pay him after buying something. basically, relied on the goodness of a person to ensure that he or she would not cheat him. the story i wanted to recount, though, is one that a lot of people can probably relate to. he was standing in line for the bus in LA once, and some black gang-types came up to him and started verbally harassing him. he said that his method of avoiding conflict was by simply shrugging and repeating "no hablo ingles" or "no se". i feel like i've been in situations like that before, where people start talking to me, and i just don't want to deal with it, but i have to cuz, well, they're there, talking to me! anyway, i was just now wondering, how come he chose to speak spanish? why not hindi, a language that his harassors would be less likely to speak?
the reason is probably simple, but i wonder if he really thought about it that much before he did it. i think spanish would be better received than hindi, which to some might have been akin to marking him as a terrorist at the time. but i regret not having had the opportunity to ask him what he was thinking then, when he made the decision to respond in spanish rather than another foreign language...
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| | Posted 8/16/2007 1:02 AM - 67 Views - 4 eProps - 3 comments
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