think tank forum

Going to pittsburgh I knew I would run into a lot of them but so far I've got nothing but people from India in my degree. They are really nice and friendly as they wasted no time today saying hi and getting to know me. But man, I feel like an ass when I constantly have to ask them to repeat what they said.

Heh, most of my co-workers are indian. Most of the indians I've met are good people. I've got no complaints working with them... except indian food has a rather distinctive... and sometimes unpleasant smell.

Not hating on all Indian food... I love some of it. But, some of it... not so much.

yeah, some of it reeks

some indian grad students in my building reek it up sometimes

the guys weren't that bad, the indian chick on the other hand.........ugh. she sat a couple seats behind me and i could still smell her.

It's all that garlic and ginger and turmeric! :D

nah, it's something else

no offense to you, arun, of course

but some of your culture's food is especially pungent to some of us westerners

im not trying to be mean about this. just expressing my frustration. i understand it's hard on them to as im sure they get it a lot, but being from montana it's not something i'm used to. at least this will give me better "job experience" :p

haha yeah

it's purely a white-culture thing, which is nearly unavoidable in montana

i'd love to live in nyc, and i'm sure i'd learn a lot very quickly :)

Hell I live in NYC... I still get amazed by this sort of stuff.

I'm going to India this summer. Then I'll be the foreigner!

^ nice! take your lenses!

I hear the water is worse than mexico over there... stick to alcohol like our ancestors did.

asking people to repeat themselves because of an accent is rough. but usually people will react better if you are honest and straight up about it than if you pretend to know what they are saying and just nod your head or something. plus after a while you will probably get used to it and be able to understand them better, or they might lose some of the accent in the course of talking to you, or both.

Funny moment at work:

Mail lady comes up to one of my co-workers, and says... do you know this guy, and points at an envelope. Let's call co-worker Indian-1. Indian-1 says "wow, I don't even know how to say that. Hey Indian-2, maybe you know this one." Indian-2 looks at it says "wow... I've never seen a name like that. I don't even know how to pronounce it at all. ( Indian-2 is pretty fresh off the boat so to speak he's got game when it comes to this stuff. ) Indian 1 and 2 make some attempts at saying the name... they vary widely and they both laugh at each other and give up. Indian-3 is watching this and says... "there's no way this guys name is that bad." He comes over and looks at it. His jaw drops, and he says "Wow..." and trails off. They ultimately tell the mail lady, "we're pretty sure if we knew this guy, we'd know it. sorry we can't help."

I find it hilarious when people can't pronounce the names of others from their same region.

Another job, I worked with a lot of russians, but there was a small group of georgians ( ex-soviet not southern US ) there as well. And, one day this higher up exec is chatting with us about something related to email, and he says... something along the lines of "I hate it when the georgians don't request smaller email aliases and just forst people to try and type their names. They're absurd... so long and impossible to pronounce." We kinda stared at him for a moment not knowing what to say... He had the longest username in the office... and he was georgian.

No offense taken, lucas. :) I too hate people who smell. Most of the time its body/hair oil plus body odor. Yuck. I'm not sure about the pungent food you're taking about. Here, each state has its own culture and/or food. So, you might be talking about something I don't know. But some people do have food that makes me puke.

Heh the guys I work with hate punjab food. Which works out well since I'm not a fan either.

i like foreigners in general but i don't like how the university system tends to handle them. most professors end up giving them good grades even if they can't string coherent thoughts together. they blame it on their language abilities or lack of abilities but i think it is mostly that in the countries they come from independent thought is not encouraged. i don't see why U.S. universities should tolerate that kind of crap.

however, there are a few foreign students who are downright astonishing. they should be distinguished from their peers both foreign and domestic, not mixed in with the unthinking masses who get decent grades for token effort.

pity grades suck.

im just kind of pissed at the tuition break they get. i guess most of them are only paying 10k a semester while im stuck with the 16k bill.

My roommate managed to pass all but one class during her year in Spain. She tells me constantly that she didn't care at all about the courses and never did a single moment's schoolwork at home.

Also, she wasn't good at Spanish. :o

When smuggling things across borders... pretend not to speak the language of the border guards and act very nice. then walk away.

i found wrapping shit in loads of clothes works pretty well. got my many bottles of wine from france through customs no problem

my rule, always deny that you are carrying anything, even if customs might not care, it is better not to give them any excuse to go through your things. oh and be male, white, blond, and an american. i think that helps with most things.

Not with affirmative action...

affirmative action seems to me like the emperor declaring at least a few of the slaves get half a day off on feast day. after that, back to cleaning the latrines.

affirmative action coupled with history though…I think being white still comes out on top.

Especially when hiding from polar bears in the arctic. But lord knows it sucked in a game of manhunt at night. Might as well be dayglo orange... like most of new jersey.

Sorry couldn't help myself.

:)

white people have a lot of genetic diseases, i think

asians and africans are much better off in that respect

dont worry, we'll catch em up

i dunno, sickle cell sucks.

"One-third of all indigenous inhabitants of Sub-Saharan Africa carry the gene, because in areas where malaria is common, there is a survival value in carrying only a single sickle-cell gene (sickle cell trait)."

yeah, i think the reason why white people seem to have more genetic diseases is because there has been a lot more research funding available to investigate white people diseases.

agreed.

I dunno... I can drink milk shakes... can't say the same for most of my african american friends

is that a genetic strength or weakness ?

well, technically it's a mutation that caused people to be able to tolerate milk past infancy. we were supposed to outgrow it.

I'm so glad I mutated. I fucking love milk.

gotta get puss'd

just give the african american's time, i'll bet they eventually get the mutation as well.

Chiken I am sure they are hoping for it. But until then... all the more milk shakes for me.

>i'll bet they eventually get the mutation as well.

are you suggesting sexual and survival selection based on milkshake drinking abilities?

sure why not