I was at our buddhist temple a few days ago to give "gohoshi". (volunteer work) and I was sitting with a group of ladies. One lady was chatting away about how her name "Wong" is really mispronounced in English. Her name, in Chinese characters, has a water mark, making it slightly different in the many different ways to spell Wong in Chinese. She was comparing her name to another lady named Wong that didn't have the water mark in Chinese. So me,...with my sense of humor that gets me into more trouble, ...I blert out, "Oh that's just plain Wong!"...Not funny. I was met with straight faces, while I'm giggling like a third grader. I realize now that if I put myself in her shoes, jokes, problems, and issues with her name are real concerns of hers.....I'll have to find a way to apologize to her.
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Re: Ok, "I'm sorry,"
Sun, April 27, 2008 - 6:16 PMNice work Lobo. Pretty funny though. Sometimes I think people should lighten up. I work for a Chinese company. Me, Miss Big Mouth from Queens. My experience there is that it is very very very very very very very very very easy to offend someone from a different culture, particularly when they are surrounded and are used to working within that culture so there is less exposure. This has not been my experience in the past and the reality is that in corporate america races can be polarized, i.e., the accounting dept is Phillipino, or whatever, but this is a brave new (old?) world for me.
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