What can I say? I love languages! I want to learn them all! I just need to learn to be patient and focus on one at a time...
This is horrible to read, but in Ireland people regard Travelers (a separate culture of Irish people living within Ireland but with their own language (Shelta) and their own secular lifestyle, completely disconnected from ours) in the same way. Cloudy! You should move to a Gaeltacht in Ireland and learn Irish! (I am aware how old this thread is! I care not!
Ahoj, So, how is it really concerning black people? I mean, the appearance itself, the first reaction ? I'm Brazilian young man, dark skin, more or less of the same colour of our Mexican fellow here. I'm asking really , because, althought in Brazil we have a lot of black, or at least darker-skin people, we have racism, and only a little have the courage to admit that. So, don't be shy, I won't be offended. I intend to visit the country, it must happe in the next two years. I'm also studying Czech, and by the time I arrive there, I probably know enough to keep a basic conversation (or more, depending on how much I'll study untill then), if it does any difference. Děkuju předem Na shledanou.:
Tagarela: not exactly Black(African) - although they are quite common in Prague, elsewhere they may be little atraction and people may stare at you just to see how diferend you are.. But there were no problems with Black so there is no hatred toward them. Other topic is roma/gipsies.. big problems - big disgust... definitely not xenophobia since its based on long term experience. Colour is just recognition sign to watch you wallet.
Hiya, I'm not being a smart ass, I'm just responding to your signature, you know if you use Firefox you can download an in-built spell checker? It really helps you notice common spelling mistakes you make, it has helped me a lot (though I'm still a long way off being able to spell! Or even recognizing other peoples spelling mistakes! I only notice yours because they appear with red lines in my window now. On topic: I'd be much less likely to have qualms about stealing from someone if they treated me with such disdain! I don't know why people can't be more understanding of people, I worked in a shop before where I was told to watch out for "blacks" and "knackers" (Archaic and derogatory term for Irish Travellers) And when you consider the amount of racism Irish people suffered in the past! To turn around like that and do it ourselves! In any case, loosing your humanity is worse than loosing your wallet.
It seems there's no Firefox plugin ensuring the text will contain what the poster really meant. Too bad, I could certainly use one. By the way, I wouldn't recommend commenting on something you have no idea about, e.g. about issues we have with Gypsies here. It could take quite a few years of living here to get the full grasp of the situation (unless you're unlucky and happen to live in certain areas/towns).
ah ha, I meant to say loosing, is it clear now? I am sorry if you find the general sentiment "racism is bad" offensive. I was talking mostly about Irish racism anyway, i did not make mass generalizations about CZ I have known prejudice, and I don't differentiate between different kinds. Irish people have said the same thing to me, that if I had met the travelers they had met I would feel differently, I can only base my opinion on what I know. 1. I have never met a nasty Traveler, and if I had I would not tar all Travelers with the same brush. I have met really nasty Spanish people and had money stolen from me by them! I like Spanish people! Just not those ones! 2. There are many Romanians and also Romani people in Ireland, they are mostly older women, refugees and asylum seekers, I have never had any problems with them. They have only been here en mass for maybe 10 years and they have not integrated into society in the same way the Czech ones have, many of them can't speak English etc. It is difficult for them here, they mostly beg. 3. Teenage boys are not often the highest form of like in any culture or nationality. In real life, when I come into contact with people who feel like this, I don't argue with them, everyone is entitled to their opinion, I know for a fact not all Czech people feel the way you do, I'll leave the arguments to the people with the specific cultural knowledge.
It will always underline another language as a mistake, I suppose you have to choose.. unless you wanted to use IE when typing in one language and FF for typing in another! Even though I downloaded the "British" one, most of the spellings are the American way, but to be honest the American way makes more sense to me anyway, and it's older, so I don't mind. I don't feel like arguing, we have both made our feelings clear and if we keep going we will only repeat ourselves. Let's agree to disagree and focus on what we have in common instead of what separates us!
When exactly did I say racism is bad? I just pointed out that you don't know what are you talking about - why we dislike Gypsies here. As said before, people who hate Gypsies often (not always) don't have issues with blacks, Asians or whomever. We don't dislike Gypsies because of their looks but because of the way how the significant part of them (mis)behaves. Back then, when it was normal to track the criminal activity based on groups, it was proved that the number of criminals among them (and the number of crimes) is MUCH higher than among the rest of population, so it's easy to generalize here. That's undeniable fact. So is the way how they have been put at advantage at the expense of majority and this goes for decades. But I guess trying to explain it to someone who doesn't have a personal experience is not that different from trying to explain how a rainbow looks to someone who's blind from birth, particularly considering my English is so lacking. Re: Spell Checker for FireFox If you installed dictionaries for several languages (I believe you can even have different dictionaries for various locale of English), you can easily switch between languages using right click (on the edit box) menu of the browser. I've no problems using it.
What a moral relativism! :roll: En masse? What do you mean by it? You hardly have such a massive influx of Gypsies in the last decades as we have here. I'm quite curious what do you think about the integration of Gypsies here in the Czech Republic. It seems you have some prejudices in this matter. :wink: The relation of Czechs and Gypsies is not racism (at least from the Czech side), it's a social conflict of two incompatible cultures. They live in a social trap which is driven by their own behaviour. The biggest problem of Gypsies are the Gypsies themselves, the strong racism between different groupes of Gypsies, vendetta-like relations between their big familes and the usury (that's possibly the most serious problem).
En masse just means a noticeable group in this context. It just means that before that there were only individual people coming over. For example there were probably a number of Polish people living in Ireland in 1995, they've only been coming over here en masse since about 2002. "Piano tutors have been protesting en masse since government announced finger cut backs. " etc. etc. http://www.geocities.com/~Patrin/ireland2.htm By "more integrated" I was referring to the fact that Romai people in the Czech republic speak Czech, have pop songs, and are allowed to work. Here none of these things is true. "The goats and the horses did not integrate well in the end, the goats ate the horses tails and the horses refused to speak to the goats." Information about Travelers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Traveller
I know what the phrase means. I just asked for your context. This is what I thought, your "en masse" is not noticeable by the Czech measures. That is not as simple as you think. But yes, most of the adult Gypsies are able to communicate in Slovak or Czech at comprehensible level. The situation in Ireland, the low number of other Gypsies first of all, makes the Gypsies to learn English. It's just a matter of a few years. But in the Czech Republic there they tend to have serious problems with Czech at school which prevent them to get a proper education. Not really important! What? :shock: They are allowed to work here, but most of them are jobless.
I just wanted to explain to you what you misunderstood, I am tired of this repetitive conversation everyone wants to argue, no one wants to inform! And that is what I explained. There are only 3 million people living in Ireland. I simply answered your question. They do not know much English as I said. I don't see how they could learn it. There are no free language classes for unemployed people here for some crazy reason, although there are free computer and interior design courses and things like that. FÁS - the company who set up these courses, are "not allowed" to set up language classes, for Irish people or immigrants. This is a part of Czech culture, it is hugely reflective of their status in the country. The fact that people will buy their music shows that they respect them! There is no way they could even dream of something like that here. Most of them are still "Asylum Seekers" There are about three times as many Asylum seekers as Refugees, and they are not allowed to have jobs because no one knows anything about them yet. (Which is not their fault, but the fault of the government for being so damn slow and disorganized when it comes to research. ) Those who have refugee status can't get jobs, unskilled Irish people can't even get jobs here now, and they have fluent English! Hey skilledIrish people are finding hard to get jobs! And everyone is blaming the immigrants! Ireland needed workers a few years ago! We had a huge labor shortage! And now everyone is blaming Polish immigrants for the way a worldwide recession has effected Ireland!
