Reply to Americans, does it bother you when immigrants complain about America?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is stupid. Immigrants are allowed to complain just like anyone else. It's our god-given human right.

I was born and raised in the US, and I complain about the US. Endlessly. I've also lived in 5 other countries. I've complained about those places, too, while I was there. All countries have pros and cons. We're allowed to discuss both aspects freely.

I never understand why Americans are so uptight. We really cannot take ANY criticism or we lose our minds. Contrarily, other nationalities (Brits, Irish, etc) are famous for their self-deprecating humor and seem not to be so offended. We need to learn to relax. Pointing out a flaw does not diminish your standing as a Proud American.[/quote]

I don't think it's a matter of being uptight. I think it speaks to the certain feeling of superiority over immigrants. I think certain Americans always view us as not American so we can never complain about "their country." We will never be equal and therefore have no right to complain and should always be grateful to the Americans for letting us be here. This is certainly not a sentiment of all Americans.

I'll give you an example of when someone tried to pay me a compliment but was super rude instead. I speak English without an accent. Not because I'm smarter, harder working, or more talented than any other immigrant. I guess I'm just lucky to have picked it up easily. I was talking to an American guy who said to me"Geez, why can't more immigrants be like you? You speak English so good and I don't have to strain to understand you." Nevermind that someone who might be a little harder to understand is possibly ten times more educated, smarter, or talented than me. He wants more people who SOUND like him. [/quote]

I don’t find this rude. Yes some people speak English but can have an accent so hard that it is very very hard to understand them. That makes the listener uncomfortable because they have to focus very hard to understand the speaker. And still may not. I work with people from around the world so are used to accents but some countries tend to have VERY strong accents making it quite difficult to understand them. For me generally I have the most trouble with many Indians and also a fair amount of Koreans. Other origins not so much. [/quote]

Do you realize you are making *them* the "problem"? "makes the listener uncomfortable"--you're kind of universalizing the accent difference. I just retired, but my job had me speaking to people in India and also a lot of south and east asians in the US (and people from Georgia and Alabama I sometimes have trouble understanding as well. But to make a point of saying how well they are conforming to what YOU can understand is, yes, rude, whether they intended it to be or were conscious of it or not. Besides which, people who have disabilities that affect their speech (fluency, or how it sounds, or how long it takes them to form a sentence) can be difficult to understand and require the listener to focus very hard to understand them. So be it.

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