Racist Countries in the World

[BaneTheBrawler]

yes, well, thats just English itself being fucked up. The way he phrased it made it sound like it was something individuals were doing.

[Acevalefor]

yes, well, thats just English itself being fucked up. The way he phrased it made it sound like it was something individuals were doing.

And what about read and read? Or live and live? And which witch is which?

[BaneTheBrawler]

yes, well, thats just English itself being fucked up. The way he phrased it made it sound like it was something individuals were doing.

wat

[Uzor]

Most languages have words like that though. Example from Swedish;

Kön (gender)
Kön (the queue)
Anden (ghost)
Anden (Anatinae)
Banan (Banana)
Banan (track)

It's not something unique to English. You can't say English is complicated because of that; most all languages have words like that. It's called homographs, heterographs and heteronyms.

Since I don't speak French, here's some French examples with a quick google.


Nous portions nos portions.

Les poules du couvent couvent.

Nous nous oignons de purée d'oignons.

[Outlaw]

Uzor, you explained the other day how the Swedish feel and I thought it was interesting cause I had never heard that before.

Then I see this today..

(Reuters) - The scene of Sweden's worst riots in years, Husby is on the surface at least a typically neat suburb of colorful playgrounds, manicured parks and low rise apartment buildings.

Conversations with residents of this immigrant neighborhood soon bring tales of fruitless job hunts, police harassment, racial taunts and a feeling of living at the margins that are at odds with Sweden's reputation for openness and tolerance.

Riots that began in Husby have spread across Stockholm over the last four nights in scenes reminiscent of London in 2011 and Paris in 2005 - outbursts with their roots in segregation, neglect and poverty. The Swedish model of welfare - such as its 480 days of parental leave for each child - hides another side.

Some 15 percent of the population is foreign born, the highest in the Nordic region. The rise of the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party, which has called for a curfew in response to the violence, has polarized Swedes.

Metros and trains out of Stockholm center late at night are full of exhausted-looking Arabic or Spanish speaking immigrants returning home from menial jobs. Even second generation immigrants struggle to find white collar employment.

As one Asian diplomat puts it: "On the one hand Sweden has all these immigrants. On the other hand, where are they? It sometimes seems they are mostly selling hotdogs."

In a further illustration of two very different worlds, the first riot happened as many Swedes celebrated winning the world ice hockey championship. Most immigrants play football - it is a common refrain that ice hockey kits are too expensive.

"The worst vandalism is not what we've experienced in recent days," said community leader Arne Johansson at a protest rally in Husby. "It is the creeping, slow vandalism that this rightist government has exposed us to over the past seven years."

Seven years of center-right Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt - who has labeled the rioters hooligans - have lowered taxes and reduced state benefits. That has helped economic growth outpace most of Europe but Sweden also has the fastest growing inequality of any OECD nation.

Professor of criminology at Stockholm University Jerzy Sarnecki said society has become much more segregated, with a large, poor immigrant population living in areas of major cities where unemployment is dramatically higher than elsewhere.

Polls show a majority of Swedes still welcome immigration. Sweden has a reputation for treating new arrivals well - providing housing, Swedish lessons and allowing asylum seekers to live with relatives.

But the consensus is increasingly frayed.

"Those who, for whatever reason, don't have work have not taken part in the general rise in prosperity," said Ulf Bjereld, political science professor at Gothenburg University.

One recent government study showed up to a third of young people between 16-29 in some of the most deprived areas of Sweden's big cities neither study nor have a job.

Sweden received 43,900 asylum seekers in 2012, a nearly 50 percent jump from 2011 and the second highest on record. Nearly half were from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. Many native Swedes worry welfare could become unaffordable if the trend continues.

Asylum seekers, in the short term, add a fiscal burden on the welfare state. OECD data show foreign-born unemployed rates, at 16 percent, compared with 6 percent for native Swedes. Sweden needs high employment levels to pay for its extensive welfare.

ANGRY, YOUNG MEN

The riots appeared organized. Cars were set alight near pedestrian bridges and youths hurled stones when police and emergency services arrived at the scene.

Witnesses said heavy handed policing made the situation worse. Locals in Husby said they were taunted by police who shouted "ape".

"In the beginning it was just a bit of fun," said one young man in his early 20s who did not wish to be named. He was one of a Husby group of 30-40 youths that battled with police.

"But then when I saw the police charging through here with batons, pushing women and children out of the way and swinging their batons, I got so damned angry."

Police, who have called the rioters youth gangs and criminals, said accusations against the police were being investigated.

In interviews with youths in Husby, most were unemployed or interns. Many said they were bounced around intern schemes, seldom being offered full-time work, fostering resentment.

Local youths believe their Husby address is in part to blame for their lack of success. If they are lucky enough to be called to a job interview, many say they come from neighboring Kista - an IT hub symbolizing Sweden's more modern, global image.

Many complained a conviction for a small amount of cannabis might stay on a teenager's record for ten years, ruining job chances.

Stockholm has suffered riots and burning of cars before in recent years, although most fizzle out after one night. Other cities in the Nordic country have also experienced unrest.

Five years ago in Malmo, which has one of Sweden's biggest immigrant populations, local youths threw home-made bombs and attacked emergency services to protest a police eviction.

In Husby, the shooting of a suspected machete wielding man by police earlier in the month was the spark. Local people - around 80 pct of whom have immigrant backgrounds - organized a peaceful protest for which more than 100 people turned up.

But their call for an inquiry into the death of the 69-year-old fell on deaf ears. Plugged in young locals complained about racist insults on Twitter, feeding anger.

"Young people wound each other up and started a small fire," said Nefel, a beautician in her 20s. "I saw how the police came and treated them. I was in shock."

"I was there and saw it happen. I wasn't struck, but I did have a dog come at me. A police dog isn't a nice little puppy."

On the streets, resentment shows no signs of ebbing.

"My daughter comes home from school and says the kids say they can't play with her because she's dark," said Maria Petersson, a 39 year old Ethiopan-born nurse. "I am both Ethiopian and Swedish but I will never be considered Swedish by the Swedes. To them, I am just another immigrant."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/23/us-sweden-riots-idUSBRE94M0PF20130523

[hey]

And what about read and read? Or live and live? And which witch is which?

Don't ever try to learn Japanese. English really isn't bad with those things, and all of the examples you gave are easily distinguished.

[Ashmada]

That's because that's exactly what happens. Most people, unfortunately, aren't terribly skilled with words, and pick up their pronunciation from the people around them. Those people are often wrong. For instance, one of my friends pronounces "Trailer" as "Traller." He can say "Trail" just fine.

Nah, it's true that english doesn't really have fixed rules of pronunciation, unlike many other languages.

That said, Uzor's examples bother me: it's true that we wouldn't pronounce "couvent" (3rd person plural form present tense indicative mode of the verb "couver" - to brood) and "couvent" (substantive - convent), same for the other 2.

Yet, french is supposed to have completely fixed pronunciation: looking at a word is supposed to tell you exactly how it's pronounced, that's why we have diacritics, for instance.

[Uzor]

Outlaw; yeah. Thing is, most Swedes don't care about the riots tbh. The areas the riots are taking place in are suburbs where a great majority are immigrants. The police don't even really seem to bother sending people out there as Swedes in Stockholm aren't bothered by it.

Why on earth they would go rioting where they themselves live I don't know, but they're not the smartest. A lot of newspapers around the world are saying "it's out of hands" and that "the Swedish police don't know how to handle it". But that's the thing; if it ever spread to Stockholm itself, the police would thwart it quite fast. As it is right now, it takes place in immigrant-heavy suburbs like Husby, Alvik etc. If it would happen at, say, Stureplan, the entire Stockholm police would move in to stop it.

Like I said, segregation is really bad in Sweden. We put all of the immigrants in the same area, meaning they pretty much have their own culture there. That way, they don't need to adjust to Swedish society or culture, since everyone they know is probably from the same culture because of the neighborhood they live in. There's actually a city in Sweden where all of the street signs are in Arabic. That's how bad segregation is. Which is ironic, since Swedes keep saying they want immigrants, and yet no one want to live next to them. But yet they claim they do.

Edit: It is getting ridiculous though. Instead of sitting passively and being afraid to act because they're afraid of being called racist, the police should have just done their job and shot them with rubber bullets the first day.

[Gadritan]

Don't ever try to learn Japanese. English really isn't bad with those things, and all of the examples you gave are easily distinguished.

There's a children's book written in mandarin composed of only one character. Yeah, the entire book...just one...engrish not so difficurt.

[Uzor]

In regards to the riots in Stockholm, just take a look at this map:
https://maps.google.se/maps/ms?msa=0...m&source=embed
With the exception of one incident in Nacka that got quickly thwarted, it's quite easy to see that it is isolated to the suburbs. The further SW and - especially - NW you get, the more immigrants you'll find, which aligns perfectly with the map.

As for Chinese; I present to you this poem in Chinese:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Ea..._the_Stone_Den

Basically, the same word can mean like 30 different things just depending on how you pronounce it.

[hey]

Chinese isn't actually that bad. Those aren't all homophones, and all of the words are written differently. If they weren't combined in such a way, no one would ever confuse those words for each other. Japanese is way worse in real usage, both when written (if you look at the text for that poem, it's actually easy to understand) and spoken.

And of course the same thing can be done in any language, such as Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo in english.

[Uzor]

That's not the same at all. Unlike Chinese, buffalo can't mean 30 different things.

Yes, written in their alphabet, they're all different words. The difficult thing for an outsider, though, is pronouncing them the correct way without getting one of the other 29 meanings of "shi".

As for languages, we do have some words and names in Swedish that are really difficult for English speakers to pronounce, like:
Sjukhus
Jysk
Växjö

[hey]

That's not the same at all. Unlike Chinese, buffalo can't mean 30 different things.

So? The sentence is just as meaningless when heard as that poem. They are both designed to be incomprehensible (including to native speakers), but syntactically valid. This does not represent typical usage at all.

The difficult thing for an outsider, though, is pronouncing them the correct way without getting one of the other 29 meanings of "shi".

It's not just "shi" though. It's shī, shí, shi, shǐ, and shì. They are not the same at all. Being hard for someone who's not familiar with the language to pronounce isn't really a problem with the language.

[Deadgye]

Japanese has a shitload of 'words' that sound the same but are written differently and mean different things. It also has a shitload of words that are written the same but are pronounced differently and mean different things. English ain't got nothing on it.

[hey]

Japanese has a shitload of 'words' that sound the same but are written differently and mean different things. It also has a shitload of words that are written the same but are pronounced differently and mean different things. English ain't got nothing on it.

Or written the same and pronounced the same, but mean different things.

I don't think any language comes close to being as bad as Japanese in this regard.

[Deadgye]

I wanted to provide examples, but then I remembered that this forum shits up when you type in moonspeak. And there's no point in using romaji to display what we mean.

[BaneTheBrawler]

There's a children's book written in mandarin composed of only one character. Yeah, the entire book...just one...engrish not so difficurt.

Is it the character that represents "Trevor"?

[Ksandra]

Well, that usually is the case. Why would you ever need to point out that someone is black?

How did no one ever point out to hey that this is the easiest way to explain to people why they can hear abandon, but not see him?

[Gadritan]

Is it the character that represents "Trevor"?

Indeed.

[Gadritan]

Japanese is way worse in real usage, both when written (if you look at the text for that poem, it's actually easy to understand) and spoken.

You know nothing Jon Snow.

Chinese and Japanese are so similar when written, you can communicate with writing fairly well despite the fact that you'd be fucked trying to actually speak to each other.