From: oaf@serverx.osf.org (Oded Feingold)
Subject: Guided Missiles/Misguided Leaders, yoks Exploding in face
Followup-To: soc.culture.polish
Summary: Too sensitive Mister Mazur:  others? ME??? 
Keywords: At least I know I'm a Bonehead...
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 01:50:11 GMT

Me:    ...
>>	Stan nudges Marek and says "Lookit them Jews showing off -
>>	we're not yet off the plane and already they're talking
>>	Chinese."

Aleksander Mazur:	...
@>	But if you kept track of our discussion that takes place now
@>	in 1992 you probably noticed unusual , or I should say quite
@>	usual guests on s.c.p. Their common idea was to express
@>	themselves freely how they disrespect, or I should say hate
@>	Poles.

1..2...3....4.....5......6.......7........8..........er,..13!

Mazur, you bonehead, you've been had!  It's not a Polish joke at all -
it's a YIDDISH joke, taking advantage of the fact that the phrase
("Kumm schoin Shimshoin, die Sonn' scheint schoin,") resembles the
standard western way of mis-hearing the singsong unintelligibility of
Chinese.  It's analogous to the Greek "Barbarian," meaning one whose
speech sounds like Bar-bar-bar-bar, so it doesn't matter whether the
ones commenting about the Jews showing off are Polish or Navajo.

Is the implication that these Polish machinists can't tell real from
fake Chinese really that insulting?  Couldn't it happen to anyone?
Nobody I know expects an ordinary American to know Chinese, so their
"defeat" at understanding that situation only shows their normality.

Unless you're so in touch with your own oppression that you can see
nothing else, perhaps you should stop finding insults where none
exist.  It makes it hard to exchange ideas, and if you let the
adrenalin of aggression wash away the milk of toleration and human
kindness, then you will discover that I have mixed up a metaphor from
which I cannot hope to escape alive.

Let me illustrate:  I'll continue the story.
				    [ I can't believe I'm doing this ]
	...
    The plane is shot down and the Americans ditch.  Stan and Marek
are captured marched off to a prison camp for a day and a half, with
no food, no water, nothing.  They're ready to collapse as they arrive,
when a Japanese jailer ushers them into their cell, then gives them a
gallon of water.
    After they drink their fill and recover some strength, Stan goes
to the cell door and looks out. He sees the sergeant sitting at a desk
a few feet away, and gathering his courage he shouts "Thank you" in
every language he can think of.  The sergeant answers briefly in a low
voice.  Stan returns to the cot.
    Marek asks "What did he say?"
    "He's nuts, Marek.  I was as nice as I could be, and he just said
`Don't touch the moustache(*).'"

Oded Feingold  oaf@osf.org     Contractor at  Open Software Foundation
OSF:   11 Cambridge Center     Cambridge,  Ma. 02142    (617) 621-7265
Home:  408 Broadway            Somerville, Ma. 02145    (617) 776-1225

(*)  'Doo itashimashita' = 'You're welcome' in Japanese.  Say it fast
	and nasally.


@>	What a wonderful feeling it must be to nurture something over
@>	years and suddenly express themselves freely. Don't you think so ?
	...
Considering the source, I agree wholeheartedly.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.polish