[Dailydrool] Cultural differences

[Val Brewer]

Last night, while waiting to pick up my husband from work, I walked our two bassets downtown here in Kailua-Kona, HI.  Along our walk we encountered two pleasant looking middle-aged gentleman, who stopped and pet the dogs. They both flashed me big smiles and one said, in heavily accented English, "Nice dogs". I smiled and said, "Oh, thank you". The second smiled and said, also in heavily accented English, "Filipinos eat dogs". I was a little non-plussed and smiled and said, "Not these two". We all nodded, smiled, and continued on our respective ways. I was thinking to myself, What kind of a nutcase would say such a thing to me??

I picked up my husband and asked him what he thought of this interchange. Were these guys trying to shock me or intimidate me or what? My husband laughed and said "You are paranoid. They were being friendly and haven't learned the norms here in America yet. I bet they thought they were paying you a compliment--kind of like, 'That's a nice plump goose you have there; I bet your family has a feast'." 

I'm not so sure--Bo and I had a discussion as well, and he has re-committed to his doggie diet! Val, Harley, and Bo (I'm not really plump; really I'm not)


      
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