Errr... I don't mean to offend... honestly

From a young age Liverpool Football Club have been my team of choice, they are one of the big name Premier League football teams from my local area, my Great Grandfather played for them and we always had season tickets in the family.  As such, I’ve followed them over the years, where both results and controversy are concerned.  A few months ago a Liverpool player called Luis Suarez was given an eight match ban and fined £40,000 by the FA after apparently using a racist term whilst addressing an opposition player during a Premier League fixture.  The Uruguayan maintained his innocence, claiming that the word “negro” – which he admitted using once during the incident – does not necessarily have racist connotations in his homeland.

Why do I mention this I hear you ask?  Amy’s never deviated from TEFL travel chat for this long before.  All will become clear, I promise. 

During the first visit to my school here in Shanghai, I was given a heads-up from my boss “Oh, by the way, you’ll hear the word ‘nigger’ used here a lot, don’t worry it’s nothing bad”.  As it turns out he was right on both counts; ‘nigguh’ is used here as a filler, during moments of hesitation in conversations and is frequently used by people of all ages, in all social settings.  I suppose you could say it’s the equivalent of ‘errr’ or ‘umm’ in many English speaking countries.  And it takes a little getting used to, especially when you know to listen out for it.

My flatmate seemed quite shocked when I mentioned it to him during a conversation about a month after our arrival.  He hadn’t heard it at all… until he knew to listen for it, at which point it was everywhere!  When you’re surrounded by people speaking a foreign language you tend to zone out a bit, there’s no need for you to pay attention and it washes over you: ignorance is bliss you might say.  Having lived here for a little while you tend to pick up on key Chinese words that are frequently used, as well as basic things like greetings and numbers etc.  At the point of hearing those words you translate them in to your mother tongue and zone out again, as the rest is one big homogeneous blob of gobble-de-gook.  So the words you know tend to jump out at you in conversation, none more so than ‘nigguh’.

It’s surprisingly catchy; a colleague of mine has been learning Chinese for the past 18 months and uses this same ‘filler’ whilst speaking to local people.  My only fear is that when he returns to America in a few months time, he’ll forget where he is and be assaulted as a result of uttering it!  But this does make me wonder how my African American colleagues feel about hearing it used so flippantly, even if the connotations are dramatically different…

So spare a thought for Mr. Suarez, put on public trial by the media for reverting to his mother tongue in the heat of the moment…

A xx