Thread:User talk:WaitingforGodot/No, no, no. And it's mildly offensive that you would suggest that. Just mildly, but still offensive./reply (2)

No. It's a pain in the ass getting the proper accents in there. I'm not going to rewire my keyboard or constantly go up to Special Characters or insert. You probably do write French better than me. I learned French by speaking it, and I imagine that you began learning it in the classroom (I said began). I never went to French grammar school. I did, though, take French V in high school and I placed 5th in the nation in the highest bracket of the National French Contest (I'm pretty sure this is it), and I got a 5 on the French AP test (that's the highest score). Nevertheless I've forgotten much of the orthography and even back then I relied heavily on my parents help and my school book for any extensive writing.

But you do not speak French better than I. There is no way that your accent and your fluency can match that of a native speaker.

Second of all, I make jokes about the French. Yup. So what? They can be funny. Here's one my father told me: "What do you call a thousand people with their hands in the air? The French army!" And no shit I know they aren't true.

Second of all, what offended me in Gloria's comment was the stupidity of it. I assumed she/he was accusing me of being a bigot, and I explained to her that I am French (in the same sense that Mel Brooks make Jewish jokes and that Chris Rock makes black jokes).

Finally, it is rather offensive of you to say things like if you are really french. I am. Don't deny my past. It isn't a question of pride, it's a question of my existence. A while ago I came to terms with the fact that in spite of my antipathy towards labels and definitions of people and movements, I was born in France, to a French family. I am French. For you to question that is to question all the years I've spent with my family, surrounded by French media. You are also denying the endless teasing and even bullying I suffered because I was French while in school (especially after Iraq). There, it did not matter what I identified as, they did the labeling for me. Eventually I managed to stave it off by becoming tougher than most of my oppressors (dramatic, but my vocabulary fuel tank is running low), but that was only towards the end of my tenure as a high school student. Are you saying that never happend? Are you saying that when coming back home every summer, to the United States of America, that I did not have to go through the line for tourists and immigrants while I watched others go through the citizens' line? My name in real life is Camille. It's given to boys almost as commonly as girls in France, though I imagine yo know that. My parents did not forsee that they would move to America, and I have been constantly reminded of the fact that I am French at every role call and every introduction. I know I am waxing melodramatic, and that these are very small troubles. But you seem to try and deny that these things happened to me period. Not intentionally, of course, but that is the end result. It is to me as though you are doubting that I even exist, and that pisses me off. And you know what? I never read Perrault. Apparently neither did my grandfather, or he wouldn't have told me that myth about Cinderella's slippers. I've read some classical literature in French. I read La guerre des boutons, and also Tartarin de Tarascon. Maybe some others. I've also read books in French that can't be considered classical, or even French. For some reason, my aunt once got me a collection of Roald Dahl stories in French. I read and enjoyed most of them (though it probably would have been better in English). I'm also a fan of Bernard Werber. You should try him. I've read Wonderland, which is a classic of French science fiction, at least. You seemed to imply at one point that I was detached from the essentials of French culture. You are wrong in that there are no essentials, and I have ingested plenty of French literature, film, cuisine (much easier to ingest- have you ever tried crapping a book?) and whatever other aspects of culture I can't think of right now.

You have a lot of experience with French culture (or Francophone culture), and I'm betting you are quite proficient with the language. But don't pretend as though me, a native who's parents took great pains to keep him in touch with France, is somehow inferior in Frenchness to you.

PS-I'm twenty, I live alone