Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for October 13, 2022

Well, I have German and Danish heritage, but do I speak those languages? Not even the slightest.

“You seem very pleasant, for a racist.”

I’d go with Option 1.

Micro-aggressions? Are those still a thing? They seem so pre-COVID.

Option 3: I’m in high school and speak 2 languages fluently. How many do you speak?

There are people born here who don’t speak excellent English.

Numero dos.

I know a girl from Hong Kong. I hear not the slightest accent in her English, yet her native language is Cantonese. And she can rip THAT out like a machine gun!!!

I have a friend who is 3rd-generation American-Born Chinese that lives in San Francisco. He doesn’t speak a word of Chinese, and his accent is pure northern California. I am semi-fluent in Spanish, and Latinos have complimented my skills “en español.” I was working with a Puerto Rican woman as my boss, when one night, a friend of hers came by with a 3yo boy who understood no English. The father said that the kid would learn English when he reached school! That’s no way for a kid to be bilingual.

Micro agression = offended by your own shadow

Combine 1 and 2. " I was born here, you idiot"

Opcion 3

Gracias. Que tan bien hablos espanole?

There are different accents all over the USA and they were born (the language) here!!!

I really wish more people in the USA valued languages other than English.

I have to admit, I prefer #2.

Similar has been said to me, more than I’d want to try and count… I should add I’m a red-headed Scottish immigrant to the US.

Simple, just reply back “Thank You! However, I think your English needs a little work.”

i love when kids who are less than half my age and who weren’t born yet when i arrived in japan tell me that i speak japanese well. i just smile and say, so do you…

but i’m a gaijin, so it’s almost (but not really) understandable. the woman in today’s strip is an idiot…

I’ve read accounts of people coming to America from UK and people asking what language they speak in England.

Tell her your family has been here since the 15 hundreds.

All of the above…

Just reply in Spanish, French, German or whatever will startle her.

Thank you. You do too!

A woman asked my sister-in-law if she had her papers. She replied, “Which one? My birth certificate from the local hospital or my marriage license?”

For those interested in the development of accents and prosody I highly recommend John Colapinto’s excellent, very readable, “ This is the Voice.” Seems babies in the womb pick up their mother’s prosody, and thus French babies’ cries end in an upswing whereas German babies’ go downward, mimicking the flow of those languages. The book is filled with surprising info, at least to me.

Option 1a, “I hope so, I was born here. Now, I’d like to see your manager.”

The cashier assumed and thought she was complimenting. Option 1 gives her a chance to be embarrassed inwardly and re-think her assumptions. I like to think that most human beings are decent, but any one of us can be a little ignorant until we learn.

2 she’s just stupid

Wonderful! More, more! I wish my brain were fast enough to do Option 1 with a smile. Would beat the dickens out of going away feeling not so good.

I speak bad english, a bit of hillbilly, a little southern drawl, ya’ll…

There’s an old poolhall in a barrio with vintage pictures of local residents in U.S military uniforms who served in every war we’ve had for the last 150 years.

My family are Hispanic, but I am getting worn out with this constant need to stir the pot. It comes from BOTH sides people. Ignorant people come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. The cashier will learn her lesson when her son marries a mexicano and he brings home hispanic babies. LOL

Oo Oo! I just thought of one! “For a white person, you certainly fit all the Leftist stereotypes!”

Number One is diplomatic

Number Two is the truth.

Why this topic? It isn’t funny….People are way too sensitive….as evidenced by some of the comments. And the cartoonist. I guess he feels better now. Okay…everybody back to your tribes.

Option #3, “well bless your heart.” -says both

I’m not from another country and I don’t appear to have been. I would really like to know what is acceptable in this confusing complicated world. I live in a town in Canada where everyone is polite, says hello, to everyone else. Yet when I say hello to a person of colour and he sneers or scowls at me with the “You’re just saying that because I’m black,” look. There is no reply! If someone of colour or a person who identifies as a gender other than that of their birth, is rude or abusive to me, I have no way of replying. Their take, and it’s usually really loud, is that their rudeness is justified. If I respond, no matter what I say, it’s wrong. NOT everyone of colour is like this of course, but it makes me scared to leave my home.

OKay, folks, for those of us in our 70s, what the heck is a micro-aggression?

Some from column A, some from Column B

Opt. 1…. She was trying to be nice…..

Been to Appalachia? Bring an interpreter!

“For a woman, You’re pretty good at arithmetic.”

Option 3: Macro-Smack!

I appreciate non accented people in practical situations. A supervisor I’ve had speaks with a recent shot-of-novacaine inflection.

As a naturalized and multilinguist USA citizen, I believe many foreigners or foreign-born USA inhabitants speak better English than lazy Caucasians.

¡Su inglés es muy bueno, tambien!

I’m a native New Mexican and moved to western North Carolina in high school, early ’70s. My English teacher, in a heavy hill country accent with rather poor grammar, complimented me on my English and asked when I learned the language. Being an angry teen who did NOT want to be in a place where almost nobody even understood that NM was a state, I replied, “When I was 9 months old, when will you learn it?” Needless to say we never got along very well.

Have you really known that many Hispanics, and so many of them were still learning English?