Pet Peeves

Discussion Open Forum
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[quote=“jimipresley”][quote=“Mer”]One of my ongoing pet peeves is when Taiwanese say “dwei” or “dwei, dwei, dwei” in response to something they have just said or told you. WTF? Are you trying to convince yourself that what you said is right or accurate? :loco:

Someone please tell me I’m not the only one who notices this.[/quote]
Gotta love “hao” or “hao, hao, hao” after every statement or answer.[/quote]

I equate it with the annoying practice of ending every sentence in English with a question mark-like intonation.

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[quote=“Chris”][quote=“Mer”]One of my ongoing pet peeves is when Taiwanese say “dwei” or “dwei, dwei, dwei” in response to something they have just said or told you. WTF? Are you trying to convince yourself that what you said is right or accurate? :loco:

Someone please tell me I’m not the only one who notices this.[/quote]
Well, it’s kind of like in English: when one person is talking, the listener says “mm hmm”, “uh huh”, etc. to express that they’re actively listening. So it doesn’t mean “yes” or “right”; it means “I’m still listening… please continue.”

What drives me nuts is “hao, hao, hao,… ho! ho! ho!.. hao, hao, hao,… ho! ho! ho!” (switching from Mandarin to Taiwanese and back.)[/quote]

It’s also a way of indicating…moving on now…sometimes you can get all 4 in.

“hao, hao, hao,… ho! ho! ho!..hmmmm…hmm…hmmm…dwei, dwei, dwei…”, while cringing in your head, “abort! abort!..disengage!”.

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[quote=“Chris”][quote=“Mer”]One of my ongoing pet peeves is when Taiwanese say “dwei” or “dwei, dwei, dwei” in response to something they have just said or told you. WTF? Are you trying to convince yourself that what you said is right or accurate? :loco:

Someone please tell me I’m not the only one who notices this.[/quote]
Well, it’s kind of like in English: when one person is talking, the listener says “mm hmm”, “uh huh”, etc. to express that they’re actively listening. So it doesn’t mean “yes” or “right”; it means “I’m still listening… please continue.”[/quote]
I don’t think I’ve explained what I’m talking about correctly. It’s one person making a statement, and saying “dwei” or “dwei, dwei, dwei” afterwards. Nothing to do with one person talking and one listener responding to express active listening.

I can’t think of a good example right now, but I hear this all the time, on the street, on TV, and really don’t get it. It’s like the person who just spoke is trying to reassure themselves that what they just said is true.

Something like this: “I really like the tea from that shop. It’s not so sweet. Dwei.”.

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[quote=“Mer”]I don’t think I’ve explained what I’m talking about correctly. It’s one person making a statement, and saying “dwei” or “dwei, dwei, dwei” afterwards. Nothing to do with one person talking and one listener responding to express active listening.

I can’t think of a good example right now, but I hear this all the time, on the street, on TV, and really don’t get it. It’s like the person who just spoke is trying to reassure themselves that what they just said is true.

Something like this: “I really like the tea from that shop. It’s not so sweet. Dwei.”.[/quote]
I think it’s similar to “yeah, that’s it.” Though Taiwanese people use it a lot more than English-speakers do, in particular when the interlocutor doesn’t immediately interject his own “dui, dui, dui” to keep the dialogue going.

On second thought, maybe we don’t really have a corresponding verbal tick in English. It’s uniquely Taiwanese! I’ve never heard mainlanders use that, anyway.

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Sure we do. It’s “Uh-huh, uh-huh…” :uhhuh:

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Sure we do. It’s “Uh-huh, uh-huh…” :uhhuh:[/quote]

Actually, I think it’s more like the Canadian “eh” or the yank “huh” or the Brit “right”. So take off eh. “Uh huh” is what a responder/listener would chime in with to acknowledge comprehension and signal move on. Mer is talking about the communicator adding these little dwies as a tag to statements. Dwei bu Dwei?

67

Don’t know about the Yanks or Canucks, but in Britland people do that all the time – ''So I sez to him, I sez Blah blah blah, right? And he goes blah blah blah innit."
Its very common. Marks the speaker out as an undereducated ignoramus.

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[quote=“Poagao”]

I equate it with the annoying practice of ending every sentence in English with a question mark-like intonation.[/quote]

Now that is one of my biggest ever pet peeves!!! Except when Aussies do it, it doesn’t sound so bad. Just sounds super annoying with N. Americans. :unamused:

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Sandman,
You mean to say, “Marks the speaker out as an undereducated ignoramus, don’t it?”

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[quote=“Indiana”]
Now that is one of my biggest ever pet peeves!!! Except when Aussies do it, it doesn’t sound so bad.[/quote]

I personally find it most annoying when the Auzzzbos do it.
Excellent example:

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Good example chief. Yup, that’s pretty irritating.

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pet peeves:
1)
Not getting what I specifically asked for…or someone trying to force something on me.

me: I would like A.
them: B is better.
me: No thank you, I would like A.
them: I will give you B.
me: Why give me B, when I asked for A?
them: B is better.

Basic example:
I tried to convince street vendor to sell me sweet potato wedges without pepper (I have purchased the product before). He told me they will not taste good without pepper. I tell him I cannot eat pepper. He insists to add pepper (and lots of it). I tell him if he adds pepper I will not buy his stuff. He still insists to add pepper. I inform him I will not buy any more of his stuff. [this is shortened version of my trying to convince him…even another customer tried to help me convince him]

Being asked to check new English names of companies or titles to various things, only to be rejected because they simply like the original…or the English is too long.

Basic example:
Chinese name is 6 characters, so they insist English name should fit in about the same space. Or they pick some strange sounding name that just looks stupid but insists to use it…finally saying “not many foreigners will see this anyway”. Yeah, right…only those who go to the website, see the product or your advertising.

People lying to me…most irritating is when they simply think I am too stupid to know better, too lazy to check if correct, or too shy to confront them

73

70’s/80’s night.

A stupid fucking invention where idiots who work in the pub just play the same Abba/ Dexy’s Midnight Runners/ The Village People shite, they have been playing all week under the illusion that tonight is in any way different.

Ironic students who go to the same events.

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The intonation, while annoying, has a function: it means “Don’t interrupt me, I’m not finished yet.”

What annoys me more is when people use this intonation even when they’ve finished speaking.

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[quote=“Flakman”]Basic example:
Chinese name is 6 characters, so they insist English name should fit in about the same space. Or they pick some strange sounding name that just looks stupid but insists to use it…finally saying “not many foreigners will see this anyway”. Yeah, right…only those who go to the website, see the product or your advertising.[/quote]
Also, I’m annoyed by the insistence here on using the singular in company names, when the plural would sound soooooo much better:

Fei Long Industry Co. (why not Fei Long Industries?)
Golden Phoenix Enterprise Co. (why not Golden Phoenix Enterprises?)
Chang Feng Technology Co. (why not Chang Feng Technologies?)

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You go to the local ATM and you need to take out money, but you’re not sure if your paycheck has processed yet. So you do a balance inquiry and before…be-freakin’-fore they show you how much you have, they ask if you want to do any other actions. Could I find out if I can afford to do any other actions first before you ask me about taking it out? Grrr… :fume:

Foreigners who approach you for no reason except for the fact that you’re a foreigner.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not a snob who thinks foreigners encroach some kind of “Asian experience” if they talk to me, but just as I wouldn’t randomly walk up to any person on the street with nothing interesting to talk about, I do not appreciate others doing the same to me.

Case in point on how to approach others without getting a cold shoulder:

Last night, I was at PageOne browsing the children’s lit section after picking up some picture books to spark a writing lesson for my junior high advanced level students and I saw a foreign dad and his tween-aged daughter looking at one of my favorite children’s authors’ books on the award shelf, which I had read most of the books so I thought I’d put in a recommendation (especially since the book was wrapped and it’s hard to judge a book by just its cover). I mentioned that the illustrations inside the book were stunning and that the story was a great modern-day fairy tale. That lead to a discussion of books that the girl had already read and liked and how they had a hard time finding new books for her. Having quite a knowledge of children’s literature, I gave some recommendations and it became a discussion about all sorts of things. We spent over an hour just chatting and helping the daughter find some books she’d enjoy reading. But I would have approached the family even if they had been Taiwanese or Shanghaiese or whatever (and I actually have done the same thing with Asian families, also looking at books I know or my favorite authors) simply because there was something to talk about.

I went through the same crap in college where I was told that, as a black student, I was expected to wave and say hi to all other black students I saw around campus. I don’t base my interactions on what people look like and I tend to be very standoffish with people who do.

I’m not sorry if you are offended by the foreigner who gave you a strange “Why are you talking to me?” look when you say hi to them on the street, but again, I don’t feel bad for blowing off the random Taiwanese guy who shouts out “hi” to me either. My mom told me to never talk to strangers and if we don’t have anything more in common than my being non-Asian, you are a stranger.

Whew! Rant over.

I’m also peeved by adult females using that whiny voice with their boyfriends like oversized spoiled babies. I want to shove a pacifier in their mouths and then give them a good hard kick in the ass for being so fucking manipulative and disrespectful to their man.

77

This happens to me way too often:

Me: I shouldn’t eat that. I have high cholesterol.

“Friend”: Oh no! But… but… you are vegetarian! :astonished:

Me: Yes, I am. [Thinking: Oil is vegetarian. Vegetarians can drink oil from the bottle if they want to. :unamused: ]

“Friend”: Oh, I know how to fix it. Eat less fatty food and exercise.

[Here follows a long lecture on the relationship between food, exercise and cholesterol.]

Me: I’m doing that already. [Smiling but thinking: What the heck do you think doctors told me first? “Gorge on fatty foods and stop moving?” :loco: And I’ve been diagnosed 12 years ago. What do you think I’ve been doing during that time? Drool on myself?]

“Friend”: Did you think about sprinkling pixie dust on your cereals?

Me: Does not work. [Thinking: Got any more snake oil methods to push on me? How about I irrigate my colon with pixie dust?]

“Friend:” But my brother’s wife’s second cousin’s Golden Retriever’s trainer’s tax accountant cured his high cholesterol with pixie dust. He irrigated his colon with it.

Me: Good for him. [Thinking: That guy probably did not have a case of genetic hypercholesterolemia.]

“Friend”: I have a gift for you. [Presents milk chocolate.]

Me: Er… Thanks. [Thinking: Wouldn’t want to be disrespectful but do you realize what you are doing?]

“Friend”: Let’s go have pizza and ice cream.

Me: Er… [Thinking: WTF? What happened to “eat less fatty food”?]

I can’t count the number of people who will attempt to “help” me with my cholesterol and then proceed to offer me foods I should not be eating. Thanks a bunch.

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Lemur. Respect. Tommy has NOTHING on you.

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[quote=“lemur”]“Friend”: Let’s go have pizza and ice cream.

Me: Er… [Thinking: WTF? What happened to “eat less fatty food”?][/quote]
:fume:

I hate that too! My ex was like that…constantly complaining about how fat she was (she wasn’t) and how I needed to eat healthier (I did), and then an hour later suggesting we eat a fatty meal.

80

Yep. Colleagues at the office telling me (a while ago) that it looked like I had gained weight, offering advice that I should exercise more, then proceeding to leave a piece of cake consisting of 60% whipped cream on my desk for me. :unamused: