(no subject)

[hnpcc]

First day back at work. What was I doing nearly 2 weeks ago? Buggered if I can remember. Or find where I hurriedly stuffed things.

It's very, very quiet though... only about a third of the lab in, and similar proportions in the rest of the building. Not that I'm complaining...

Talking to one of the senior postdocs, when he asks: "Is [unintelligible sound that I didn't quite get] back yet?"

"Who, sorry?"

"[unintelligible sound]".

"um..."

"oh, sorry, you probably know her English name and I'm saying her Chinese name... what is her English name again, I've forgotten..."

And the best comment from 2003 (which I meant to put in earlier but forgot):

My boss at a major seminar detailing what the lab does to other departments:

"When I started work on malaria there were about 200,000 deaths per year. Now there are about 2 million. And you thought I was on the side of the humans!

Comments

[droxina.livejournal.com]

Als, that postdoc sounds like a right uppity snotty-nosed type ("I'm using her Chinese name" indeed!). How bloody condescending can you get!

How are you supposed to know her by any other name than the one she was introduced to her by! I hate people who do that sort of thing. I mean, I make an effort to know people's real names and say them properly(heck - I've got a name only Welsh people can spell or say right first time 'round) - but only if the people want me to do that! If someone introduces themself to me with an anglicised name, then that's obviously what they want to be know by, for whatever reason.

If I introduce myself to someone as "Myfanwy", I expect them to respect me by making an effort to say it, and not resorting to making up stupid nicknames for me to make it easier on themself. I'm a bit sore about this topic...

[hnpcc]

No, he's actually a lovely guy. The thing is, he's Chinese, the postdoc's Chinese and when they chat together they chat in Chinese. So when he thinks of the postdoc he thinks of her by her Chinese name, probably because that's what he calls her. When he was asking me he firstly forgot that she had an English name and then went blank on what it was. I thought it was pretty funny actually.

But not as funny as when myself, him and the postdoc were having a technical discussion and, completely without noticing, the two of them slipped into Mandarin, then asked me a question.

And then, after realising that I was looking at them with a totally blank expression, realised. Hee

[droxina.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. That's completely different. I had envisaged a totally snotty plum in the mouth sensitive new age thinks-he's-James-bloody-Bond, know-it-all, dick-for-brains type, which is obviously not the case. Amazing how our brains get wired up as young'uns to take a running leap at assumptions about other people when we haven't even met them and are only going by someone else's description.

I loved your description of the dialogue though...that was a classic! I also have days when I feel like either I or everyone else is talking underwater...