| Username |
Post |
| nepal-usa.cjb.net |
Posted
on 15-Jan-02 07:54 PM
The first question I encountered when my American dormmates came to know that I was, " Have you climbed Mt Everest?" Well, I have only been upto ghandruk once, but I told them that i have been up to the Mt Everest Base Camp, and they were mighty impressed. earlier, the other common comment would have been that they thought that nepal was a part of India or China's Tibetan territory.
Well, now thanks to the fact that Nepal has been up quite a many times in the headlines of the world news, finally people outside know that there is indeed a country called Nepal. But sadly, they now seem to think that it is a country with only mountains full of prayers incanting monks and shotgun waving maoist guerillas, and crazy royal romantics who wipe out their entire family for love, and not to forget the forgetful(or is it dumb)lionhearted folks who dare to board a plane with a bag full of guns and knives. And i might add that, we cannot entirely blame them for that.
Back to the main topic. What are the kind of stereotype questions you have been asked about Nepal by American and other foreign nationals?
Like..
Have you climbed Mt Everest?
Isnt Nepal a part of India?
Isnt Nepal all mountains?
Do you know martial arts?
etc...
What was your reply to it? or what would be your reply to such questions?
Would appreciate very much if i could get your feedback on this.
Thanks.
moderator,
http://nepal-usa.cjb.net
PS. When i came here three years ago, i came up with memories of a country which is a peace zone, where Lord Buddha was born, the country of great king janaka, Sita, Bhrikuti, Arniko, the land of mount everest, the home of brave Gurkhas, and so on. How I miss that feeling ! Now, I realize that i had almost forgotten about all those, while trying to comprehend the stuffs that have happened in the past couple of years, and are still going on.
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| hmmm |
Posted
on 16-Jan-02 08:55 AM
Do you have houses? What Kind?
-answer was (from a friend of mine): not really, we sleep in the tree. sort of ahouse , but kind of tree houses. sometimes we jump from tree to tree, you know like monkeys. and the person who asked believed him!
another FASCINATING thing for the westerners or so called modern culture is the arranged marriage.
-then I tell them my own story. how i ran away when the groom was still in the living room waiting for the 'swayamber!' They love it! And I feel like a star!
If I am in a explaining mood then I draw the parallel between (very patiently) so called chosing -your-own partner kind of marriage and our "arranged marriage."
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| joie de vivre |
Posted
on 16-Jan-02 09:26 AM
How about questions from other Nepali folks you meet? I wouldn't mind the questions so much if they came from people I've known for a while, but the amazing thing is complete strangers I'm meeting for the first time have the gall to ask such personal questions the instant you're introduced to them. What ever happened to tact and etiquette?? Here are a few that really gets my goat:
1. What's your visa status?
2. How'd you get your green card?
3. How much do they pay you?
And here's one that was posed by a guy who my husband and I had known for all of 2 hours. Needless to say, it rendered us speechless:
1. Could you mind sponsoring me?
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 16-Jan-02 12:24 PM
This was from a professor who had his terminal degree from Berkeley who seems
to be a follower of incidents in Nepal.
Regarding how long will it take for RNA to quell insurgency:
"Nepal's army is not an army. It is THE army. It won't take long. What do you
think?"
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| SEBS |
Posted
on 16-Jan-02 01:11 PM
This topic has gotten some interesting responses on SEBSONLINE:
Check it out:
http://www.sebsonline.org/forum/forum_view.asp?F=1&T=13339
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| le chef du nuit |
Posted
on 16-Jan-02 05:12 PM
jdv,
please sponsor me
ill be eternally greatful
:)
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| fromSebs |
Posted
on 16-Jan-02 06:06 PM
Wow. Sebs has such a great collection of stereotypes. One I liked most was:
Author: Question 5 Post date: 1/16/2002 10:51:11 AM EST
How far is Mount Everest from your home?
- it's just 70 miles to the north
Wow man! That is pretty close.
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| XYZ |
Posted
on 17-Jan-02 06:51 PM
You go to some Nepali Function or Party and you dont know anyone around :and someone asks you "Tapai Nepali HO". Thats the most stupid question put forward mostly by girls.
Cheers!
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| JC |
Posted
on 18-Jan-02 12:18 AM
Some More From Sebsonline.org
Author: neplese girl Post date: 1/17/2002 7:43:17 PM EST
Stereobazkit, I've been asked about that one a few times myself. well, they saw that on MTV's Real World Seattle, when the room mates went to Nepal and some Sadhu(?) a guy with dreadlocks,
lifted a huge slab of stone with his penis, okay that
looked eww... gross. but anyways, my american friends and I were once talking about this service where american men "order" brides from Russia because they are good house wives and one of my friends goes "well, we should have such
service where we can "order" neplese men because they have
big penises..." she was clearly referring to that episode
of the Real World. And they constantly ask me if infact neplese guys have big penis,you know and i'm like I don't know.
Author: Chhuuella Post date: 1/17/2002 8:07:33 PM EST
Let the carnage begin..You've got guts, Nepalese Girl.
Author: Chicago Post date: 1/17/2002 11:31:55 PM EST
This happened to me.
He:- Where are you from?
Me:- Nepal.
He:- Oh! The world champions in elephant polo!
Author: Boka Post date: 1/17/2002 11:46:48 PM EST
I showed posters of Nepal to some people at a party. They were awed by it. The green wet looking terraces cut through the hills. A river flowing below, thatched straw houses on the top of the hills. One chap popped the questions- "Where do these people park their cars at?"
I told him, there are parking garages across the river- not shown on the picture. His reply "Oh!"
I was dumbfounded.
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| sunakhari |
Posted
on 18-Jan-02 09:06 AM
At one of those high-flown management consultants' parties, a significant other asked me where I was from and I said Nepal and she said (en quote) "Oh! I've heard of it before, is it one of those beach resorts?"
I said "It couldn't be, its a land-locked country" at which my friend couldn't keep her laughter suppressed! :)
At another such function, the son of a banker asked me where I had picked up my English and how well I had mastered it :). I had to bite my tongue (the bank in question was a client) and reply politely and inform the well-travelled (or so he said) gentleman that English was my first language in school ever since I've been 5.
Why do people presume that we just happened to pick up English?? Do we HAVE to be white to be spoken to in English first and (my pet peeve) WHY do people speak slowly in English when they speak to you?????
ARGHHHHHHHHH
IGNORANCE!!!!
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| UG |
Posted
on 18-Jan-02 09:28 AM
asked by people somewhat familiar to nepal
-drugs STILL free in Nepal?
-do you guys have roads, cars?
-gals still keep multiple husbands?
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| sally |
Posted
on 18-Jan-02 10:30 AM
I've found that most people, if they've heard of Nepal at all, imagine it as looking like that scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where the heroine is running a mountaintop bar in a blizzardy location that is shown, on the movie map, as being approximately in Birgunj.
Or they start singing, "K-K-K-K-K-K-KAT MAN DOOO!!!"
At least, that was before the palace massacres. Now what happens is a little different. Have you ever noticed that grocery store clerks appear to be required by store policy to pretend to be neighborly by saying, "have a good day, Ms ... umm ..."? What this means, in my case, is they then feel obliged to ask how to pronounce my last name (NOT a hard one), and to ask the ethnicity. When I mention Nepal, the grocery clerks invariably say, "Oh yeah. I saw it on TV. It's the place with that crazy prince." Sigh.
Some of my favorite (pre-massacre) stereotypical comments:
"Nepal ... Is that in Africa?"
"Do you have to walk six feet behind your husband?"
"What will you do if your husband gets another wife?"
Or the following interchange:
Person: Nepal ... Where's that?
Me: Have you heard of Mt. Everest?
Person: Oh, yeah! It's in Alaska!
Or the lawyer who wrote me, while I was living in KTM: "I'd like to send something to help the poor children in Nepal. I was thinking of pencils, but would the children know how to sharpen them?"
My husband's reply: "Tell her we ordinarily write with blood here. But maybe the kids could sharpen it with their khukuris."
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