Do you encounter cultural issue here on Fluther?

Hmm. Could you post some examples of what we might have found offensive?

I usually welcome questions from other cultural perspectives especially if they are clear they are from non-native English speakers. Perhaps it would help if you told which country you are from in your questions.

@janbb I’m from China

I think you’re doing fine.
It doesn’t matter where you’re from, there’s always going to be someone who is going to be offended by something you’ve said. lol
Don’t sweat it, just enjoy Fluther for what it is.
One of my favorite sayings is “There is always an asshole”.

@Mimishu1995 I am very impressed with your English and I’ve said, it is wonderful to have people from other countries here and to learn from them.

@Mimishu1995 Hey, embrace the cultural diversity we have here. It’s one of the things I like about fluther. Just keep a thick skin and don’t worry if someone gets upset or offended. They’ll get over it. And don’t worry about our standards. Hell we let people from New Jersey on here. That’s how low our standards are.

@Adirondackwannabe Oh boy – are you in trouble now!!

I think your writing is excellent—we have many native speakers who don’t do as well ;-)

And I’m hopeful that anything I’ve said to you was not perceived as my being “offended.” It is quite the opposite—I’m glad you’re here, and I hope you find value and enjoyment.

Welcome. Try to get used to the plain way of speaking here on Fluther. Try not to take anything personally.

@Adirondackwannabe Haha! Spoken like a true New Yorker. My fiancé hates New Jersey and Massachusetts equally.

@picante Your sage advice could probably be used on @Mimishu1995 other thread.

@Katniss @Adirondackwannabe just likes to pick on me!

lol @janbb What else could you expect from a Sabres fan?

Thanks everyone! I’m glad my ignorance about Western culture is not really a hindrance. I used to use Yahoo! Answer and I remembered asking a rather “offensive” question. The question itself wasn’t intended to be offensive, but I accidentally used an offensive word in it and it changed the whole content of the question (at that time I didn’t know that word is offensive). As a result people replied to my question with a lot of harsh words, leading me to evacuate here. Bad memory :(

@Mimishu1995 Just as a point of education; “leading me to evacuate here” sounds in English like you went to the bathroom here. You might want to just say “leading me to move here” or “join Fluther.”

@Mimishu1995 What was the question that put everybody’s panties into a bunch?

Don’t worry about it. I love having the cultural diversity on fluther, always very interesting to hear what other people think around the world. Even when we are from English speaking countries there are cultural differences. In America we have cultural difference from one part of our own country to another.

Some people get very easily offended, don’t let them make you sweat. If something is misunderstood because English is your second language, just explain what you meant in another way, people understand things get lost in translation.

What question were people so offended by?

lol @janbb That never occurred to me.

The problem with the word evacuate is that it has more than one meaning. This is true of so many English words that I’m amazed at people who learn the language. I was never a good language student. I could pick up the accent and inflection of French and German. but never the vocabulary. So feel proud of yourself, @Mimishu1995. You’re doing an excellent job. And please always feel welcome here.

Cultural no, personality issues, yes. A lot of us are Americans and very used to saying whatever we want, so you try to do the same and not edit yourself.

I haven’t seen anything you’ve posted that seemed offensive, I’m curious what would offend all of us because I’m sure it’s already been said or done…hahaha! No worries!!

No, not really – and I can’t recall ever having been offended by something you posted.
English is my second language, too, and there are quite a few others from all parts of the world. It’s one of the things I love about Fluther…and your English is very good already.

@Adirondackwannabe and @janbb Heehee!

I am intrigued. I can’t imagine what might be acceptable in China but is offensive to Fluther. Usually it is the other way round and sites like ours get banned in China.

@Mimishu1995 Welcome to Fluther! I think your grasp of English is excellent. You don’t have to worry about accidentally using an offensive word here; unlike some other Q&A sites, Fluther is moderated so we would just send the queston back to you and ask you to change the word.

Offensive, how?

@Mimishu1995: Welcome to Fluther!

I enjoy interacting with people from other countries and cultures.

Yahoo! Answers and Fluther have very different standards. Y!A follows a more conventional standard where there are forbidden words or topics because “someone” might get offended. However, people are allowed to use poor spelling and grammar, and to be unhelpful.

Fluther allows use of any words and discussion of any topics, provided that the communication is clear (following English writing standards); and that the intention is honorable, rather than being mean-spirited or inciting controversy (a.k.a. ‘trolling’ or ‘flame-bait’) or just promoting a website or product (a.k.a. ‘spamming’). You’ve shown that you have strong writing skills in the English language, so you may need to remind us at times that you are a non-native English speaker in case there are misunderstandings.

And do not let @Adirondackwannabe mislead you… New Jersey is home to many decent people, and is well-represented here on Fluther

@Katniss I like teasing her because she gives as good as she gets, and at least our cities are solvent. :)

Wouldn’t it be grand if the world’s diverse cultures got along as well as Fluther’s diverse cultures generally do?

@janbb Thanks for your information :)
@Katniss @JLeslie I wanted to ask for some documents about the North American “mixed-blood” (you know, the types of people whose ancestors are both European and Native American. I heard that those people were rejected by both the European and the Native American, so I was very interested). But at that time the only word I know to call them was “half-breed” (I found it somewhere on Wikipedia and I didn’t know it’s offensive). People thought I was referring to some kind of pets or got very offended but nobody said a word to me why. I was in a complete shock and couldn’t go back to Yahoo! Answer for a long while. In the end I decided to leave and seek for another Q&A website. And now I’m here :)

@Mimishu1995 If that ever happens here if you explain your mistake most people on futher will understand. We can usually tell by other parts of the questions someone isn’t a native English speaker and understand it can be difficult. You can flag your own question if you catch it early and a mod might let you edit the word if that happens to you here.

There actually was a song in America years ago about that very combination of European and Native American mix sung by Cher called Half Breed. I loved that song when I was little.

Have you tried to ask the question here? We have some Native American jelies and people who are just overall very knowledgable about history.

@JLeslie Yes, what could possibly go wrong?~

@Mimishu1995 If you decide to ask that question here, I would recommend sending it to a mod (like @augustlan) first, to make sure the wording is right. As others have said, some slack is cut to those who appear to be non-English speakers, but your English is good enough that I think no one would think that.

Just to add on to @glacial‘s answer, I don’t think you need to worry about showing the question to another jelly or mod first with most questions. But, a question that involves issues of race, religion, and others that can be delicate might be a good idea if you are worried about being misunderstood. Even when questions like that are worded very well, very carefully, there are always people on fluther who simply take offense to any discussion of race, they tend to write things like, “we are all part of the human race.”

@Mimishu1995 we have cultural differences between North and South here in the US (and we don’t even talk about the Midwest) let alone understand the rest of the world so don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. Just ask and let the chips fall where they may.

@rojo Hey, don’t even talk about the Midwest? Come on, Dutchess, Woodcutter, me, there’s several of us here~! :0

@KNOWITALL and you wonder why we don’t talk about y’all?

@rojo Dang, I am the only one left aren’t I? I keep telling Woodcutter to come on back, he’s busy though.