Kung Hai Fat Choy

来源: 2013-04-04 03:47:55 [旧帖] [给我悄悄话] 本文已被阅读:

It's not a suprise to me the Associated Press has found "illegal immigrant" unappropriate. (http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/mysj/172460.html) The question is, then what to use? May be "undocumented immigrant?" I won't be surprised to see someday "undocumented" will become a taboo, too. Anything starts with negatitivity, such as "un", "il", "dis," is tricky. In the language world, this sort of things happen a lot. "Black" used to be ok, but now we use the tongue-twister "African American." The same thing has happened to "Jew", even "Jewish." You never know when people will feel offended. People complain for reasons from the thin air.

Just to be safe, let's use "U.S.citizen-to-be" in the place of "illegal immigrant." Creator deny, but "U.S. citizen" may one day become a taboo: the country gets in too many wars.

By the way, you may wonder what does "creator deny" mean? I actually mean to say "God forbid" or "Heaven forbid." But since the Bible clearly says you shall not use the name of God in vain (lightly or frivolously,) and Jesus said not to swear by heaven, for it is the throne of God. I would think the two expressions are offensive to many people. I am not even sure if "creator deny" is proper. I guess the safest thing to say here is "Kung Hai Fat Choy!"