Basura
May 27, 2011 9 Comments
“Basura” is the Spanish word for Trash/Garbage. Do you know how I know that? Because I have seen a zillion trash cans in offices and public spaces with “Trash/Basura” printed on them, and I figured it out from context. I think I am probably a genius.
After all, Spanish-speaking people can’t figure out the reverse from context. (Apparently.) That is why we in the U.S., in our gentle benevolence, realized we needed to force-print “Basura” onto all our trash cans. Otherwise, how would Spanish-speaking people ever figure out what these cylindrical objects on the ground were?
But seriously. Whoever came up with this idea to print “Basura” everywhere, and whoever thinks it’s a good idea, must have a serious prejudice problem against Spanish-speaking peoples. They must believe that all Spanish speakers are absolute morons. That’s the only thing I can figure. There’s no other explanation for why “Basura” would be needed. Anywhere.
Suppose you, my English-speaking reader, were living and working in some foreign country for an extended period of time. One day, your first or second day there, you spot a cylindrical object on the floor of your office or on a street corner or in the public park. You peek down inside to see what the object contains, and see some paper products that are slightly wet and dirty, some empty soda cans, and the like.
Now, please tell me, faced with such a mystery how long do you think it would take you to put 2 and 2 together and deduce that that there thing is a trash can?
Similarly, now imagine that there is a word printed on the cylinder. It is some word written in the Latin alphabet with As and Bs and Cs and so on. You can therefore read and parse this word in your head, and attempt to pronounce it to yourself. Now: How long do you think it would take you to deduce that that word is the country’s language’s word for “trash”? And how long, really, would it take you to memorize that word? I could see forgetting it once. Twice. Thrice? After three times of encountering this language’s word for “trash”, do you think you’d be able to remember – once and for all – that the word on all those cylinders means “trash” in that language, upon encountering it on some cylinder?
Would you really need the word “trash” written above it? What for? After all, you’re not a moron.
But Spanish-speakers living in the U.S. do need “basura” written above Trash. In other words, they are all morons. At least, this is evidently what some people think.
I think it comes from office cleaning crews.
At my last job some of us were perplexed to find out the packing boxes we’d set out the night before weren’t collected…someone found out the cleaning crews absolutely, positively, would not touch it if it was not clearly marked “trash.” Language in the contract, I guess, or they just didn’t want to get in trouble.
Shortly after that, someone found out it was pointless to use the word “trash” instead of Basura.
This is not a Spanish-speaking thing. Know that old adage, never attribute to malice that which can be blamed on incompetence? Well, never attribute to stupidity that which can be blamed on a rulebook somewhere.
The rulebook could just as easily say: if you see a word based on the letters T R A S H on a cylinder, that’s the trash (basura), and you should empty it.
There are only two reasons I can think of why someone would suggest this won’t work:
1. Spanish speakers will disobey the rule if not based on the symbols B A S U R A rather than T R A S H.
2. Spanish speakers are constitutionally incapable of remembering the five symbols T R A S H and connecting them to a rule about what they should do.
Neither claim exactly reflects well on Spanish speakers so people who believe 1 and/or 2 must think they are morons, like I said.
Again just imagine the reverse: you’re living and working in Spain and your boss tells you (in English) that when you see a cylinder with the symbols BASURA on it you should empty it. Now try to envision either
1. being incapable of remembering this rule
or
2. refusing to follow this rule unless the English word TRASH is added to all such cylinders.
The mind just boggles doesn’t it?
Well it’s not in English either. Everyone knows the place you put your discarded items is in the rubbish bin. [/BRITISH]
PS: one more thing — you’ve got to be careful; it’s not that all foreigners from non-English-speaking countries are morons, but some of them come from places where the place you dump your trash is called “outside.” As in, anywhere. As in, out the window and into the street below. (I don’t remember where the Youtube video is, but it was from a tv special about the problems some nice young men from a small village in some country in Africa were having adjusting to life in America. They had one of their former countrymen who’d lived in this country a while so he knew our strange ways, and there was this scene of him telling them how to put their garbage in the garbage can, not just throw it out of the window when they were done.)
“They must believe that all Spanish speakers are absolute morons. That’s the only thing I can figure.”
That’s not the only thing I can figure.
Someone in some diversity office somewhere decided that not having “BASURA” on the trash cans isn’t inclusive enough and that it sends the implicit racist message that people who don’t speak English do not belong in America.
That it makes (the wrong kind of) people uncomfortable – like they’re the ones in a foreign nation – is the real reason.
Failing to make (the wrong kind of) people feel uncomfortable through constant psychological warfare isn’t inclusive. Inclusiveness demands constant psy ops.
I agree this goes on. But this just means that those diversity-philes believe that native Spanish speakers won’t ‘feel welcome/comfortable’ unless there’s the word BASURA printed next to TRASH on trash cans.
In my book, this is just another flavor of thinking native Spanish speakers are morons.
I recall seeing somewhere someone made the point this is an aspect of modern leftism: An inordinate fascination with linguistics. Noam Chomsky is a professor of linguistics. To a liberal, if you find ten different ways to say the same thing, you and those around you become ten times more worldly. Naturally, expending the same magnitude of energy pondering ten different things with a single language, would make you an unsophisticated dullard.
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