WorldCon: Things I Did Wrong

[kate_nepveu]

(I was planning to write this as a section of my big roundup post pretty much from the start, to be titled "Ego Boosting and Deflating," but since I see an aspect of it is being discussed, I thought I should break it out separately so it would go up quicker.)

A number of people were kind enough to say to me that they liked things I said on panels or the way I moderated or things I write online. I am very grateful for and appreciative of those comments. However, since very few people (even at a con!) are going to come up to me and say that they thought I did a lousy job or said something stupid, I thought it important to publicly acknowledge the times I did something wrong at the con.

• I suggested a group of people sit somewhere physically incapable of accommodating at least one of the members of the group. I apologized to the group at least but possibly not to the specific person; I apologize for being ableist and sizeist.
• During a panel, I interrupted karnythia to explain something that she was going to get to in just a minute. (I apologized after.)
• Upon reflection, I'm pretty sure I mispronounced karnythia's name at least once while on a panel. I apologize.

  (I read by word recognition not phonetics and keep wanting to swap the "n" and "y" in her name, "cah-RIN-thee-ah" instead of "car-NEE-thee-ah." However, she said it out loud, that's no excuse, I should have written it down.)

• I told Kathryn Cramer something true but not complete and appeared two-faced as a result.

  When she approached me and said that she regretted that I had dropped off a panel with her called "X, Why? Minorities in a Large Field, or Majorities in Our Own?," I said that I had been scheduled for items at 9:00, 10:00 (that one), 11:00, and 12:30. I should also have added "and as you know, we have fundamental differences of viewpoint, so I didn't feel it appropriate to be on a panel with you." I apologize for the inaccuracy.

  (I was considerably surprised by her approaching me, especially since I had previously been told that she had stated that I had refused to be on a panel with her [*], and so socialization took over in the absence of preparation.)

  [*] Yes, her knowledge of this raises other issues; I'm asking you all to defer discussion of them for now.

• I was a thoughtless Anglophone to hotel staff several times.

I have more complicated thoughts on my moderation of the "Writing Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Geographic Terms" panel, but I think they need to wait.

Do feel free to add to this list. Anonymous commenting is on here as usual, but I will screen gratuitously nasty comments (and then repost under ROT13 so you all can judge for yourselves).

(As I've said before: please don't say "oh gosh those aren't that bad, you're too hard on yourself" or whatever. I'm not looking for consolation or cookies. Also, I'd appreciate it if you'd save anything nice you were planning to say for a more topical post. => )

Comments

[neverjaunty.livejournal.com]

Is it unreasonable for Anglophone Canadians or Brits to expect that in a country that is officially English and French-speaking, the customer-service staff in a large Montreal hotel will be conversant in English? Really?

It's not about "mutual respect" or Americans being dumb monolinguals (which is partly a function of our geography rather than mere xenophobia - Europe is not as culturally cool as rumor would have you believe), it's about good business sense.

[janni.livejournal.com]

Except that there are folks in Quebec who speak only French, and folks in other provinces who speak only English ... my understanding is that being an English-and-French speaking country does not, in fact, mean that everyone everywhere speaks both English and French. And I don't actually know the culture, but it wouldn't surprise me at all that in a French speaking province you'd find people without English.

Sure, it's good business sense--no arguments with the notion it'd be wise to speak English. But I do have trouble with the notion that we have any right to expect English in a French speaking province--we're the visitors there.

And I'm well aware of the role our oceans play in our monolingualism, and am less and less convinced that's any excuse, given the many different communities folks come from. And it's especially no excuse in border states--and there is an element of xenophobia there.

No illusions about Europe being cool in all ways--I have relatives in Switzerland, and have gotten a sense of the flaws as well as the things done well. But I do think they're way better about languages than us. (And I include myself in that--my own monolingualism is something I know I need to work on.)

[papersky.livejournal.com]

They may well speak English, but it's appalling of anyone to demand it of them.

I mean I am about as Anglophone as anyone living in Montreal can be, and this comment made me bristle.

This is a French speaking province, if you want English act like someone who is part of a minority, not like someone entitled and you'll be fine.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

If you can't speak English, you shouldn't be on a customer-facing position *anywhere* in the western world, let alone in Canada. Especially not in a *hotel*, ferchrissake.

Note that I work for an ISP helpdesk in a single-language, non-English-speaking country[1] where every single agent is required to speak English as well, just for the occasional immigrant. Not majority American or British immigrants, mind you, that switch to English to deal with us.


[1] Well, there's Frisian, but we don't offer *that*.