I inquired, and it appears that even in Arabic, "Middle-East" translates literally as "Middle-East", even though most Arabs live there. It has become a political symbol. Anyway, there need to be a point of reference if you want to talk of east and west in a spheric world. The internationally accepted standard in matter of time and world maps is the Greenwich Meridian (so based on Central East London). This Euro-centric vision has become a world standard whether you like it or not.QUOTE]
That's what I've been saying this whole time. "Whether I like it or not"? Whoa, calm down. There is no other word in my language for "Middle Eastern" except "Arab" which is not accurate of the people living there, however there IS a more accurate and less-offensive word for Oriental which is Asian. Just like "Africa" means "dust" and was in reference to Tunisia, not Africa the continent, I'd much rather say "Africa" than the Dark Continent.
Speaking of ethnocentrism: in Europe there is also the term Occident to describe Europe or the "Western" world. What would you make of that, Keeni?
Just so you know, I don't use "Western" either, because it also carries an ethnocentric lable compatible to "white". And as we all know, all Westerners aren't white. But that's another subject that doesn't really deal with this conversation.
I mean...just do a search on Yahoo! or something. Look up Asia/Asian then look up Orient/Oriental. Chances are for Asia you'll actually get something about the people and culture and for Orient/Oriental you get like history and rugs and artifacts or something.
Originally Posted by Keeni84
And second of all, are you saying that "all asians being good at math" is an objective fact? Because if you are, you're worse off than I thought!!
Don't misunderstand me. I never said I agreed with that. What I mean is that saying that "one person" is good at maths is a measurable and objective fact, while the other was not measurable and only based on one's imaginary. This said, one's imaginary can ebglobe a whole country or continent (even though it is very approximate, it's just a general impression one person has in their mind), but it would be absurd to classify a huge group of people on objective critria such as maths
So you think it's okay for me to say that all French culture is contradictory and strange? Or that France is a nasty, dirty country? That's my own personal opinion, that I get from French folks, and it's okay, because it's my "general impression" that I as "one person" have in my mind. What if your perception of the Orient (or someone's perception) of the Orient was not so good? What if Orient did not conjure up and image of "romance" but insteand one of savagery? Would it be okay, then?
I'm not saying you can't use Orient or Oriental. The word, in your country, does not seem to have negative connotations (from what I hear from you).
ANYWAY, you guys can say what you want, when you want it. For a Japanese board, I expected a little more understanding, and a lot less "preaching" but it's cool. I'm done with it, because it seems people would rather argue about Germanic endings and English etymology than the cultural implications of a word.