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How do you all deal with the guilt of leaving a comany/ team? I have been working at Microsoft for 1 year now, and seriously considering moving. I find the code base to be very legacy and I mostly work on obscure bugs that I spend so much time on, mostly due to navigating this large code base and not having much docs to refer to. Hence I find the job slightly unsatisfying, and that I could learn more elsewhere. However, I love the wlb, the team and company culture. The guilt stops my applying.
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To be fair my ex was Indian and his English sucked at first 👎🏻 so he really did enjoy compliments on his English once he started to improve!
Also OP, for it's worth, I'm a huge fan of all of my Indian colleagues. I don't expect their English to be perfect because they bring a lot in so many other ways. When it is, it's a huge bonus. I am fluent in one language. When they're basically native in two, I'm rightfully impressed.
White person: "wow, you're accent doesn't sound Indian"
Me: " yeah, that's usually what happens when you're born and raised in the US. You don't inherit your parents accent"
White person: "Oh"
I get that too and I'm black #ignorant
"You can really do the needful!" :)
Yeah bro, I've been learning my second language since I was 5 years old.
How 'bout you 😏
White person here. Never have been able to say that. Adequate, sure. But good. Sorry. Needs improvement.
Take the compliment for what it is. I've had many times it was very difficult to understand. Better than them pretending to understand you when your English sucks
Happened to me too. A client few years ago was surprised to note that my Indian parents knew "any English"
@EY2 Yes, Indian Americans have it worse.
@DD1 I don't like Americans complimenting my written English either - as if they expect me to be bad at it. If you want to compliment my writing style, thank you, I'll accept that.
^That's different. And you prove the point I'm trying to make. India is the second largest English speaking country in the world.
To be clear though, it's not an Indian specific thing for me. Anyone with ESL, by definition is not a native speaker. Unless they've spent years here they will be at a "disadvantage" to native speakers and in their written communication. And btw, I'm more appalled at the shockingly poor writing skills of Junior staff. Absolutely no excuse for that.
Thank you. Guess I'm just ranting because I got complimented by one of those junior staff who uses "you're" in the wrong context all the time. Almost felt like an insult.
Hmm.. saying that is pretty weird. Do people really do that? On the flip side my Indian colleagues are amazed when I know who Modi is or any current events about India.. are we Americans really so uninformed?
It does feel like Americans like to live in their own precious little bubble. Very few colleagues have shown an interest in learning about my culture or asked sincerely why I do some things differently. While that's been my perception, I try my best to keep an open mind and not make assumptions about people I don't know.
There's a lot of white people in rural West Virginia or Kentucky that can't speak English either.
^ Rude.
OP that's sad if true. Nobody on my team is from the US but I make it a point to learn about everybody's background, culture, etc because I don't think a team can function unless we all know where we are all coming from. I've also gotten frustrated with ESL and staff from India based on poor written English skills at times, so if I had a new Indian staff who started on my team and wrote in the US professional style of English I prefer to see I could see myself giving them a genuine compliment with no condescension intended. My wife is a US born Indian though, and I totally agree it's ridiculous that people still don't realize how widely spoken English is in India, even if it's the Queen's version
Some people do not know any better. I do not think they mean to be rude honestly. They are taught to think a certain way and it's hard for people to break cultural norms. Instead of viewing people as individuals many of us lump people together through assumptions and stereo types.
I was riding home on the train with a coworker. Who was on the same engament different project. Knew the guy for 18months or so but never had an in depth conversation with the dude.
As I am getting off train after having a 35min convo. He says you are a very intelligent person. I just took it as a compliment and said thanks.
However, in the back of my mind I thought to myself if I was a white man having the same conversation would he tell me your intelligent or is that an assumption that goes without saying since we work for a big 4 firm.
Imperfect humans we are all different we have to have a desire to truly get to know others and do away with stereo types. Not easy but it can be done.