For example, today in one of my Health classes, two people were discussing the differences between their country’s relative health payment systems. One person was a woman from Namibia, the other was a man from Singapore. The Singaporean is in another of my classes and is incredibly enjoyable to listen to whenever he participates in class (remind me to tell you his story on organ donation later). He talks really fast, but he says a lot of interesting things. Anyway, he and the Namibian woman were disagreeing about some point, and were speaking quite heatedly. Sitting next to the Namibian woman was a white, female Australian. Occasionally she’s said things in class that I’ve disagreed with, but generally she’s been okay. In this instance, she was piping in every now and then in support of the Namibian woman. At one point, the Singaporean man was disputing something the Namibian woman had said, and the Australian woman interrupted him, saying “Excuse me, can you please slow down? This is my first language and I can’t understand what you’re saying”. My jaw fell to the FLOOR. I regret not asking her if she actually meant to say that out loud, because I was sitting in the row in front of her. I mean, yes, he was speaking quite quickly, but his accent is not particularly thick, and I could certainly understand what he was saying. I can only speak for myself of course, but even if she was having trouble, there are certainly politer ways to say so.

This is my first language and I can’t understand what you’re saying.