[weknowbetter]

The comments here so far seem to be jumping to conclusions. Commenters are being quick to defend the professor. I'm not sure that the full situation is being understood.

It seems there are three important points being overlooked.

- It seems that the phrase he said was not directly related to the course material.

- He was politely asked to stop saying it.

- He was likely not even pronouncing the phrase correctly and the correct pronunciation does is not easily confused with a racial slur.

> The students said some of them had voiced their concern to Patton during his lecture, but that he’d used the word in following class sections anyway. They also said they’d reached out to fellow Chinese students, who “confirmed that the pronunciation of this word is much different than what Professor Patton described in class. The word is most commonly used with a pause in between both syllables.”

This seems to me that there is an underlying problem/tension between this professor and his students who are people of color.

[joncampbelldev]

I am currently learning mandarin and my wife is chinese. This word, Na Ge (sometimes pronounced Ney Guh), can be said in rapid succession with little to no pauses between syllables, like an english speaker saying "um-um-um-um" or "yeah-yeah-yeah". Difficult to find a spoken version of this online, but please have a listen to this song [0] timestamped to the appropriate point.

A course on business communication in a segment apparently about "filler words" seems completely appropriate.

What concerns can these students have beyond "I am unable to handle foreign languages spoken in my presence"? These people better not visit a macdonalds in china because all the children around them will be shouting na ge whilst pointing at the menus.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNRgHUs17vY&t=15s