Post #3936571

There are tons of reasons why xenophobia is antithetical to who I am but there's one in particular that is a stand out for me. One of my greatest joys in life is watching a look of elated, surprised, shock come over a person's face when I say something to them in their native language. It doesn't have to be a lot. A greeting, an expression of thanks, a comment on the weather, literally anything. I hold no particular fluency, but I know how to say a smattering of words in at least 15 or so different languages. My absolute favorite reaction I think was when I was interviewing a gent for my team at a previous company and he was born in Nigeria so when talking to him, I greeted him in Yoruba and said "Happy Friday" to him and he absolutely lost it, could not stop laughing and saying how much he was shocked to hear his birth language from a complete stranger. Anyway, that's why I could never be xenophobic. Those little moments of joy are nuggets of gold that I pull out to admire every so often, I treasure them. Xenophobia robs you of ever having those moments of joy.