Several weeks back as I checked my unfollowers through whounfollowedme.com, I noticed someone who I was following and also was following... unfollowed. I remember when we started following it was because of "Toni-On-New York" (TV show).
Anyway, I don't usually do this with unfollowers (mostly because I don't care, it's only Twitter) but I just had to tweet the guy. Simply saying that he unfollowed, and thanking him (sarcastically of course). He then later or the next day tweets me back saying, "Oh it must have been one of your non-English tweets."
[Note: If one of my tweets was non-English, it must have been a retweet because I don't tweet in Spanish. The only time I do, is when I'm tweeting someone directly-or when I decide to say "Hello" in 2, 3, or 4 languages.]
This is not at all shocking to me nor is it new. I have always spoken to everybody/everyone. People don't realize at first that I speak Spanish.
When I'm in a group, and someone else starts speaking Spanish I continue speaking English as a courtesy for the others (one good thing I can say about myself is that I definitely am not selfish-as I think about others always). However, someone else sees/hears me speak Spanish, and I automatically sense that they get a little annoyed.
Back when I was in beauty school, where classes started every month, I started with approximately 75% Americans. The following month-this one specific woman started, and since I make everyone welcome and comfortable in any surrounding we became friends.
My lunch group was the same but once they heard me speaking Spanish to this woman, they were-like jealous. They did not want me to speak Spanish.
Well to make a long story short-by the end of the 18 month course, there were approximately 6 less students which either transferred to another school or simply dropped out.
In reference to the guy on Twitter, I cannot really understand it because he's involved
in Social Media (his Ad was in the Blog World 2011 website). He's also a dad. As influential as he *might* be to the social media world, it just doesn't make sense.
Again, is this racist? In his case, especially that he said he stopped following because of
a non-English tweet-I think it is racist-
1 - Because he's from the East Coast, near me... and
2 - Because I *see* this a lot around in my neck of the woods.
I discussed this with my sister, and she had a good point. Another question-
Is it possible this person was influenced by the environment in which he grew?
If one uses TweetDeck as I do, one is able to translate most foreign tweets.
I, Isabel (@TypeRtist), am a Spanish speaker, but speak/write mostly in English. I understand (somewhat) Portuguese, and with the help of TweetDeck translate (or Google) will occasionally say hello in French, Dutch, Italian, etc..
Twitter is international, so it's obvious there are going to be thousands of foreign tweets. A lot of people I correspond with directly in their own tongue also tweet in English.
So isn't being friendly a part of Social Media? How is one "Social" without "friendliness?"