How is the expression ‘an Indian’ not offensive?

[Yellownotblue]

As in, an Indian take away or delivery meal.

I find it quite odd to hear one specific type of cuisine referred to like this. Would you say “ we’re going for a French tonight” or “he invited me to his place for an Italian”? Somehow it seems dismissive and disrespectful.

For full disclosure, I’m not Indian but my husband is of Asian ancestry and our children have dual heritage. I’m British (first generation migrant). I was born and brought up in North America and can’t remember the expression ‘an Indian’ ever being used as short for Indian food before I moved to Britain.

What the hell!? No it isnt offensive in the slightest! Barmy place mn sometimes.

If you grew up in the US, you wouldn’t have heard the expression “going for a a Indian” because it’s not as common to eat Indian food there. Having a curry is very common in the UK because we have so many people of Indian heritage and their food has become part of the national cuisine.

YABU. It’s common shorthand for Indian meal, the same as “getting a Chinese”.

You don’t “go for a French because there aren’t many French takeaways”. This is one of those things that’s lost in translation because you’re from the US.

If I believed it to be offensive to people of Indian heritage I’d probably say “going for a curry” more but I’ve never heard it be complained about. That of course does not mean it doesn’t upset some- I’ll keep an open mind. But it’s just a turn of phrase.

FuriousWithTheNHS

I think you are wrong about that. Used in reference to people it is offensive.

You would not call someone a black - that would be offensive.

You could however call them a black person - that would not be offensive

You can use the terms as adjectives, but not as nouns. When you are speaking about people. Not when you are speaking about a style of cooking.

Don't be so silly.

I agree about 'a black.' I don't agree that it applies to 'An American' or 'An Australian.' etc.

Try getting an Indian in Spain if you want to be offended - they say "let's go for a Hindu."

@LaMadrilena

Try getting an Indian in Spain if you want to be offended - they say "let's go for a Hindu."

Ah ha! That explains a very strange conversation with one of my DPs neighbours. They live in a small mountain village, the neighbour, also mayor, was trying to explain something about an occasional takeaway that was available during covid restrictions. They didn't understand what he meant!

All these months they seem to have been missing an Indian takeaway. They'll be a bit annoyed

Should add that I don't really use the phrase myself, as we are lucky to have more than one excellent Indian takeaways locally so tend to refer to them by name - "fancy getting Ruby Spice tonight?"
And in fact with all this talk of Indian food, we might do just that!

Onion bhajis
Lamb saag
Tarka dhal
Pilau rice
and a plain naan please! Leftovers tomorrow

This is an interesting discussion.
I have heard of people saying 'an Indian' or 'a Chinese' but I have never heard anyone saying 'an Italian' or 'a Mexican' etc

In my family we say 'let's get Chinese tonight', we wouldn't put the 'a' in front of it.

We might say 'do you fancy getting a pizza' for instance but we'd never say 'an Italian', it would be 'I feel like having Italian food, how about XXX'

Thinking about it we don't put the 'a' or 'an' in front of any of them - fish and chips / japanese / thai etc

I am not in the UK

I’m not American so will let Americans answer for themselves.

Just out of interest, you were born and brought up in America, how does that make you British?

I find the subject of national identity quite interesting, not sure that it's just about passports or ancestors, and I feel that there is a huge difference between how Americans and Europeans view the subject.

To those people who mentioned 'a full English' with baked beans, personally I don't think baked beans are technically part of it, nor hash browns, they're American. (can I say that?)

For me a spoonful of baked beans is useless I need a whole tin - but not with my breakfast. Of course one vital ingredient for 'a full English' is the pudding of colour.

Going for a Chinese/Italian/Indian/Mexican/Thai/Kentucky/Japanese etc is just a shortened expression. It's understood that you've left off the 'meal/takeaway' bit but that's what you mean.

I don't see it as offensive AT ALL. My DH is Indian. My DC are dual heritage.

HTH

@BloggersBlog

'We are having Thai tonight' - I really dont think anyone hearing me say that will think I am off to track down and eat an actual person from Thailand.

This is my favourite comment.

Also it's a full Irish (breakfast) in Ireland rather than full English

@Yellownotblue

Oh FFS I am not even going to justify this with a response!

It's all about the Peshwari Naan.

NO. ONE. CARES. GET. A. LIFE.

Thinking about this further (it's a slow day alright!) we only frequent one local Chinese takeaway and for that I just say "shall we get Chinese?" rather than "shall we get a Chinese" and I think I would do the same for Indian takeaway, if I wasn't specifying the particular establishment by name. But still, it's just a shortening of "Chinese takeaway" or "Indian takeaway".

I would say "a full English" or "a full Irish" or "a Hamburger" though.

I'm not sure what determines whether the a/an is included for me, just the way I've always said them I suppose. But in none of those examples would I be intending to cause offense to people from India, China, England, Ireland or Hamburg.

I would defo say ‘fancy an Italian’?, or ‘Italian tonight?’ Same with Mexican, Thai, Indian, Chinese, Nepalese, Turkish.

@PurpleDaisies

This really looks like someone desperately looking to be offended about something.

Yep, doesn't it just.

Not offensive

Well, no one gets a French! I've never seen a french takeaway restaurant, but I would say I'm going to a French restaurant tonight (if only!).
It's completely appropriate, it describes the country the food is from. 🙄

@ Beenaboutabit

I was thinking the same. Why dont we say “going for a French”?

I think it may be because traditionally you dont really have French takeaways? I think the A in front of the mationality of the meal comes from the fact we re talking about take away food so it becomes a common noun not a proper one anymore? Therefore we should omit the capital letter 🧐