LOL. There is definately something wrong with that.

i've heard the whole buying your friends thing before.

my question is, if i'm paying for my friends in the sorority, that means everyone else in the sorority is paying to be friends with me. so where is my pay check?

It goes to your national headquarters' friendship fund.

OKAY!?!?

"Did you get hit with one of those paddle things? Did it leave a mark?"
"Did you get hazed?"
"What is that weird looking letter? I've never seen it before, did you make it up?" (reffering to the Xi)
"What was your groups stereo type?"

UGH, I hate them all!

Every Gamma Phi has heard "Who is Rob?" while wearing their letters . . .

its amusing...
 

Being in a local the number question is
' so is that a REAL sorority???' or ' how did you Make that up!:mad:

'So i guess since your're local, that means you haze alot?'

when i bought a lettered jacket...
'wow, are you really in a sorority??' as if im only wearing the jacket to pretned im in a group

When I wear my APO letters, I hear a lot of "Oh, I've never heard of that sorority, is that new?" When I tell people that APO is actually a coed fraternity, I get "How can you be in a fraternity? You're a woman!" Apparently the concept of a coed fraternity is completely foreign to some. :D

These 2 questions, I would probably be okay with, because coming from NPC-Land, I would interpret the person to mean:
Q: "how do you become a pledge (i.e. new member)"
A: You participate in recruitment and through the process of mutual selection, you may be extended an invitation to membership (i.e. a bid).

What did you have to do?
I interpret this to mean:
Q: what are the requirements to be initiated?
A: Again, in NPC land, we have to be upfront with what the requirements are in order to meet the requiements of initiation: Learning about the sorority's history, what the membership fees are, expected attendance to meetings, etc. It's all spelled out and very clear...no "surprises" (a la what happens to Sydney White in that movie...LOL)

That's funny. :p (sorry!) It never occurred to me that people would read it that way.

I just don't understand the whole "paying for friends" thing. Anyone with sense knows that non-profit organizations are only able to exist because of their members (including partners, sponsors, donors, etc.). Even the church depends on donations from their congregations. People just need to think a little more before speaking...that's all.

I think it stems from a defensive reaction over the fact that you must be "invited" to join. You cannot just "join", the way you could a Spanish Club, Ski Club, church, etc.

rhoyaltempest, I liked everything that you had to say....very good point about non-profits being dependent on donations, etc.

You know, along those same lines, CutiePie2000, when I was a collegian and I'd hear that "paying for friends" comment I always thought about the fact that those same people were paying to attend college. Yes, it's for an education, but wouldn't that follow the same logic? You have to be accepted into a college or university too. Accepted? Paying for it? Making friends while you're there? Sound familiar?!?

The question that bugs me the most is:

"What WERE you?"

Um, you mean what sorority AM I a member of? I graduated, I didn't die.

Side note, my sitter is in college and all of her greek experiences have been with NPHC orgs, so she will occasionally ask me questions like "where did you cross?". If it wasn't for greek chat, I don't know if I would know what she is talking about!

To people who tell me that I paid for my friends, I make two points: 1- I paid to be in National Honor Society, Alpha Lambda Delta Freshman Honor Society, and the Key Club but nobody says anything about those dues. You have to pay to be a member of many organizations and I guess if they don't have Greek letters, that makes it ok in your book? 2- I do a lot of stuff with my friends, from movies, shopping, etc. I think of paying dues as paying for all that fun stuff in advance :) (one of my chapter presidents came up with that and it just made so much sense that I still use it!)

good call - I always try to explain that dues go to paying for the house, social activities, etc etc - not really "paying for your friends". I also like the point about making donations even to church.

Yep. Heard this one many, many times...

Or, my favorite: EAT what? :rolleyes: I used to have a real smart ass comment for this one back in UG :p, but it went against sorority protocol so I had to stop saying it... :D

Or worse yet, from a Latina/o who is involved in greek life. :eek: So much for greek unity...

I always use the cliche, "If I paid for my friends, I didn't pay enough!"

Alpha Delta Pi specific, I hate when chem majors say, "ADP". I had this real distain for chem majors for the longest time!

I always hated: "Why do you have 'EX' on your shirt?" Seriously, how many people do you know make their -e's like this?

No kidding. I've gotten "E"-A-E before for the same reason.

Amazingly enough, I've never heard A-E-A OR the paying for your friends bit. (Aside from GC)

I did have someone once ask me if I was an Alpha Kappa Alpha. Because Sigma and Kappa are so similar, right?:rolleyes:

So you have never heard of American Educators Association?;)

Alpha and Sigma the same........that is new to me. Please tell me that person was a child.

USUALLY that's what I think too until they want bloody details about the initiation and hazing.

then...what you just said....goes right out the window.....funny...no one ever asks...well what do you do once you get in....

No...it was someone who had obviously only been exposed to NPHC GLOs, and so to them, Alpha *funny Greek letter* Alpha just HAD to be AKA.

And I'm wearing a letter shirt today, and my 3 year old pointed to each letter and said "Alpha Sigma Alpha". As soon as she gets the English and Spanish alphabet down, we're moving on to the Greek one.;)

they couldn't have been exposed to all of us, because 3 of us have that "funny greek letter" in our names. :rolleyes: peasants, all of them. :p

i love it when folks "ask" you if you're a member while you're wearing 'nalia and hanging out with known members of your organization. i've been very tempted to respond, on more than on occasion, "no, i'm a very good perp." :rolleyes:

why did you join a black fraternity?

I get that but with EK - why do you have "eeek" on your shirt:rolleyes:

:eek:

Why have I NEVER HEARD THIS?! I love it! :D

While dumb questions may be annoying, I find it more annoying when certain people have assumptions about greek orgs, hold it against you, yet won't talk about the fact that they are making these assumptions. I think it is better when they say something silly so that you can explain to them that they are really misguided. When they just give you that "look" and you know they are judging, it is harder.

On the flip side, I've seen some Greeks being extremely judgmental of GDIs as well... you can just see the disdain in their faces when attempting to communicate all things Greek...

My grad chapter was at regionals this year and when we got to the hotel a guy in the lobby said, "What sorority are y'all in...What do you do...Do you like XYZ's...Oh, well my momma is a XYZ and don't make me have her come up here!"

He was obviously VERY ignorant and we were all standing there :eek::eek::eek: and didn't know what to say!

hmm, i dunno. do they say "peri" on your yard (campus)? or just letters"? but glad u like, feel free to use it, i didn't coin the phrase. :cool:

well, yeah, DUH! ;):D

because, clearly, someone wasn't on their job if they let YOU in. :rolleyes::p;):D

That reminds me of when people ask me, "Oh, do you guys hate all the XYZs?"

Lame.

"what is triangle palm tree ?"
"what is "A-Y?" is that like "Ay Bay Bay"


"so you're paying for your friends..."
response: "yeah, but at least I'm paying for the cool ones."

i'm such a disgrace

:(

ADP, for adenosine diphosphate? Would they say ADP in context? Tell them to say ADPhi, because phosphate doesn't make a P sound.

While taking organic chem, I would always think of Pike and KA whenever we would talk about "KA" or "pKA". Or in thermodynamics, Delta G, the free energy change.

Speaking of how the letters are used in math and science, this made me think of one time when someone looks at my sweater and says "ahh.. Phi Sigma Sigma, Sum of all sums " I responded "yes, kinda like creme de la creme !." :p

I guess we just weren't as hip on my campus... it was always paraphernalia! :)

"Letters" was pretty common, but normally just used in reference to the double stitched block letter t-shirts or the gigantic wooden version used for decoration found at the house and anywhere we needed to make our presence known