Does anyone ever come off as arrogant?

[Zarazai]

I've almost always been hated by some people in some class or another, but I never knew until my 8th grade year of middle school when my science teacher told me that I come off as arrogant and condescending. Now, I've never noticed this myself, I just am how I am, but this happened again this year in high school where a group of people disliked me and teased me because of this, I think. So I wanted to know if anyone else ever had the problem as coming off that way?

 

[Suzanne]

I think had I been more vocal, that yes, I would have come off as arrogant, but I have already suffered from excrutiating shyness and thus, only really come into myself, when I feel absolutely at ease with ones and even then, it feels that I am treading on a tight rope; fear of being critisized.

Now, on the other hand, my husband has said that I come across as arrogant at times and this is because I can be pretty dogmatic about something I have learned etc.

 

[umbrellabeach]

If people see me as arrogant, they don't tell me.

Although recently I've been training myself to ignore teasers, harassers and general attention seekers and my confidence has been rising because of it - and I try to show it - so I may be seen as more arrogant from now on. Who knows.

 

[Datura]

A couple of things have lead people to believe I am arogant or snobbish.

The first is that I might not aknowledge a person. This could be because I have simply not noticed them, because I am feeling too shy and insecure to approach them, or because I don't feel I have anything worth saying or asking at that time so why bother. However, the interpretation seems to be that I have deemed myself better than other people and that is why I am avoiding (or simply not seeking) contact. As a matter of course I now say "hello" to people I know and make an effort to be open and friendly to new people. This has mostly mitagated the issue.

The other behaviour that is liable to make people think I am arrogant is if I use excessively large words or formal language. People percieve this as pretense, when in actuality it is a natural mode of speaking for me, especially when I am excited and intelectually engaged. Intentionally dumbing down my vocabulary and using more slang and coloquealisms helps, but it is difficult to mainatain.

I suppose the other thing that leads people to see me as arogant would be info dumping. They see it as showing off rather than simply sharing information and trying to sustain a conversation.