Anti-American... food
I just came back from a dinner party. I met this Japanese guy in my philosophy class and he was really excited to be able to talk in Japanese with me. So he invited me right away to dinner chez soi. Laura and I came, and we met his French roommate and his Spanish friend. It was a great dinner (he's a good cook), but I also got into kind of a heated exchange with someone there.
It wasn't looking good when one of the first conversation topics was about how Americans are offended if you don't speak in English in France. The roommate said, "It's happened to me several times. I'll meet an American and, say, his French girlfriend. We'll introduce each other in English and chat for a bit, then I'll address the French girl in French. Later he'll complain that that was rude. But this is France. We speak French in France. Isn't that what Americans say about their country and English?"
She had a point. I agreed that some Americans are prone to do that and laughed it off. It wasn't over though. Actually, my friend's roommate was alright. It was his Spanish friend who did not have a high opinion of Americans at all. America came up several times after that, and never in a good light. It was used as an adjective to describe bad commercial films and bad tourists.
I don't know why, but what set me off was when the Spanish girl attacked American food. I'm not excessively proud of American food or anything, but I'd just had enough.
It started when I responded to something she said: "That's surprising that you don't miss Spanish food while you're in France. Sometimes I miss food from back home."
"Oh really?", she said, as if I'd said that I miss prison life. "Because I find that food from the United States is just shit."
"But what do you mean American food, though?" Did she just mean hot dogs or was she including California rolls?
"Don't say American." she said, full of pity at my lack of tact. "You're from the United States. Americans are from two continents, not from one country." That kind of pedantry annoys the hell out of me and I told her so. I've never seen a French textbook that said that I shouldn't use the word "American" to describe someone from the states. After that aside, which ended with me saying "Ok, let's leave it" (Laisse tomber), we continued.
"American food is food from all the immigrant communities. Japanese, Italian, German, Thai, Chinese... Chinese-American food is very different from Chinese food from China." I said.
"What are you trying to say? Doesn't that mean that there's no food that isn't American? There are immigrants from all over in America. Chinese food is still Chinese.", she scoffed. She just desperately wanted me to play the role of the imperialist.
"Noooo, I'm saying that the Chinese food you find in America, for example, can't be found anywhere but in America. It's American food. You wouldn't say that spaghetti is Chinese and not Italian, just because noodle-making was brought over from China. I miss the food from my home country, and I'm sorry but it's not all shit." At this point, my voice was starting to shake from anger. As I type this, it doesn't really make sense that I was so annoyed so quickly. In my defense, this is after a whole evening of passive-aggressiveness.
What got me the most about the exchange was that she had this preconceived notion of me as this blind patriot, just because I was American. It's a kind of racism. I am absolutely capable of reasoned criticism of my own country, as anyone who knows me can vouch for, but with her, I couldn't escape the four sheer walls of her prejudgment. To try to have this conversation in French with emotion clouding my thoughts was doubly hard.
The rest of the night was good and, let me say, this kind of conversation is not at all normal. Most people I know here like Americans. The Spanish girl sat away from me after that and was nicer to me.
It wasn't looking good when one of the first conversation topics was about how Americans are offended if you don't speak in English in France. The roommate said, "It's happened to me several times. I'll meet an American and, say, his French girlfriend. We'll introduce each other in English and chat for a bit, then I'll address the French girl in French. Later he'll complain that that was rude. But this is France. We speak French in France. Isn't that what Americans say about their country and English?"
She had a point. I agreed that some Americans are prone to do that and laughed it off. It wasn't over though. Actually, my friend's roommate was alright. It was his Spanish friend who did not have a high opinion of Americans at all. America came up several times after that, and never in a good light. It was used as an adjective to describe bad commercial films and bad tourists.
I don't know why, but what set me off was when the Spanish girl attacked American food. I'm not excessively proud of American food or anything, but I'd just had enough.
It started when I responded to something she said: "That's surprising that you don't miss Spanish food while you're in France. Sometimes I miss food from back home."
"Oh really?", she said, as if I'd said that I miss prison life. "Because I find that food from the United States is just shit."
"But what do you mean American food, though?" Did she just mean hot dogs or was she including California rolls?
"Don't say American." she said, full of pity at my lack of tact. "You're from the United States. Americans are from two continents, not from one country." That kind of pedantry annoys the hell out of me and I told her so. I've never seen a French textbook that said that I shouldn't use the word "American" to describe someone from the states. After that aside, which ended with me saying "Ok, let's leave it" (Laisse tomber), we continued.
"American food is food from all the immigrant communities. Japanese, Italian, German, Thai, Chinese... Chinese-American food is very different from Chinese food from China." I said.
"What are you trying to say? Doesn't that mean that there's no food that isn't American? There are immigrants from all over in America. Chinese food is still Chinese.", she scoffed. She just desperately wanted me to play the role of the imperialist.
"Noooo, I'm saying that the Chinese food you find in America, for example, can't be found anywhere but in America. It's American food. You wouldn't say that spaghetti is Chinese and not Italian, just because noodle-making was brought over from China. I miss the food from my home country, and I'm sorry but it's not all shit." At this point, my voice was starting to shake from anger. As I type this, it doesn't really make sense that I was so annoyed so quickly. In my defense, this is after a whole evening of passive-aggressiveness.
What got me the most about the exchange was that she had this preconceived notion of me as this blind patriot, just because I was American. It's a kind of racism. I am absolutely capable of reasoned criticism of my own country, as anyone who knows me can vouch for, but with her, I couldn't escape the four sheer walls of her prejudgment. To try to have this conversation in French with emotion clouding my thoughts was doubly hard.
The rest of the night was good and, let me say, this kind of conversation is not at all normal. Most people I know here like Americans. The Spanish girl sat away from me after that and was nicer to me.