pompous europeans are asshats.
pompous europeans are asshats.
last night im in a bar with: 1 german, 1 portuguese, 1 korean who is a canadian national, a guy from greece and me, an american. no, this isn't the start of a bad joke. we are all speaking english and the greek guy says that he finds the french and germans to be extremely nationalist in the sense that they would fight to the death for their country. i commented that i didnt find germany to be that way at all, and while there is a sense of nationalism, especially in the west, there surely isn't any sort of notion that one should or must defend their country to the blood, save nazis, who are a small, radical percentage of germany's population.
Before anyone could comment, a dutch girl interrupted us from across the room, politely, and began to say that she wondered why no one wants to speak dutch, especially americans who come to europe. she also said that americans are extremely agressive and patriotic and are the type of people who have this tendency to fight to the death for their country. she also said that americans do not want to learn about other cultures or languages.
at that point i told her this was not true, to which she asked, pompously, if i was an american. i kindly replied yes, her eyes grew and she apologized and asked me to explain how she was wrong. I told her that it is quite true that americans are aggressive and extremely patriotic as compared to many european countries, but to say that americans DO NOT have any urge to learn other cultures or languages is just stupid and ridiculous, plainly, it is false.
If anything, like any human being on the planet, I think Americans do want to know and learn and speak multiple languages. If it seems, from the european perspective that we "don't want to", thats just do simple: it is more of a problem with a horrible education system, too few multicultural programs in and out of schools across america, as well as our geographical position on earth (canada overwhelmingly speaks english and when it comes to mexico, thousands of people learn how to speak and converse in spanish where it counts: california, new mexico, arizona, texas and even parts of louisiana, not to mention where spanish is taught along with french as the two most popular languages in schools across the entire country).
She asked me why I don't speak dutch. I told her I speak english and german, then she attempted to challenge me with german by replying in german (really bad german, at that) to which I said "das ist kein richtig Deutsch" (that's not correct german) and then Nils and I bombarded her with questions in german like, Where do you study? What do you study? Why don't you speak French? And so forth...and she couldn't answer. That's OK, but we only did this to point out her fallacy. The basic point was, I was sitting a table with people from several countries, none of whom could speak a word of Dutch. My point: this has nothing to do with americans not speaking other languages when they come to Europe. Sure, a lot don't, especially those in the service who are in Europe to do a job and go home, that I can understand, but for students, travelers, visitors, the most americans I see try or at least make some small effort.
To the rest of the world, from an american: If we can't speak your language, don't blame it on american people, blame it first on our government that doesn't offer CRAP when it comes to multicultural studies (if you MUST blame something). Do you expect every fucking american to randomly go into a bookstore and get a "How to Speak Dutch/Arabic/German/etc" book (because you also wouldn't do that unless you had to) when we work longer than you, for less than you, are sicker and unhealthier than you, and who mostly are poorer than you, and on top of that, don't get the kind of education you do in our schools?
If this girl, a student of the Dutch language (I found out later) really cared about this "problem", she would quit pointing her finger and bitching, and volunteer at a Dutch-English center, or start her own dutch course in a coffeeshop on weekends or tutor people who asks, shit, even I would condone her CHARGING for her pompous service. But no, like many, it's just so much easier to whine and bitch rather than go do something about it.
from amsterdam, fighting for what america COULD be,
Jody
last night im in a bar with: 1 german, 1 portuguese, 1 korean who is a canadian national, a guy from greece and me, an american. no, this isn't the start of a bad joke. we are all speaking english and the greek guy says that he finds the french and germans to be extremely nationalist in the sense that they would fight to the death for their country. i commented that i didnt find germany to be that way at all, and while there is a sense of nationalism, especially in the west, there surely isn't any sort of notion that one should or must defend their country to the blood, save nazis, who are a small, radical percentage of germany's population.
Before anyone could comment, a dutch girl interrupted us from across the room, politely, and began to say that she wondered why no one wants to speak dutch, especially americans who come to europe. she also said that americans are extremely agressive and patriotic and are the type of people who have this tendency to fight to the death for their country. she also said that americans do not want to learn about other cultures or languages.
at that point i told her this was not true, to which she asked, pompously, if i was an american. i kindly replied yes, her eyes grew and she apologized and asked me to explain how she was wrong. I told her that it is quite true that americans are aggressive and extremely patriotic as compared to many european countries, but to say that americans DO NOT have any urge to learn other cultures or languages is just stupid and ridiculous, plainly, it is false.
If anything, like any human being on the planet, I think Americans do want to know and learn and speak multiple languages. If it seems, from the european perspective that we "don't want to", thats just do simple: it is more of a problem with a horrible education system, too few multicultural programs in and out of schools across america, as well as our geographical position on earth (canada overwhelmingly speaks english and when it comes to mexico, thousands of people learn how to speak and converse in spanish where it counts: california, new mexico, arizona, texas and even parts of louisiana, not to mention where spanish is taught along with french as the two most popular languages in schools across the entire country).
She asked me why I don't speak dutch. I told her I speak english and german, then she attempted to challenge me with german by replying in german (really bad german, at that) to which I said "das ist kein richtig Deutsch" (that's not correct german) and then Nils and I bombarded her with questions in german like, Where do you study? What do you study? Why don't you speak French? And so forth...and she couldn't answer. That's OK, but we only did this to point out her fallacy. The basic point was, I was sitting a table with people from several countries, none of whom could speak a word of Dutch. My point: this has nothing to do with americans not speaking other languages when they come to Europe. Sure, a lot don't, especially those in the service who are in Europe to do a job and go home, that I can understand, but for students, travelers, visitors, the most americans I see try or at least make some small effort.
To the rest of the world, from an american: If we can't speak your language, don't blame it on american people, blame it first on our government that doesn't offer CRAP when it comes to multicultural studies (if you MUST blame something). Do you expect every fucking american to randomly go into a bookstore and get a "How to Speak Dutch/Arabic/German/etc" book (because you also wouldn't do that unless you had to) when we work longer than you, for less than you, are sicker and unhealthier than you, and who mostly are poorer than you, and on top of that, don't get the kind of education you do in our schools?
If this girl, a student of the Dutch language (I found out later) really cared about this "problem", she would quit pointing her finger and bitching, and volunteer at a Dutch-English center, or start her own dutch course in a coffeeshop on weekends or tutor people who asks, shit, even I would condone her CHARGING for her pompous service. But no, like many, it's just so much easier to whine and bitch rather than go do something about it.
from amsterdam, fighting for what america COULD be,
Jody