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English= American Abroad
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Originally Posted by Eagle5US
If traveling in Germany and an Asian family was speaking in their Asian Language, would the Germans then assume that they were American? Probably not. However, if they were speaking in English, then probably so.
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Sir,
I respectfully disagree, IMHO even most Western Europeans are relatively more provincial or less accepting of ethnic assimilation as Americans. I visited Paris and Vienna after school with two buddies from college Rick and Amit. Rick is ethnically Chinese (family came over to California in 1800's), and Amit is second generation from Ohio ( parents came to US in the 1960's from India.) Both obviously speak perfect American english. We would try to ask the locals for good eating spots. On numerous occasions the responses were as follows. If I asked, they pointed out Mcdonalds since obviously thats what an American in Paris eats, If Rick asked Chinese places, and kebabs for Amit. Now it's possible we ran into nothing but the Euro version of ignorant hicks, or they saw three young guys and correctly assumed we were on a budget. However, it seemed fairly obvious they didn't see Rick and Amit as "real Americans", it got funnier as we went further east. In Prague Amit was asked if he planned to move back to India, his response of " I'm from Cleveland buddy" was met with blank stares, though solid kebab recomendations...
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Last edited by akv; 08-24-2010 at 17:36.
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