meeting a new group of people

viendiletto:

you-had-me-at-e-flat-major:

polyglottraveler:

sprachtraeume:

me: hi! so where are you guys from 😀

normal people: I am from Russia/Brazil/Italy/Australia/etc 🙂

Americans, assuming studying the specific geography of their country was ever relevant to me: Oh I was born in iower but went to school in Oregano (My parents come from East Carolina though):~)

Someone finally said it it’s so annoying!

One day I was eating at a restaurant in Peru with the 3 guys who were volunteering with me and someone asked us where we came from. So I said France, the German guy said Germany, the Maltese guy had to say Italy because almost no-one in Peru knows where Malta is, and then the American guy said Portland, like he didn’t even specify the state he just thought everyone knew where Portland is 😤

i can’t tell whether this is better or worse than

european: where are you from

american: i’m italian

european: omg same! da dove vieni?

american: wait what lol i don’t speak mexican i only speak english

and

european: where are you from?

american: (monolingual english speaker, white, never left Marietta, GA in 23 years of life) well i’m 1/5th irish, 1/7th german, 32% greek, 4/9ths native american, 1/12th swedish, a little bit filipino, my mother was a hamster and my father smelt of elderberries, but i just call myself african 🙂

The American comments on this post are so irritating. I think that some of them don’t realise that the USA is just a country while Europe is a continent made up of different countries where you can find different religions, different autochthonous ethnicities, different languages etc; You can’t compare a single country’s diversity to the diversity of an entire continent.

“But Texas is so different from Oregon! People need to know which state I’m from because they’re all so different!” We don’t care. We are going to see you as an American, not as a Texan or a Californian or whatever, just like you’re going to see someone from Bavaria as a German, someone from Normandy as a Frenchman or someone from Piedmont as an Italian, not as a Bavarian, a Norman and a Piedmontese. European countries have regional differences too, even more than US states yet we don’t feel the need to specify that to foreigners when they ask us where we’re from unless they ask us to elaborate.

“But the US is so big! Some of our states are even bigger than your countries!”

Russia is the largest country in the world and undoubtedly more diverse than the US. If you were to ask a Russian where they’re from they would say that they’re from Russia, not Komi or Tuva unless they’re speaking to another Russian or someone they know to be familiar with Russian geography.

You’re not special nor does the world revolve around you, just accept that and move on.