One thing that's hard to get to get a feel for in the states is the way people of different languages interact. As Americans, we're used to only hearing either English or languages that are strongly related to ethnicity (i.e. Spanish, Japanese, Chinese). Tourists are obvious and rarely speak only English anyway.
Europeans can't rely on appearance to distinguish native tongues (to the same degree). Therefore it isn't particularly surprising if someone doesn't speak your language. You just communicate the best you can and move on as quickly as possible. No offense taken.
This must be why Americans annoy people overseas.
1 comment:
It looks so beautiful there. Where are you staying? What ws the complicated series of events you were referring too? The band sounds grand. That's my new word. We met a 25 y.o. guy from Ireland last night at the bar in the new Heathman Hotel in Kirkland. He works in Dublin for the language division of Microsoft. He thought eveything was grand here. He was really funny and nice.
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