meeting a new group of people

afroblademaster:

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

polyglottraveler:

sprachtraeume:

me: hi! so where are you guys from :D

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 :)

To be fair, many of us Americans don’t get out of the country often, if it all, and whenever anyone here asks us where we’re from they’re asking about the state.  

Plus it’s apparently really hard for us to wrap our head around the size of Europe.  Like, where I live you can drive two hours and get to another city in the same state, and in Europe you can drive that long and be in an entirely different country.  So that makes it harder for us to break that habit.

It’s really funny when it’s written out like this because it’s so accurate.

Like, I don’t even remember ever saying specifically that “I’m from the US” or “I’m American”.

Fortunately for me, my hometown is mildly close to New York and everyone knows where that is. :2