pretenders and burn outs

One of my best friends when I moved here was from Kenya, the school made her tell people that she was American at first but people kept asking her about America where she's never been so in the end she just said Kenya.

A lot of the commonwealth use English as their national language because their nations aren't anything to do with what was going on their before colonization. I think it's turning into an advantage for a lot of places as racism becomes less acceptable, half of the Africans I've met speak 3 or 4 languages as a matter of course, that must make you smarter in some way... Your normal middle class chinese probably speaks mandarin, local language and a little English....

When I'm asked where I come from, like most Americans, I always give my state (Texas), but in China, when I do that I get tis confused look with a follow-up question of "where's that?" "(sigh) America"

I then have to explain that because each state is different, we identify with our home state more than we do with the country of our nationality.

I do that also. I consider mentioning "USA" an equivalent answer to someone saying "Europe" when asked the same question as to where they are from.

Right because everybody in the world is expected to know exactly where and what an Oregon is.

Oregon - normally found in clusters, but occasionally as single particles of "this smells like pizza!", many many oregons go into the production of every jar of oregano, their rarity in particularly creating a spice shortage in China.

Oregon - normally found in clusters, but occasionally as single particles of "this smells like pizza!", many many oregons go into the production of every jar of oregano, their rarity in particularly creating a spice shortage in China.

But quite plentiful in Italy and Greece

oh wait, kids here have either never heard of Greece or can't find it on a map of Southern Europe

Quote from: Calach Pfeffer on February 16, 2014, 04:13:12 PM

Oregon - normally found in clusters, but occasionally as single particles of "this smells like pizza!", many many oregons go into the production of every jar of oregano, their rarity in particularly creating a spice shortage in China.

But quite plentiful in Italy and Greece

oh wait, kids here have either never heard of Greece or can't find it on a map of Southern Europe

I think that's because it sounds really different in Chinese

Not many Chinese young uns seem to have heard of Belgium, but I see that as a wholly. Positive thing

I tell 'em I come from Antarctica, graduated from the University of Queen Maud Land

I tell 'em I come from Antarctica, graduated from the University of Queen Maud Land

Liar, you never graduated   

Right because everybody in the world is expected to know exactly where and what an Oregon is.

Eh, no one knows where any country in Europe is either unless it's one of a half dozen "famous names" on the West end.

I would say all the above assumptions are just plain wrong.

The Chinese men are very familiar with a sports team from my home state, so I can use them as an instant ice-breaker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas,_Queensland

Noodles, I grew up in a small town in New South Wales, just over the border from Texas in QLD (Queensland) Went fishing there many times as a child. Thanks for the memories!

I'm 100% american, sound american, look american (northeast/slightly boston accent).

Today was my first day with new students. I asked the first class if I was British (after talking for a good 5-10 minutes.) Most answered yes. Then, the second class I said "where am I from?" and a few shyly answered "Australia?" I laughed and said no, then almost in unison they cried out "ENGLAND!"

These are college sophomores! But apparently tricking them would not be too hard.

And it's true that american identify ourselves by our state, but I have given that up in china long ago because of the confusion it brings. The only people I see stick to their state long-term in China are New Yorkers. They can't have people think they're from somewhere less than there. hahaha

"Sugelan" is not "Yingguo".

This confuses everyone, and then they ask about Taiwan.