Foreigners (Americans)

I´d like to vent for a moment about the way in which Americans carry themselves abroad. OK, not all Americans, but some. There´s a guy here who´s ¨trying¨ to learn Spanish at my school. He goes around all day telling people they need to speak english.`To quote a favorite movie of mine, ¨Uh, what country do you think this is?¨

Sure, there´s international value to learning and speaking english, but who called you to be the embasador to the world. There´s something to be said for respecting the local customs, traditions (and language) of your travel destination. Then again, who am I to preach on the matter either.

Point is, it seems Americans are usually the biggest offeners in this arena. In fact, Elisa (the girl from Montreal) mentioned how utterly surprised she was that an American (me) knew more than just one language (english).

Korean?
French?
And now: Spanish...

What´s wrong with this picture: an American with a broad education and interst in learning more...

I guess I have my Mom and Dad to thank for it. I still remember going to Quebec and my Mom made me order all my own food. And I suppose I have teh MTC to thank for it as well. These two concepts from my mission to Korea...

1) SYL: Speak the Language
2) Love the people

...go a long way to helping open a more interesting window of experience/observation when traveling. I think part of the reason I'm here in the first place is that I want to be able to travel and understand the world as it is a enjoy it more. (Whereas Mr. You-Should-Speak-English is here to learn Spanish so he can go teach people English. If you met him or heard his Spanish you'd know how crazy that claim is, but then again - he's crazy.)

Anyhow, I guess I'm really just venting because I just had a short but volatile rn in with him after he tried to convince the employees of the Internet Cafe that they all had to learn enlgish (a converstaion he has with them daily when he can't express himself in enlish). Why is he blaming THEM for HIS problem (a "problem" which he asked for - by coming here).

Ah ha... I think THAT's the American way.

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OK, I admit it, there are lots of cool Americans to, but I'm on a roll - so let me vent.

I'm enjoying the (overal) r relaxed attitude here and the opportunity to learn something new everyday. I love meeting new people (and watching new people). Most students at teh school are here for 2-3 weeks, so there's a high turnover and that makes it fun.

OK, I'm feeling better now. I think I'll go home and eat lunch before my afternoon class. I'm pretty sure this is my last day with Fredy. I like his as a teacher, but I think I'm becoming too comfortable with his systems and techniques, and our familiar relationship (I've had him for 4 weeks now). Next week, I'll begin anew with someone new and hopefully it won't be worse, and will be as good (or maybe better), but at least different, fresh, and new.