Crotchy

Yesterday was Christmas. Tony and I were invited over to a fellow teacher's house. It was really nice. We had duck (me for the first time, I think Tony had it in China), red cabbage (Tony actually ate and YES, we both stink now), and Knodel.

The fellow teacher's mom was there. That lady is something else. Tony and I have named her Crotchy. Its short for Crotchety Old Lady. She studied in some rinky dink town in Indiana like 40 years ago, but knows EXACTLY what life is like ALL OVER America still today.

She started by telling me how horrible American schools are. Sure most American schools are probably not as good as they could/ should be, but I just felt like she was unnecessarily ripping on my profession.

After I told her that I'm a German Teacher in America, she looked at me with this really confused face and asked me where I was going to teach German and told me they don't teach German in American high schools. It took all of me not to say: " Yes, my university just offered a degree in German Language Education for shits and giggles, there really is no such job in America".

Then she started complaining about how badly Black people are treated in the USA. Yes, I know America has had and still does have issues treating certain groups of people with respect and equality. I just felt like she was pointing fingers without looking at the issues her own country has and has had. It took all of me not to say: "Do I need to remind you that your country killed millions of Jews just over 60 years ago". (And just for the record, I know it was horrible of me to even think that... which is why I would NEVER dream of  saying it.) She also tried telling me that things haven't gotten much better in the USA for Black people. I really wonder if she realizes that Obama is Black.

Then she started complaining about how horrible her host family was because they wanted her to wear Bobby socks and she didn't feel comfortable doing that.... she wanted to wear her knee socks. It took all of me not to say: "Seriously lady, they're SOCKS".

Then she told Tony and I how ugly she thinks American English is and how stupid we sound compared to the British because we use a smaller vocabulary. I just can't imagine EVER saying that to somebody's face. That would be like me telling somebody from Austria that I think the language they speak makes them sound stupid because its not German- German. What does saying something like that accomplish?

She ended the conversation by saying that she had encouraged her kids to go study in America, but none of them ever did.... she thought probably because she had said so many negative things to them about Americans. It took all of me not to say: "If you have the balls to say such ignorant things to two people from America, I can only imagine what all you told your kids".

It doesn't bother me that this lady had her opinions about the USA. In fact, I don't even disagree with everything she's saying... America has had and still does have problems, but seriously lady, you don't think the USA has changed AT ALL in the last 40 some years? Right,  because Germany hasn't changed at all in the last 40 years either. There's still an East and West Germany and you still use the Deutsche Mark. America is a huge country with all different kinds of people. I'm pretty sure that rinky dink town you lived in in Indiana 40 years ago probably didn't represent the entire country very well. I'm not sure any one place in American can represent the entire country.

At the time of the conversation I just really wanted to throw my Knodel in Crotchy's face, but now her ignorance is just funny to me! I've had SO many of these conversations with Germans.

It's one of those cultural differences. A difference that I sometimes find  hard/annoying to deal with. I feel like most Americans probably wouldn't sit at Christmas dinner and rip on somebody's country and way of life.

Maybe she could have said what she felt in a way that wasn't so offensive.... of course that too may be a cultural difference. To a German what she said might not be offensive. Who knows!

I could have in turn listed off a whole number of things that I don't particularly like about living in Germany, but whats the point? There's a quote I've found to be OH SO true after having lived abroad.

It is: "When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make it's own people comfortable."

I wish I would have thought of this quote in the half hour she was telling me how much America sucks!