National characteristics of people in America
'05.06.2017'
I never thought that get into such an environmentwhere I will communicate simultaneously with people from all over the world. No, of course, to imagine that I, for example, in Italy speak only with the Italians or in France only with the French, I could, but with all of them at once — no way. And it turns out to be very interesting - so many stories from the life of people!
Los Angeles is a city, most of which is inhabited by immigrants from different countries. And since I study English here (and I study in two different places - in the mornings and at the “evening”), I have gained a lot of acquaintances from all over the world. In my classes there are representatives from very different countries: Korea, China, Mexico, Argentina, Latvia, Brazil, India, the Philippines, Iran, Germany, Italy, Spain, Uruguay, Georgia, Kenya, Libya and others.
Due to the fact that so many nationalities are collected here, you very quickly stop paying attention to the appearance of people (I mean national signs such as height, skin color, hair, eyes) and something to be surprised at.
But then you learn to quickly determine and guess which country you are from. Although, of course, it does not always work out right. And because many people are very similar to a completely different nationality. For example, we have a German grandfather in the class, although he looks like an Iranian. As it turned out later, he has a father from Germany, and his mother is from Iran. But this is a case of blood mixing. I also have a good friend who came to the USA from St. Petersburg, but she doesn’t look like a Russian at all, rather like an American, and she changed her name to an American one, so it’s very difficult to determine her nationality. And someone on the contrary looks very Russian, but it may turn out to be entirely from another country. Therefore, "blunders" are often enough. But now it became all the same much easier to distinguish Chinese from Japanese and Koreans (I don’t know about you, but I had problems with this business before). And now you can immediately see by the face who is who.
Just yesterday, with that acquaintance who looks like an American, we started escape from class earlier. I approached her at the break to discuss this matter, and then a woman from Latvia joined us. We spoke, of course, in Russian, and next to our table was our American teacher, not suspecting anything. So we laughed, it's convenient, because no one will see through our cunning plan, because no one except us understands Russian. And then we hesitated, began to discuss something about the lesson, and suddenly the girl at the next desk, who sat all the time next to us, answered us in Russian! We opened our mouths together and everyone turned to her. As it turned out, she is from Moscow, just silent.
Therefore, I do not advise relaxing and loudly making noise in my native language, well, if you, of course, discuss something personal and don’t want someone else to hear your conversation. And all because in the shops, in the cafe or just on the street there can always be someone who knows Russian very well!
Such an embarrassment we had in Ikea, when we went there to buy furniture. I was arguing strongly about something with my husband, I don’t remember that we didn’t share it there, but it turned out that I screamed out loud, “Why don't you understand something in Russian ?!”, after which we almost turned all Ikea, while smiling expressively. As it turned out, Ikea’s most avid visitors are Russians.
The truth when dealing with other nationalities in America has its disadvantages. Firstly, of course, people are very difficult to understand (especially those who still learn English themselves), because they speak with a terrible accent (Russians also have their own accent, but we can most likely repeat the American language, especially not distort the words ), and secondly, also very often people insert their national prepositions and words into English sentences (all sorts of German das and French la). As a result, during a conversation, many have to clarify something very often.
But there are fun moments. That week, my new friend from Iran asked me about the hair on my legs, which was very unexpected! She was very surprised, why do I have such bald legs ?! (I was in short shorts). Then sadly showed her hand. I had to reassure her that nothing can be done, that she just has black hair and I have very fair hair. But I had a reason to envy her thick and even eyebrows, which I obviously cannot boast of. As a result, we were both satisfied with what we have!
And yesterday, a guy from India (a very cute boy with long eyelashes) asked me this question: "Is the same language in Brazil and Russia?" So she told him later in which countries they speak Russian. And that happens.
Well, in addition to all this, I constantly learn something new from people from all over the world, which is always interesting. What stories they just didn't tell me - from the deliciousness of goulash (a Hungarian dish) to the division of Korea into two states.
Therefore, in Los Angeles certainly will not get bored!
Adeus! (from Portuguese - "goodbye")
Stacy Kireev, author Blog "Russian notes about American life" and Instagram about life in America.
