3 ways to be less foreign, because as cool as it is to show off your English (which everyone now speaks), it's even cooler making friends outside of your language class.
1. Keep the ratio of new language to old language 70/30.
- Ten percent will be all of your new expat buddies, ten will go to FaceTime and subsequent communication back home, and the last ten you will waste on keeping up with your totally disposable American media, fool. Seriously, if the scales start tipping the other way your language is going to suffer, and the better the language the less people will talk about you right in front of your face.
2. Say yes
- Congrats, this three letter word just became your new best friend, and if you're on exchange you probably need one. It will give you experiences and stories and mistakes, and you will treasure them.
3. Own your country.
- They are going to say the word Trump and laugh. The are going to bring up McDonald's and guns and 'Merica and laugh, as they should. You are foreign. You are foreign :) You are exciting and mysterious and can make obscure references to things they will never understand. Acknowledge the fact that you are but a little American fish in the sea of our star-spangled nation and are in no way responsible for the genocide/economic collapse/cardiovascular problems and or blissful ignorance that may or may not have been adopted by the vast majority of your native population. You come from somewhere with problems and vulnerabilities like every other citizen on this Earth, yours just happens to be somewhat of a headliner.
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