Re: [wolfrunners] Languages & SF/F (fwd)

On Sat, 19 Aug 2000, Thomas R. Wier wrote:

>Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>>
>> Perhaps "intolerant" is a bit too strong, but I've occasionally
>> encountered attitudes in that direction.  Probably the most extreme case
>> I heard of was a bicultural man who married a monocultural American wife,
>> took her to Rome for their honeymoon, and couldn't understand why she
>> seemed increasingly unhappy.  Finally she burst out, "I don't understand
>> why all these foreigners won't speak English."  Needless to say, that
>> marriage didn't last long.
>
>Is this documented?  It's sounds like the stuff that urban legends are
>made of.
I've heard such things said, of (obviously) foreign tourists. Here in
Washington; I don't recall hearing anything like this when I was in
Spain. Of course, they have their own language problems, tourists
being the least of concerns!

Padraic.