English, Pax Americana and “Bad Americans”

In the places we’ve been so far in Greece, everyone speaks English – usually very proficiently.

Yesterday when buying a bus ticket a day in advance, I thought I should be careful and be very clear with day and time because most tickets are sold for the current time and someone working at a bus ticket counter may have more limited English.

I watched the girl of some Northern European origin ahead of me speaking to the ticket booth man very slowly and clearly in English, suggesting a communication problem.

So, when it was my turn, I said very clearly, “Can I get tickets for tomorrow? For two people. At nine o’clock in the evening?” And I watched the guy’s face intently to see if he got it….

“Yeah, that’ll be €25.20 and if you have 20 cents, that’ll really help,” he said with an almost American accent as he looked at me like I was an idiot for talking to him that way.

And that’s the amazing thing about Greece and much of the world. English is the language of travel and international commerce. Since we’ve been in Greece, we’ve run into one pair of American travelers aside from our friends Autumn and Sharon who came to meet us. The people who run the hotel are Canadian and we’ve encountered one French-Canadian girl aside from them.

The tourists are very largely European and from all over the continent – Germany, England, France, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Russia and there are even Greeks who spend their vacations in the islands.

They communicate with one another in English – their common medium.

Greece has immigrants from the Balkan countries and they often work in shops and customer service jobs – so far as we’ve seen, their English is even better than most of the Greeks.

Customers speak to waiters, travel agents, bus ticket office people and shop owners all in English – no matter who they are. Being American couldn’t be easier despite the fact that we aren’t really well represented. And all I can think is “Pax Americana”.

Perhaps in Europe, English is preferable to the cultural PTSD of letting French or German ever dominate. More likely, in an age where software, computer programming and the Internet itself works in American English, it seeps into everyone’s life whether or not they want it.

Although many embrace it. A young Norwegian couple staying at our hotel told us their English education began at age five and that television stations show English language programming without subtitles to make sure people learn. Their English was as clean and clear as Neutrogena.

As we listen to the tables around us in restaurants or conversations between people on the street, we rarely hear English. It’s almost a game to listen and figure out where people are from.

In fact, we’ve been approached in Greek a few times – apparently we look enough the part. One woman kept saying, “American? Really? But you look Greek!” I finally had to say “Our families are from Eastern Europe – my mother’s family is from Romania.” That made the world right. ” Oh! Ohhhhh, yes, I can see that….. Rumania….yes…..!”

Everyday, I think how lucky we are to be born American with the advantages we have – how incredibly easy and decadent it is to have the world speak our language and work roughly in our platform. I wonder too, how long does it last?

It also raises the interesting point that Americans so rarely have fluency in another language whereas everyone here is speaking at least two if not more. While in one sense other countries need to, in another might they be better off for it? As someone who has a few languages – I tend to think so. Their foreign language education is so far superior. Their societies are so much more outward looking. How wonderful for them to feel more connected to the world.

Walking down the narrow old stone streets of Hania, I think how amazing and wonderful it feels to be back out in the world with people from everywhere milling about. America for all its wonders is so insular. We talk and think about us. Our day to day feels very removed from everyone else. There are our problems and “their” problems.

Our news is very domestic and what foreign coverage we have is very selective. How many people know what’s happening in France, Malaysia or Russia on any given day. What little we do know is usually related to some kind of major disaster, conflict or political event.

But they know so much about us. While we’re watching talking heads endlessly debate the three big domestic stories of the day, they’re all busy watching us and each other. Hmmm…..

In an odd way, this brings us to the phenomenon of the “bad American” traveler. Autumn and Sharon were complaining about the bad Americans in their tour group in Italy.

People complained about what didn’t work “right” and were very demanding, they said. I was surprised because in Asia, I have always found Americans, Canadians and French to be the better travelers in that they are not demanding and respect that they are in a very different place.

I think “different” is the key. In Asia – with the exception of perhaps Singapore and Hong Kong – everything is so different that it’s undeniable that things won’t work the way you know them. But in Europe, things are similar – close enough to home that being the same is within reach. Concepts are often the same, if executed differently. Technology is generally the same – although sometimes applied differently.

If they drink coffee in the mornings the way we do, then why wouldn’t there be a big pot of drip with affordable, if not free refills?! If they have ice and tea, why don’t they offer iced tea? Why don’t waiters and waitresses work for tips? The service would be better! And if they say it’s a 5:30 boat, why doesn’t it leave at 5:30?

Americans are like the mother of an adult child. “Honey, I don’t understand why you don’t try doing it this way…. it would be so much better. It always worked for me….”

Of course the conclusion is the same – what works for one person doesn’t necessarily for another and people aren’t all the same. We all have our strengths and weaknesses as we make our choices for our lives. But they are separate and distinct lives – even if they seem so similar.

In any case, we have another day of beach lounging between the French and Norwegians before heading to Israel – a land with a very different paradigm. The Promised Land looks promising.

Sent from my iPad