Jon: The website said they’re nice to foreigners.
Me: You are the foreigner there Jon.
Jon: No, I’m the white man in charge. Anywhere I go, they are foreigners.
Although Jon is obviously joking in our discussion of getting by teaching English in South Korea, this statement does illustrate the preconceived, American-central mindset of certain individuals. Before leaving for Germany in May, a coworker at Walgreens stated that I would catch the swine flu from those foreigners, before I told her that I would be the foreigner: a concept that she didn’t readily understand. It would be overly simplistic and stereotypical to say that most Americans see things this way, but it’s still a frightening, interesting notion.
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