Had American ignorance affected yours or your spouse's adjustment to life in the U.S.?

[jjbandero 39]

I've been living in the US for the past 7 years and have not encountered particularly overt racism, I think I am some what insulated because I work in an environment where we have lots of transplants from out of the state and outside of of the US and we pretty much all appreciate how hard it is to start somewhere new. Most of the experiences I've had in this space were caused by ignorance or simple curiosity. People find it very difficult to grasp the fact that I lived on three continents, I was born in China and left to go to Australia when I was a youngster, then I came to the US as an adult, some people really struggled to come to terms with the fact that I have an Australian accent. Overall, I've tried to adapt to the word usage here to avoid potential communication confusion, and answered their questions politely, my husband sometimes lose patience, but you don't know what you don't know, so maybe if I tell you, it might stick when they encounter it next time

I actually faced more xenophobia when I was living and then later visiting China, I found this surprising, since I am not outwardly "foreign". I noticed that in a lot of the conversations I've had with people, the first few questions were usually around where I'm from. I generally use my father's home town as my home town (even though I've never lived there, but I understand that is the traditional way of explaining it), when I'm in a northern city, I'm treated like as if I'm a country bumpkin (based on the home town) and when I'm in the south, I'm immediately thought of as a snob based on my accent (actually, I have a standard newscaster accent, since that's what I was taught).

I guess to make my long answer short, it really depends on where you are in the US, and the people you are in regular contact with. I've been told by friends that there are lots of places in the US where no one is really welcome when you examine all of the prejudices in that area, which is slightly humorous to me.

[TBoneTX 45,288]

To me, this makes sense neither in English nor in Spanish. Color me confused.

That's why people always become alarmed and point me toward the nearest restroom, see man.