I'm a foreigner in a foreign land
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
As many of my readers might know already, I'm originally from Lithuania but after I completed my secondary education, I moved to UK and have been living here for 6 years. Many immigrants face the same problems and situations, but some problems would be more unique to smaller Eastern European countries. So I do get asked where I am from quite a lot. Would be quite interesting go keep a tally to see how often that happens. Anyway, the conversation usually goes like this:
them: so where are you from?
me: Lithuania
them: ~blank stare. silence. ~
them: so is it near <insert a random Eastern European country that is not even close to Lithuania>?
me: no...
Sometimes I bother and explain where it actually is and yes, we have our own language and it's not Russian.
Today I had a special case, they asked me if it's near Romania, I said no. Then they called Romanians thieving peasants. I was shocked, why would you say that, why would you say that. I'm used to ignorance but not so much open racism and assumption that others would agree with such a ludicrous statement.
Sometimes I think I should just come up with absolutely random country and see if my experience is any difference. Maybe I should come up with a country that doesn't even exist. That would be interesting social experiment.
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