Re: Europeanized Americans

Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2003 18:35:52 +0200
Newsgroups: rec.travel.europe
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On 3/06/03 18:23, in article xY3Da.352857$email-address-deleted,
"Michael Leahy" <email-address-deleted> wrote:
> Just a thought: the same applies to Europeans that move from one country to
> another for any period of time. Not wanting to state the over-obvious, but
> it's quite a cultural jump from, say, Copenhagen to Lake Como, for example.
> Some remain doggedly untouched (at least in appearance) by the move while
> others blend in very fast. I wonder is there any research done on this?
Certainly the new Europe is different than prior to WWII when only the elite
spent time outside their own country. Most of the entourage around Hitler
had spent no time out of Germany.
The EU laws allow any EU citizen to work anywhere in the EU. The French
lab I retired from hired in two Germans just before I retired. They
were more elite in the since they came with good speaking knowledge of
both French and English. But the process of this diffusion must be occurring
at the intermediate levels since young French are encouraged to learn
England (mainly) and spend some time out of the country.
The last point of blending in. It is a natural for a doctoral thesis.
I have never read a study. The Herald has articles now and then about
expat kids having problems not being that American. Our daughter had
some minor problems with that in returning to the USA. She got
an MBA, was sent overseas for auditing French companies and then
criticized at times in the US for "not being American enough".
They hired her for that reason! She eventually fitted in but
that is because she eventually took in local coloration in the USA.
Earl