4 Things My American Wife Doesn’t Understand about Europe
Questions that puzzled my spouse
When we moved back four years ago, my (American) wife had many questions about the European habits and customs.
The fact they can be so different between neighboring countries like Austria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary drives her crazy. Especially since these three nations combined make for less than half the size of Texas.
Here are four of my wife’s favorite questions.
Why don’t Europeans all speak the same language? It would be easier.
Yes, it would be easier, but there’s no way in hell this will happen anytime soon. The European Union has 24 official languages. Official means that Europeans have the right to make their requests to the EU in any of these 24 languages.
Europeans are VERY proud of their languages.
Many countries have special laws to protect the local language. For example, some countries make it mandatory for radio stations to play a minimum percentage of songs in the local language. Other countries have special programs to support the production of movies in the local language.
For us, it’s a matter of defending our cultures.
Also, as much as we like them, we’re a tad sick of the generic Hollywood movies and want to see some more original art.
Why don’t Europeans use miles instead of kilometers?
I prefer to think she means this question as a joke ,and I usually avoid answering. She still likes to tease any new friends we make with it.
They usually get triggered.
As it should trigger anybody in their right mind. Particularly when you know the mile’s international definition uses meters as a reference …
The same goes with pounds and kilograms, by the way. Here’s the extract from the Annual Report of the (US) National Bureau of Standards.
“To secure identical values for the yard and pound in precise measurements, an international yard and an international pound were adopted by agreement between the directors of the national standards laboratories of six English-speaking nations: Canada, New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia. According to the agreement, the international yard equals 0.9144 meter and the international pound equals 0.45359237 kilogram.”
Why do Europeans keep on calling Americans “Inhabitants of the US?”
As an American, my wife doesn’t understand why Europeans particularly dislike the fact that using America instead of the USA appears derogatory to the other countries on the American continent(s).
From our European point of view, each country in North and South America is as much American as the US.
Europeans don’t see any reason why the USA should be entitled to use the word America.
There are 44 countries in Europe, and we can’t imagine that one of them would decide to call itself Europe.
Why don’t Europeans smile more often?
My wife has a beautiful smile. Where I come from, we call it “the American smile.” It’s big, bright, and you can see all her teeth. I like to call her Julia Roberts when she does it. It’s a joke between us.
But most Europeans don’t smile like this. For us it looks fake and borderline aggressive because of all the teeth.
In nature, primates showing their teeth signal they’re ready to fight and defend themselves. It acts as a warning for the potential opponent. That’s why the typical American smile isn’t something we usually do. It comes out a tad too aggressive for our European minds, although it differs depending on the country. It’s also changing because of all the Hollywood movies we’ve been watching for the last 60 years.
And that’s the main reason Europeans look like they don’t smile as much as their American counterparts. It’s because our smiles are more restrained.
The other one is that we think Americans are a bit hypocrites, and we prefer not to smile when we’re not happy.
Austria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary combined, make for less than half of Texas, but the population size is similar at 29 million inhabitants. Overall the US is larger than European Union, but there are 120 million more inhabitants in the EU.
For such large groups of people it’s normal to experience cultural differences. Even within the EU or the US, habits and customs vary greatly between states.
Here’s wishing we’ll show more understanding towards others in the future.