# American Dopers, does it annoy you when people fly foreign flags? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 19, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608 "2011-07-19T18:21:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608/121 "2011-07-25T22:40:20Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > It bothered me that the Tae Kwan Do school I visited, once, required students to swear loyalty to the Korean flag every class. I couldn’t do it but apparently all the students there do it just fine. I assume they are Americans. What do you mean, “Swear loyalty”? In every taekwondo school I have ever been to, there is an American flag (for allowing TKD to be taught openly) and a Korean flag, and you bow to the dojang practice floor, then bow to both flags, before and after class. That was out of respect, not a loyalty oath, did that place do something different? I wouldn’t say any “oath” to any state. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608/122 "2011-07-25T23:09:46Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I don’t know if this is still in force, but you guys seem to be getting information from the rest of the [section](http://www.usflag.org/uscode36.html#175) (specifically subsection c), so I would think this would be relevant. As far as I can tell, no nation is supposed to fly their flag over another, even if you are in that country. You crazy vexillologist you…😉 ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608/123 "2011-07-26T01:59:43Z")
I like to see other flags. You ought to see the Irish flags around here on St. Patrick’s day, every other house. Don’t know if they’re really Irish or just think the flag is a nice decoration. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608/124 "2011-07-26T22:30:27Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > You’re really comparing reactions to French and Mexican immigration and think the difference is due to the latter being “brown people from south of our border”…? According to Table 2 [here](http://www.dhs.gov/files/statistics/publications/LPR10.shtm), in 2010 4,289 French people, 1,610 Irish, and a mere 966 Greeks obtained legal permanent residence status in the US. The number for Mexicans in the same period was 138,717. I’m pretty sure _that_ accounts for the main difference of reaction. For good or for ill, it’s easier to think how charming the Irish flag is when fewer Irish people entered last year than were in my high school, and when most of the people flying the flag have been here for multiple generations. When the Irish were coming in droves it was probably seen as a lot less charming. With all due respect, the official statistics _ipso facto_ don’t reflect persons entering, staying, or working in the U.S. illegally. Before the recession (say, 2007), I would have guessed hyperbolically that there were more than 1,610 Irish citizens working at Navy Pier alone in the summertime 🙂 and more seriously that there were more than 1,610 Irish citizens working in Chicago any given summer. A pre-recession (2007) L.A. Times [opinion piece](http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-rodriguez8apr08,0,1081193.column) stating that there were an estimated 50,000 Irish illegal immigrants in the U.S. then. Now the ones I saw in Chicago generally weren’t residents, legal or otherwise, as they mostly came here to work/party for the “gap year” summer and then go home. And they were filling temporary summer jobs that Americans weren’t. (Sound familiar? 😃 ) I also don’t see as many now since the recession. My point is that there are plenty of non-Mexicans living and/or working in the U.S. in violation of the immigration laws but still it seems that the ire of many Americans is reserved for Mexicans or Hispanics. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608/125 "2011-07-26T22:39:30Z")
I fly a Canadian flag below the American one because we are only 26 miles from Canada across the lake. We do have a lot of Canadian tourists in our area so I think it is polite. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608/126 "2011-07-26T23:02:12Z")
The Tea-Party-ish guy next door has three flags out on a daily basis: US flag, “Don’t Tread on Me,” and the Spanish flag. I believe his wife is either Spanish or of Spanish descent. This and other examples don’t annoy me as much as they confuse me. Are you American or not? I chalk it up to honoring heritage, but flags specifically hit me as nationalistic rather than cultural. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608/127 "2011-07-27T00:52:42Z")
> [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](#): > > Some people on my street always flew the Danish flag at their house. On what must have been some Danish holiday they had 17 of them on display in their yard! I thought it was kind of funny, but not bothersome. Danes are known to put their flag on everything for any reason whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608/128 "2011-07-27T01:06:25Z")
Your [average Danish Christmas tree looks like this,](http://www.hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/christmasworld/denmarktree.html) for example. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608/129 "2011-07-27T18:04:57Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Danes are known to put their flag on everything for any reason whatsoever. I said in that other thread it was the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of the country. It makes sense that the identification should be powerful; it’s a strong, simple design that has endured longer than any other flag (and provided the basis for the other Nordic flags). > [@salinqmind](#): > > I like to see other flags. You ought to see the Irish flags around here on St. Patrick’s day, every other house. **Don’t know if they’re really Irish or just think the flag is a nice decoration.** Now this is what I wonder, more than the question of American feelings about foreign flags (I think we’ve established that we’re mostly fine with it)–are people of the _other_ countries annoyed by American use? The Irish one of course is big on St. Patrick’s Day, which is a bigger holiday for many Americans than it is for Irish in Ireland. The thing is, a huge number of Americans _do_ have some Irish ancestry, if not much personal relationship with modern Ireland; how close does the connection between the flier and the flag have to be? For that matter, I can recall, some years back when the fear of Mexicans wasn’t running so high, some people who I’m pretty sure were not of Mexican descent using that flag similarly as a kind of party banner on Cinco de Mayo. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608/130 "2011-07-27T20:20:21Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > What do you mean, “Swear loyalty”? In every taekwondo school I have ever been to, there is an American flag (for allowing TKD to be taught openly) and a Korean flag, and you bow to the dojang practice floor, then bow to both flags, before and after class. That was out of respect, not a loyalty oath, did that place do something different? I wouldn’t say any “oath” to any state. They had some oath about honor the dojo and teachers, respect other, use their skills to defend Korea, etc. That is all I remember as it was over 15 years ago and I never went back. The head guy made a point of telling me that they said this oath every time. Bowing to a flag other than the US would be a deal breaker to me if the place was insistent about it. Swearing anything to a foreign flag was way over the line IMO but didn’t seem to bother anyone else there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-dopers-does-it-annoy-you-when-people-fly-foreign-flags/589608.md?page=6)