I agree, it’s more pub than restaurant–keeping in mind also that in this country the word “pub” usually indicates that you expect to find a wider offering of better beer than is typically the case. The word restaurant, by itself, would omit the essential “pub”-ness.
(my emphasis)
I know, we’ve batted this one around elsewhere, before. But I have to point out that this doesn’t describe the experience of every American who spends a semester or two overseas.
As for whether one can justifiably say the lived in the country, when they were only there for a school year varies with the individual situation. If you live for ten months in another state or province of your own country, it doesn’t seem terribly inaccurate to say you “lived” or “spent time” there, so why shouldn’t you also say you lived in whatever foreign country you spent your junior year of college in?
OTOH, when a student doesn’t really make any effort to learn the language better or get to know the culture, like the hypothetical EAP student in your scenario, that’s rather different.
Would those be the connotations to an American? Because I’m not sure that’s very useful…
Ever notice how Americans tend to think of their own country (most of the time) as something anyone can join, but to think of other countries in purely ethnic terms? Then you get monstrosities like the starburst ‘scotch-korean’ ad (google it… it’s pretty shocking).
I’ve always thought of ex-Pat to be more about choose to leave one place rather than choosing a new place. But that’s just a weird little connotation to me. Like making a statement by leaving the US rather than desiring to relocate specifically to France (or being in exile somehow).
Oh I know it doesn’t describe everyone – we agree that in an awful lot of cases it does describe them, and it is pretentious.
As for ‘living’… I dunno. I might just have a weird sense of this word. To me, living somewhere means you have moved your main base of operations somewhere, and you could stay there permanently if you chose. This doesn’t capture students, usually, because their main base of operations is still ‘at home’ - and on a student visa you have to leave after a set time.
Plus ‘living somewhere’ tends to me to imply that you have to deal with the local bureaucracy, and utilities and whatnot. Staying in a dorm sort of insulates you from those aspects of local life.
Would you describe an American army Major from Seattle, with a wife and kids in Seattle, based in Baghdad for a year, as ‘living in Baghdad’? I don’t know, I can see how one might justify both sides.
Of course maybe I’m just being pretentious by putting this much thought into it! entirely possible.
pdts
I spent 2.5 years in England in the US Air Force. As much as possible, I spent time off base, getting to know the locals and the way they do things. I traveled often, not just to the big tourist destinations, but to lots of little local tourist spots. I tried to live in England.
In contrast, some of my fellow Zoomies content themselves with an occasional trip to the pub (but not too often) and even more rare trip to London. They were in England, but they lived on a US Base.
I am not an immigrant. To me, that entails changing citizenship.
In fact, my visa here is specifically a “Non-Immigrant” visa, stamped in my passport.
+1. I’d rank offense at the term “expat” up there with that lady who made the news because she was offended by the Giant Red Spot on Jupiter and tried to take Nasa to court to get them to stop publishing photos of it.
I think it might be because naiveté doesn’t actually look like a typical English word, no doubt because it isn’t one. Although knowledge of French has declined generally in America, the one thing about the language which it’s still safe to assume most people do know is that the final é in French is pronounced roughly like “-AY”. And if you print the word without it, like this –
naivete
then people might think it’s supposed to be pronounced “nayveet”. So printers have been reluctant to drop the accent, which tends to reinforce the French-like pronunciation of the word.
YOUR MUM
s
True enough. Still, for students as such that is their “occupation”, the way an older person has a paid job. To a varying extent, they may have to deal with the bureaucracy of the institution they’re attending. So while they’re in the other country they have to do the same things that the local students have to do.
Probably not, this is a good point. Depending on circumstances, I might be more inclined to say that the wife and kids are living in the country. It would depend on factors we’ve already talked about; if they just stayed on the base and only ever talked to other Americans I’d probably say no.
Not at all.
Is there such a thing as redneck pretension? I was talking to a friend of mine last night and happened to comment on how loud her boyfriend’s beat-up old (diesel) pickup was, and expressed sympathy about how they were going to have to spend some money on a new muffler. She said, “Oh, no, he knocked some holes in the exhaust to make it sound more badass.”
Reverse snobbery?
semi tractors frequently don’t have mufflers; the turbocharger does a lot to quiet the exhaust noise but you still hear the prominent whoosh of the turbo spinning. So a lot of people w/diesel pickups do that so they can “sound like the big trucks.”
ETA: at any rate, if there is such a thing as “redneck pretentiousness,” I’d think it’d be people who are proud that they “don’t got no learnin’.”
Not only do they not got no larnin’ from some hoity toity innalechuals (hey, no classroom has been made that can hold their wild, free spirits captive!) but due to 24/7 texting, tweeting, twittering, etc. they can neither spell nor punctuate. Instead of being embarrassed for being dumbasses, should you point out that, say, their e-mails are nigh incomprehensible, they give you that “don’t know, don’t care” look and go back to staring into their little machines.
Or give you the stock excuse from here - “Well, you can still understand it, so it’s okay.”
Or as Chris Rock observed, "I dunno that shit. I’m keepin’ it real!
Why are you so proudly ignorant?
It sounds to me like the reason for your connotation is because, subconsciously, you’re thinking of “expat” as being short for “ex-patriot” rather than “expatriate.”