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there's either alot to say about this or nothing to say, it's hard to know.
my general impression is based on living in paris for a few years, off an on.
Americans--that undifferentiated category used to refer to tourists in tourist places doing tourist things--tend grosso modo (heh) to be parochial.
the clearest index is that "we" typically only speak english.
the assumption that gets *read off* this simple fact is that "we" do not think other languages worth the trouble to learn. "we" don't learn because we don't have to--"we" aren't curious--"we" is a nation of george w. bushes.
parochial can figure as arrogant, then.
on the other hand, sticking with the paris experience, if you can speak french you can have a fantastic time--but it's curious thing that, when this sort of thing comes up in conversation, "Americans" comes to refer to a category that is just as much external to you as it is to the person you are hanging out with.
so it's mobile, a synonym for parochial rather than a descriptor for folk who happen to come from a particular geographical space.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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