Another edition of The Terrified American

Whelp it's happened again:
http://gawker.com/muslim-student-kicked-off-southwest-airlines-flight-for-1771397338

Americans are SO unaccustomed to hearing other languages spoken that they fear for their lives when confronted with it.


My facebook post from November 2015 just never gets old (sadly):

Once again, I am the only American in my Turkish class (not a bad thing!) Together we are two French Women and a French man, a Dutch woman, a Polish woman, German man and myself. They all speak English. The Polish med student and I are the only 2 who don't speak French, but I was astounded today when she was talking to our German friend in German. WHAT?!?! On the break we figured out that between them they speak German, French, Spanish, English, Arabic, Dutch, Italian AND NOW a bit of Turkish.
Then one of them said, "Oh, I read that some people were kicked off a plane in America for speaking Arabic. Is that true?!" I said that I read the same thing. It was a shameful moment to be an American, to be honest. America is SO BIG that Americans are often never confronted with another culture, never SEE another culture and never even HEAR another language. It just underlined to me how closely ignorance and fear are connected. So I don't really have a point here other than, TRAVEL! Learn another language and don't be afraid of things you don't know - educate yourself so that you can live without that fear - it's way more fun! heart emoticonWWe;; ots appened an

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