Do Europeans date/hang out with other european ethnicites? (school, college)

[Go Ne]

Originally Posted by City of Rain

why? France has a population that is almost as big as California. Wouldnt you sa that California is a huge state within the US? Germanys population is way bigger, with 80 million people - a huge country within the EU.

I thought you were describing land size. Population yes, they are rather large.

[eatfastnoodle]

I work in a department where we have lots of European researchers, professors as well as grad students. Yeah, they tend to hang out with each other much more often, as people of most countries do (Americans hang with Americans, Chinese hang with Chinese, Indians hang with Indians, etc). Considering unlike the other three groups, Europeans don't come from the same country and don't speak the same 1st language, one must say it's rather remarkable display of European integration achieved over the past 60 years.

[ako]

Originally Posted by eatfastnoodle

I work in a department where we have lots of European researchers, professors as well as grad students. Yeah, they tend to hang out with each other much more often, as people of most countries do (Americans hang with Americans, Chinese hang with Chinese, Indians hang with Indians, etc). Considering unlike the other three groups, Europeans don't come from the same country and don't speak the same 1st language, one must say it's rather remarkable display of European integration achieved over the past 60 years.

I don't know, at school, people in my year/grade tend to do what you described: Americans hang with Americans etc, but in almost every other year group it's the opposite and people hang out together regardless of what nationality they're from.

I've never figured out why...

[ZipZap]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

I actually saw it as very common.

It absolutely is. Regarding the mentioned language barriers: Many people here speak more than one language, largely facilitated by the school systems (e.g. you can choose to learn French already at early age at German schools, whereas German can be learnt at Spanish schools, etc.). And even if that does not work... English is understood by the most.

I have a lot of friends all over Europe that I meet occasionally, and I know a lot of people that are engaged/ married cross-cultural/cross-border...

[effie g-tad]

Originally Posted by ZipZap

It absolutely is. Regarding the mentioned language barriers: Many people here speak more than one language, largely facilitated by the school systems (e.g. you can choose to learn French already at early age at German schools, whereas German can be learnt at Spanish schools, etc.). And even if that does not work... English is understood by the most.

I have a lot of friends all over Europe that I meet occasionally, and I know a lot of people that are engaged/ married cross-cultural/cross-border...

wonderful, and certainly once intended to be the norm for all eu citizens!

for honesty's sakes, however, there is a reverse trend clearly noticeable, and widely contributed to by the more affluent, contrary to all egalitarian protestations ....

[Minato ku]

The language is not a problem as they often speak the same language.
A German girl that date with a French guy, often speak french or it is the guy that speak german.

Originally Posted by City of Rain

why? France has a population that is almost as big as California. Wouldnt you sa that California is a huge state within the US? Germanys population is way bigger, with 80 million people - a huge country within the EU.

France = 65 million
California = 37 million.
Not exactly the same, infact France is closer to Germany.

[effie g-tad]

Originally Posted by Minato ku

The language is not a problem as they often speak the same language.
A German girl that date with a French guy, often speak french or it is the guy that speak german.



France = 65 million
California = 37 million.
Not exactly the same, infact France is closer to Germany.

well, geography can easily get mixed up in the (virtual) global village today.

and then, there's still that mystery as to why french would have been used as the diplomatic language before it was overtaken ..... or would overcome be the better word for it .....

[City of Rain]

Originally Posted by Go Ne

I thought you were describing land size. Population yes, they are rather large.

well, France is WAY bigger than California when it comes to land size, too!

California: 423,970 km² (163,696 sq mi)

France : 674,843 km² (260,558 sq mi)

Oh, what do you know? Everything in the greatest and biggest nr 1 nation in the world, isn't bigger than everything in tiny, little and poor europe

*throws up*

[pigeonhole]

It depends what you call "hanging on" : here in France There are of course many other Europeans,or French citizens originating from other European countries -mainly Portuguese and Italians(especially from Sicily)- but already after one generation of being married to Frenchmen/women, they tend to be completely frenchifried.
There are of course bi-national couples French-British, French-German, or French-Scandinavian, but they are a small minority, and generally upper-middle-class.

[Neutre]

Originally Posted by Azurise

Unless one has traveled abroad, this fact may not be quite so obvious. Could you explain said differences? (Not necessarily encyclopedic, haha but highlights would be nice.)

In the US, people are basically classified into Black/Latino/Asian/White categories. So a German and a Belarusan are simply considered White.
Whereas for example in Germany, a white Belarusan is just as ausländisch as a black Togolese.
HTH!