External judgment.
Being an American abroad opens one up to all kinds of judgments about our culture. I guess that's a danger when everyone else seems more acutely aware of your culture than you are of theirs. I get questions about George Bush and Obama and the wars. Movies and taxes and health care and rock stars. Most of these questions I can't answer, and a lot of them I don't even have opinions on. It's amazing how many times I'm criticized for not knowing more about American pop stars. One night a few months ago I was in the pub downstairs when a man heard my accent and came over to talk to me. This is a pretty common occurrence, because anglophones tend to be targets for commentary. This particular guy, though, said something weird. He walked right up to me and asked if he could shake my hand, which, in France, is a business sort of thing and not a met-in-a-bar sort of thing. He then said, quite excitedly and in heavily-accented English, that his name was Pierre (of course i...