RE: Babel

From: Marissa Bea
Sent: Fri 11/12/10 11:19 AM
To: Home; Bethany Bea

Every day when I ride the subway, the majority of people are not speaking English. It's usually Spanish, but I hear a lot of Greek, German, Hebrew, Chinese and Korean. Yeah, I know what each of those sounds like now. I can pick out Russian, Japanese (well, duh), Arabic, Hindi, Italian and French too. Not that I can understand anything. But I can read Subway Spanish (all the signs in the subway cars written in Spanish).

Did you know that Queens is the most ethnically diverse county in the entire United States? It's also one of the most ethnically diverse place in the whole world, for its size. I have more friends in Queens that were not born in this country than who were, and probably a good half of everyone I know is bilingual, some of which came as a shock to me.

You know what's funny, everyone is all pissy about immigration policy and lots of people think that there are too many immigrants taking jobs away from citizens, but on a day to day basis, it's the freaking tourists who aren't even here to stay that make everyone really angry. Unfortunately they practically hold this city on its feet with all their spending, but I'll be damned if they aren't more useless than any immigrant I've met. They slow down your day, and most of them act like they've never seen a street sign before. Granted they can't read English, but really? If I know I'm going to another country, I'd make an effort to learn enough about where I'm going so I don't get lost every five seconds. That seems to make logical sense.

Can you tell I hate tourists? New York tourists are the worst. You know everyone jokes about the Japanese tourists on the west coast? Oh man, here it's the Europeans. Dear god.

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From: Bethany Bea
Sent: Mon 11/15/10 4:45 PM
To: Marissa Bea; STEVEN BEA; mommy

Oh my god. You're a REAL New Yorker now! I'm pretty sure loathing tourists is the last step in the transformation. You've already played chess with the geezers in the park and you're never home. AND you're part of an art movement. Hurry up and come back to the west coast where the stimuli are gentler. You know. Forests and sunshine. By the by, Santa Barbara tourists were no joke, either. There, I was confronted with the sight of thousands in ridiculous sandals and Hawaiian shirts, even though California is patently not Hawaii (though it is jealous of Hawaii and plans to move there someday). The tourists who come to Montana, however, fancy themselves adventurous and shop the shit out of REI then go like a mile into the woods and get eaten. Justice? Were it legal, I'm sure New Yorkers would eat their own tourists.

Love,
Bethany