An International City

A few weekends ago, I had the luck of being able to scramble together a few days in New York City. I won’t go into too much detail, as this is a DC blog, but one thing I noticed and was really intrigued by was the amount of international run-ins I had. Not only did people approach and ask me questions in German and French, but the amount of actual bilingual signage everywhere was pretty surprising too.

That being said, after returning to DC, I really started looking around and listening more and more. Instead of staying in my own zone and walking around with headphones and sunglasses on, I started paying attention to my surroundings. I have to say I’m impressed with how international DC is. For example, just during a normal day’s commute, I probably hear 2-3 languages, aside from English. Whether it’s someone talking on their cell phone in Russian, or a family huddled around a map arguing in Spanish, there’s a lot of linguistic diversity on the streets.

In addition to keeping an ear out for languages, I started reading the signs I encounter on a daily basis. After getting off the bus and walking to work one day, for example, I counted 6 restaurants that advertise their menu in both English and some other language. I’m ashamed to say I never noticed before I really started paying attention, but DC is super cultured!

Of course, the majority of time, the people I encounter from different counties occurs on the weekend, in popular tourist areas. Whenever I see international tourists in DC, my first thought always jumps to, “who would want to come here??” I think of the trips I’ve been and want to go on, and visiting the center of the government hasn’t been at the top of my list in most places (exception, England). I think of the famous, outrageously old things I’d travel to places like Italy or Egypt for… then I remembered that the US doesn’t really have much like that. The majority of old/important things we do have, I realized, are here in DC. Maybe, to an international tourist, the idea of America is very much centered on Washington and its projection of power.

I guess I’ll never know for sure. However, the amount of interest international tourists take in our system of government has made me now want to visit and learn about how other countries decide their matters of state.

LZ