Arrogant American in Europe

Not that I was meaning to be arrogant in any way, but having landed in Frankfort at 8am, after a 10 hour flight across the Atlantic, I found myself in the train station... the Deutsche Bahn... standing before the DB kiosk with an email in my hand that told me I could print my prepaid train ticket here.

Just one small problem. The screen was in German... und ich verstehe ein bischen Deutsch... and I was stuck guessing at the buttons to push on the touch screen. After several failed attempts, I joined the long line of people going into the ticket office.

The guy there did me a big favor. Instead of printing my ticket for me, he sent me back to the kiosk with a quick drawing of which buttons to push, including an indication of color and everything. He told me to touch the flags to get it in English.

"Okay," I thought as I walked back toward a kiosk, "I'd seen these flags on the screen and thought they would change the language, but they'd all been other languages." There had been no American flag!! But as I surveyed the screen once again, suddenly it hit me... and I felt like a dumb, and somewhat arrogant, American. I had expected there to be an American flag for English. It only makes sense right?

But no, here I am in Europe and it wasn't until I reviewed the flags again that I realized... Britain! Of course! The English speaking country in Europe is Britain, so naturally it is the British flag that will get you the English version of the screen. Duh!



Good thing I paid attention in elementary school when learning all those flags of the world. I wonder if Canadians would expect the maple leaf on the white background to signify English for them? Of course, it could always mean French as well. /wink