I was born in China but grew up in Australia until I was 21 when I moved to the US. What I found that surprised me was all of the white people I kept meeting in

I was born in China but grew up in Australia until I was 21 when I moved to the US. What I found that surprised me was all of the white people I kept meeting in the US who were totally conversationally fluent in Mandarin. Australia as a culture always felt like it had much closer ties to China and Chinese culture was much more integrated into mainstream Australia culture than when I lived in Seattle or SF. Still, I maybe met 2 people my entire time growing up that were had any proficiency in Mandarin vs over a dozen in my time in the US who were conversationally fluent (and who didn't have Chinese wives or girlfriends or any other exogenous reason for learning it). In contrast, for white people in Australia, conversational fluency in Thai or Indonesian seemed abnormally common. There are some things about the US that are hard to realize if you've grown up here. America is a much more business focused and entrepreneurial/private market minded kind of place and it's a dominant lens through which to view the world. It's hard to put into words exactly what it is but the last time I had that "only in America" feeling was seeing this sign on a coin op telescope on the top of Twin Peaks: http://imgur.com/AaD1mk5 http://imgur.com/AaD1mk5