Pissing off the Irish (II of II): Later responses.

Later, I felt bad about it, and I happened to run into a ton of international people I know, so I asked all of them about their opinions about telling people what you think about their cultures/countries when they ask:

1) My one British friend, whose dad is from the Sudan, and is thus kind of Arab-looking and has an Arab last name, said that he used to do that all the time in France, and when French people would ask him about their country, he would say that it was horribly racist, and talk about what a hard time he had renting a room in Paris, and when he would show up people would tell him that it was just rented, or when he'd call a landlady over the phone and he'd give his name and she'd hear his British accent when speaking French, she'd be like, "Where are you from?", and he would be like, "England," and then she would be like, "No no no, what is your origin?", and he'd never even get to tour the room.

"But if you really listen to what they're asking, that's not what they're asking at all," he was like.

"So what would you say then?", I was like.

"Oh, usually something about how they have a lot of good musuems with some very nice art," he was like.

2) This one Israeli guy I ran into at the student bar was like, "The problem is that you are too honest."

Then, after a second, he was like, "But that doesn't mean you're wrong."

3) This one Catalan I know who is a very nice person told me that we all say things that we regret, and that apologies later almost always work. He said one time he was talking with some Paraguayans he had just met and they said something about his Catalan accent and started poking a little fun at him, and he was like, "Ja ja ja, very funny, why don't you come to eh-Spain and try to find respectable work with your accent, Paraguayan," and that he immediately regretted it, but he apologized a few days later and they're all friends, and they're very cool people.

4) This one Kashmiri biochemist guy who I've met a few times was like, "I am a scientist, and I deal with facts, and what you said about the Irish is a fact."