Diversity is part of New England life

When  I lived in Northern California, people would talk all the time about how they couldn't live anywhere else because it's so diverse in CA. Every time I heard that I cracked up because in actuality, Northern California is hardly very diverse at all. Oh, there are people of color there, plenty of them, but the diversity is either hispanic or Asian, and the rest of the world? So not represented. I never got why Californians kept insisting about how diverse they were when you couldn't find a Greek or Italian restaurant to save your life. Lots of Pho, but no souflaki.

The funny thing is, many Californians really believe that they are the only place with diversity in the USA, and there is nothing you can do to change their minds. If you mention diversity in MA, for example, they roll their eyes and give you a pitying look because really, if you live anywhere but California, you don't know diversity. Except that isn't true at all. Where I live, in the greater Boston area, it is more diverse than anywhere I've ever lived, right up there with New York in fact. When you go out in MA, you hear so many languages being spoken, and see so many different types of faces that sometimes you wonder if anyone is left that speaks English as a first language. It is just that diverse.

For example, today I got an official document from the state in the mail. Along with the letter came a Multilingual card that translated a paragraph from English into 20 different languages representative of various cultural populations that live here. And some of the languages, like German weren't even represented.

So let's play a little game. Try and guess as many of the 20 languages as you can. I know 20 is a lot, but give it your best shot. Later on I'll amend this post with the correct answers. No prizes, just an intellectual exercise to show the diversity of Massachusetts.

[image credit: FreeFoto.com]

Comments

[Fairly Odd Mother]

OK here are my guesses:
1. Spanish
2. Portuguese
3. Chinese
4. Japanese
5. Laoatian
6. French
7. Greek
8. Vietnamese
9. Korean
10. Hebrew
11. Italian
12. Thai
13. Russian
14. Arabic
15. Dutch

[Fairly Odd Mother]

Ahhh, where did 16-20 go?

Here they are:

16. Urdu
17. Cambodian
18.Finnish
19.Lebanese
20.Swedish

[margalit]

While I love your answers (SWEDISH?), you're off on many of your guesses.

Here's the list:

Spanish
Serbian Cyrillic
Croatian
Russian
Portuguese
Somali
Chinese
Italian
Polish
Haitian Creole
French
Greek
Slovenian
Vietnamese
Tagalog
Arabic
Cambodian
Loatian
Armenian
Amharic

So you got 9 wrong. Lebanese? They speak Arabic in Lebanon. And French. :-)

[Fairly Odd Mother]

Hey, I got Swedish from Wikipedia which said many people from Sweden or Finland have settled here----figured that was worth a shot. Tagalog? I seriously have never, ever heard of that language.

I knew there was a large Haitian population in this area, but figured "French" covered it. I still can't believe they don't have German on this list. Good thing my mother is no longer new to the country!