Re:From Europe to Silicon Valley - things I do/don't like ab...
by mbesto on Monday June 24, 2013 @05:19AM
(#5931855)
I've lived in both London and NYC. NYC feels more diverse simply because it's a bit strange to have loads of foreigners in the country when we know very well that it's very difficult to enter the country legally, whereas London is about 50/50 british to non-british. Not to mention, GB is comprised of England, Wales, Scotland, so you have that combined with the Aussies, Kiwis, Saffers, Italians, Germans, Irish, Spanish, Russians, etc. Not a day goes by that I'm working with a non-British citizen in London. Couldn't say the same for NYC.
The melting pot, to some degree, eliminates that diversity, though. After a generation or two, lots of people are unable to speak their parents/grandparents native language. Perhaps that's less true today, with cheap travel, the internet, and people placing more value on diversity and knowing more than one language - it'd be interesting to see some research. Anecdotally, a ton of the older Italian-Americans I've met don't speak Italian much - they wanted to blend in and not be 'foreigners', and only later in life realized that not speaking the language was a loss.