dutchieinfrance

The Japanese had all the Dutch imprisoned in Indonesia, not just soldiers. A number of male prisoners had been shipped off to Japan to work in labor camps.

So... much... power.

When I was a European teenager in the 1980s, I met many peers who were great programmers - given their age (around 15, 16). They all spoke English very badly. They just weren't interested in English, only in programming languages. These were self-taught kids who were also good in math and science. Apparently you don't need to know much English to get good at programming.

Even earlier were the Byzantine monks who smuggled silk worm eggs out of China. Arguably not espionage, unless you consider the eggs to be DNA packages.

Really, in the USA? I wouldn't have guessed from the literature or movies. I'm a European, I've never actually visited the USA, so this is genuine question about whether these kind of jokes would be considered "politically correct".

Actually, if you come across as a "stereotypical American" then, yes, I can imagine you ran into this. Cf. the movie "A Good Year", where Russell Crowe instructs Americans in a French restaurant to go to McDonald's because they're being obnoxious (apparently).

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but where in France did you experience this? I'm a non-native speaker of French and I have never experienced this, not even when I was in my teens still learning French.