Don't patronize me please because it is pathetic and witness only your manners!!! Forums are about DEMOCRACY so everybody has a right to write here what he likes and how he likes in the combination that he LIKES. Yes, I do make occasional typos. I know how to spell redneck as I am unfortunately surrounded by some of them in my local community. So what!? At least I am not yet another arrogant buffoon, who seem to think that is Mr. KNOW- IT-ALL. With this kind of attitude YOU ARE ONLY embarrassing yourself. Let other people write and think what they want, stop patronizing and behave like tolerant person!
Good Old boys network based on the years of belonging to community and other "tribal" issues is a diffrent phenomenon than CONNECTIONS that suppose open all door. The latter one exist everywhere. I lived in Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom, and I can only assure you that that American sense of "belogning to community and guarding it" has a very nationalistic characteristic. You have to leave metropolies like NYC, LA etc. and go inland, try to assimilate with the locals and you will learn how it functions.
>On the other hand if you want to assimilate and attempt to lose your
>funny accent and your funny foreign ways then you'll have no more
>problems assimilating after moving from another country than you'd
>have if you moved from another state.
What an utter Bull*****Beeeeeeep!!!!!!!!!!! I have emigrated from Poland 10 years ago. I studied in London, I worked and studied in San Francisco meeting various people all this time. And I have NEVER N E V E R met ANYBODY, who lost completely accent if emigrated as an ADULT!!!!! The vocal cords and the accent is shaped in the childhood and the early adolescence. I know a family that emigrated 15 years ago with two children. One kid was 8, the other was 16. Today, 15 years later they younger one is perfectly bilingual, while the older one speaks both languages perfectly well but STILL has a slight accent in the background. It is common case; I know people who live in California for 20 years and still have subtle but EXISTING accents!!!!
Even my husband is recognized after few mintutes that he is British and not American! And he moved to California 25 years ago!!!! And trust me, it takes a while to recognize it! You can speak correctly and have a perfect pronuncation but your slight accent remains even after 20 years!!! It might seem to some people that they speak with a perfect American accent, overdoing American R ( typical; hahahaha:))))) but if they ask ANY HONEST Native speaker, he or she will quickly point out this SLAVONIC SOMETHING in the background in the way we pronounce vowels!