American Ways – A Guide for Foreigners in the

PREFACE xiii
come to be called “political correctness.” The term means
different things to different people, but in general it refers
to the notion that speakers and writers should avoid any
words or phrases that might be considered “insulting” or
“demeaning” to anyone. For example, restaurant waitresses
(as well as waiters) are now commonly referred to as
“waitstaff” or “servers” to avoid the implication that people
who serve restaurant customers are predominantly females
in a lowly station. Many people with what were formerly
called physical or mental handicaps now prefer to be called
“differently abled.” Writers and speakers are encouraged to
avoid the exclusive use of the word he in any passage that
refers to members of both genders.
The word foreign, used for decades to refer to people
from one country who were temporarily in another, has
been criticized for implying strangeness, or being out of
place. People who consider themselves sensitive to the
feelings of people from other countries urge the use of
international in its place. So, “foreign students” has generally
been replaced by “international students,” “foreign
visitors” by “international visitors,” and so on.
People who consider themselves sensitive to the feelings
of citizens of the Western Hemisphere outside the
United States of America argue that it is unacceptably arrogant
for people in the United States to refer to themselves
as “Americans.” Everyone from the Western Hemisphere
is American, they say. People in the U.S. should
refer to themselves as “U.S. Americans,” “U.S. citizens,” or
some such term.
Perhaps by the time a third edition of this book is written,
clear and graceful terms for referring to people from
other countries and to citizens of the United States will
have evolved. For now, though, this book generally main-