14 million Americans want to move abroad?!

According to a new survey, there's as many Americans as who want to move abroad as there are in the entire Czech and Slovak Republics (give or take a few Bobs and Svatopluks). Wow! Hope that they all have something to do when they get here.

Looking at the numbers from the survey, it seems like Europe is a top destination. The survey authors say that the numbers are high, but that the respondents are people who say that "they're planning to" (i.e. where's the airport) to "maybe not, but I may buy property." Together, that's a pretty high number. Reasons ranged by age group, with political reasoning and wanting new challenges rating tops for reasons to leave for a few years. (It's also interesting to look at reasoning by age on page 10.)

Taken at face value, it looks like not only that everyone wants to come to the US, but many from the US might like to try the opposite direction.

Europe estimates that it needs hundreds of thousands of people over the next few decades just to keep the population stable. Bringing a few Americans back to Europe probably wouldn't cause too much of an uproar, although we'd definitely have to work on our accents, specially of Romance languages.

The absolute most hilarious thing I ever saw in a restaurant in Paris was some years ago when I was studying undergrad. A guy from Texas was trying to impress his girlfriend who'd come over for Spring Break. He was doing his best, but just couldn't make that switch from English to French. For example, whenever he wanted a waiter, he would snap his fingers and shout "GARKON!" at regular intervals. A new waiter would appear each time... and I didn't know why until I saw the others about to double-over laughing. The Texan's French was so entertainingly bad that they were sending colleagues over just to listen. Other gems included "Champseleeseez", "Versails", "joornow" and "dooo cervezas du plus" (with an upturned V sign made with two fingers to the waiter).

The waiters were well-mannered though, and completmented to the girlfriend on how good "ze monsieur's French ees, oh yes, you must stay wit' eem, ozerwise".... (fingersnap)..." a Frenchwoaman will nevair let'im leave." They did get a nice tip in the end, I saw, so everyone was 'appy.

The British are moving to France and Spain en masse, and most of them can't speak the local languages worth much either. So a few extra American types won't hurt, I duely reckon. Besides, if Americans come to work in Europe, maybe some of the folks back home will start to wonder why they're settling for two weeks of vacation when Bob over in Germany has five, a Mercedes and makes more money (well, at least while the Euro is strong).