How many nationalities have you met?

A fun question! And I’m not going to win. But I do live in God’s Own (Australia), which gives me an unfair advantage.

I’m listing people I’ve had conversations with In Real Life.

1. Albania: random guy at a shopping centre cafe a months ago, several in Greece in various capacities.
2. Algeria: boyfriend of a fellow intern I was visiting in France
3. Armenia: went there
4. Australia: live there
5. Austria: went there
6. Belgium: went there
7. Bulgaria: fellow conlang geek, met in Scotland
8. Canada: went there
9. China: several fellow engineering students, several programmer colleagues
10. Taiwan: programmer colleague
11. Croatia: fellow linguistics student
12. Cyprus: went there
13. Czechia: my massage therapist
14. Denmark: a conlanger, met in Scotland
15. East Timor: fellow research assistant
16. Egypt: parent’s neighbours
17. El Salvador: server at my local Del Taco in Cali
18. Ethiopia: linguistics lecturer
19. Fiji: fellow engineering student
20. France: went there, a few French lecturers
21. Georgia: owner of Georgian restaurant I go to
22. Germany: went there, lots of German lecturers
23. Greece: lived there
24. Hungary: fellow high school student
25. India: several programmer and BA colleagues
26. Indonesia: fellow engineering students
27. Iran: fellow linguistics students
28. Ireland: I live in Australia 🙂
29. Israel: fellow high school student, fellow BA
30. Italy: went there, lots of Italian lecturers
31. Japan: fellow linguistics students
32. Kazakhstan: fellow linguistics student’s boyfriend
33. Lichtenstein: some tourists I met in Crete
34. Luxembourg: CEO of assessment software company
35. Macedonia: uni student I befriended while working tech support
36. Malaysia: fellow engineering students
37. Malta: wife’s best friend
38. Mauritius: former boss
39. Mexico: I lived in SoCal
40. Netherlands: went there
41. New Zealand: I live in Australia. Latest was a data architect just this week
42. Norway: linguist at historical linguistics conference
43. Philippines: fellow linguistics student; admin in linguistics department
44. Poland: fellow linguistics student, student I co-supervised
45. Romania: neighbour’s daughter in law
46. Russia: fellow high school students, fellow linguistics students
47. Saudi Arabia: students I lectured
48. Serbia: student I lectured
49. Seychelles: neighbour’s wife (deceased)
50. Singapore: fellow engineering students, fellow high school students
51. Slovenia: solutions architect at work
52. South Africa: owner of bike shop next door to my parents
53. Spain: Spanish lecturers
54. Sri Lanka: fellow high school student
55. Sweden: Swedish lecturer
56. Switzerland: programmer colleague
57. Syria: My dry-cleaners in SoCal
58. Turkey: been there
59. Ukraine: friends of fellow linguistics student, boss
60. UK: been there, boss, personal trainer
61. US: lived there
62. Uruguay: boss’ wife
63. Vietnam: French lecturer; fellow PhD student

If I add restaurants with cuisines from those countries (who, it stands to reason, will likely employ at least one person from that nationality—so I’ll have met them if not spoken to them):

1. Afghanistan
2. Argentina
3. Brazil
4. Cambodia
5. Jamaica
6. South Korea
7. Lebanon
8. Morocco
9. Nepal
10. Pakistan
11. Peru
12. Thailand