A woman from Germany rang last night, doing some telephone market research. She asked me a series of questions about what kind of sport I do, a whole series of things relating to mountain climbing, then a series of snow-related sports, then finally a series of cycling sports. I said no to all of them.
Her tone of voice changed and querulously asked, vat kind of sport do you do zen? Again my image of Germans as latent Nazis raised its ugly head. How dare you make me feel bad for not participating in the kind of sports you think are best? I din't mention that she had rung central London where those kinds of sports are pretty expensive or just not applicable. I felt bad enough to feel compelled to answer, yoga, in response. Though admittedly I'm hardly a devotee.
I know I wasn't just responding to her as a person, but to her nation and my stereotypes. Still, it did piss me off....