Holier-than-Thou

I have been known to be a little "holier-than-thou" with my Russian-ness. Seeing as I live in the US, that is the side of me that most often gets "attacked", mocked, picked on, bashed, made fun of, etc. Therefore, I have developed a defense mechanism for times like these. However, I rarely, if ever, assume the "holier-than-thou" mentality when speaking about the US. I personally hate the stereotype that Americans have a mentality of being better than everyone else, yet believe that this stereotype also rings true. I am a firm believer that all stereotypes have a morsel of truth in them. Therefore, I try my best to disprove this stereotype in my actions (whether or not I succeed is another question). However, being abroad has made me feel like I play into that stereotype due to the use of English as the second language spoken in the various countries. It makes me feel like I am practically saying to others "I'm not making an effort to learn and speak your language, and you must cater to me and speak my language". And I hate that feeling. I think that was one of my biggest difficulties abroad: the language differences and my resistance to speak English due to the feelings of guilt and impression that I was being pompous and rude when I did. That said, for some reason, I had less of an issue with this in Vienna and Budapest. Perhaps it was the fact that I was studying Czech or that I lived in Prague that made me feel so much worse about speaking English. Maybe all I needed was a whirl-wind of a Eurotrip to alleviate a bit of the language barrier. Unfortunately, it failed to alleviate my guilt.