In the sixth season of Sex and the City, Carrie meets and starts dating a man she refers to as the Russian (because he is Russian, not for any other reason). Frankly, she is a bitch to him. He tries to call her to ask her out. Because he has an accent and talks a little slower, she says “Sorry, wrong number” and immediately hangs up. He calls back three or four times and she hangs up three or four times before she actually takes the time to stop and try to understand what he is saying. And even then, she is really annoying about going “Huh? I can’t understand you.” I don’t know why he continues to pursue after she has been so extremely rude, but he does and the end up dating.
A couple of episodes later, they get into a fight when he says that he had a friend who had breast cancer and ended up dying in response to a conversation about Samantha’s fight with breast cancer. Of course, Carrie, acting like a spoiled five-year-old, once again refuses to understand him or take the time to hear what he is saying and throws a huge tantrum and calls him an asshole.
More than half of the men that I have dated spoke a language other than English as their first. Some of them had extremely different cultural values. While at times miscommunication can be frustrating and make you want to scream asshole, that usually doesn’t help. Miscommunication happens between people who were raised in the same culture with the same language all the time. Even those relationships are difficult and require work from both people. So, it would follow that to ensure understanding between yourself and a partner with a different background takes more work and time. Since Carrie is a fictional character, I feel no guilt in being judgmental and calling her stupid.
At the end of the series, the Russian invites her to move to Paris with him and she agrees. Of course, she is not a very good planner and fails to realize how much life can suck in a busy foreign city with no friends and no real grasp of the language or life-style. She ends up lonely and hating it. Duh. Why would you not think such a major life decision like that through thoroughly? I mean there are always unexpected things, but there are a lot of things you can avoid. She refuses to learn from her problems and take the steps she needs to in order to avoid the same problem in the future.
Sometimes she is just really annoying. I don’t think that you will ever hear me saying “I’m a Carrie.” It’s unlikely that I would ever say “I’m a Charlotte either.” Honestly, though, choosing which character you feel the most like is somewhat limiting to who you can be. So, I guess I would say “I’m Miranda” and I was born at least 15 years before the show, so I have more credible claim to the name than Miranda Hobbs, who is just a fictional character anyway.