'Foreign' Is Not an Insult

Somewhere along the line, somebody got the hare-brained notion that the word 'foreign' is a derogatory term, though no one seems to know exactly why. One scholar I talked to asked "What about finding a foreign object in your soup? That can't be good!" Her connotation of the word skewed negative, and that was reason enough in her mind to ban the word entirely. Foreign exchange students became "international" students, Foreign languages were foreign no longer, and forget about foreign cuisine. It's ethnic. Ethnic? What is that supposed to mean? Everyone has ethnicity! This is just another once-practical word fallen by the wayside. 'Foreign' simply means 'from another place.' It is perfectly benign. It is only offensive for those who insist on assigning to it an unintended negativity.