When my little sister was in third grade, her spelling list for the week included the word "alien". All the words in the list had to be used in a sentence and she and our step-dad (who is a German national) used to work on them at the dining room table after dinner. When she turned in the list on Friday, the teacher went up one side of her and down the other. The reason: the sentence "My step-father is an alien." When my sister was finally able to get a break in the tirade to defend herself, her response was "But he has a green card! And it says right on it Resident Alien!"