Hi
I`m putting together a paper on negative responses to
travellers from other countries when away from home.
The general,mindless response to Americans(of which I am
one) is that we are all overweight,stupid hicks
I`d appreciate any feedback and stories anyone has about
anything negative that has happened to them while travelling
Thanks
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What nationality is the quiet person over there ?
There are loud Brits, loud Germans, loud Americans
There are quiet Brits, quiet Germans, quiet Americans.
Perhaps the problem for Americans arose during and immediately after the Second World War. U.S. military were apid much more than Commonwealth military and raised their voices to get served in the pubs. After the war, most European countries, including Britain, were relatively poor while the U.S. which had not had any fighting on its own territory but which had had the advantage of an expanding economy based on production of weapons and food for export, had become wealthy. Most Americans who travelled were quiet and pleasant but a few were loud and agressive - perhaps brash is the word. As wealth increased in Europe and Japan, those people started to travel and a minority created a bad impression in the countries they visited.
I sincerely hope that we Brits are not judged only by the behaviour of our football (soccer) "supporters". In fact I hope that our real football supporter are not judged by the behaviour of a minority that set out to behave badly.
The of course there is the view from the other side other side. That is that of the person judging the foreigner. Those who have travelled little do not understand behaviour that is not exactly like theirs. I have had personal experience of Texans who consider New Englanders foreigners and who prefer to buy from the "Sovereign State of Texas". Similarly, I know of Brits who will damn a foreigner for not holding their knife and fork exactly as we were taught when we were young. I wonder how they wou with me last year in a Moslem area of Sri Lanka, in a beautiful home, where I had to eat all the meal with the fingers of right hand
Let's all keep travelling and trying to understand one another.
You asked for stories.Here's one. I was in Ogdensburg, New York one day - perhaps 15 years ago - and a man pointed across the St. Lawrence River and said " See over there. That's Canada. I've never been there and I don't want to go there !"
Another anecdote from my personal observation in the Hotel Tuurnu in Helsinki. Hotel clerk gives Brit change in FinnMarks and the man said " What are these ? FinnMarks- give me real money". I did not say anything !
I will watch this subject with interest. Regards Peter
Please folks, this is another attempt to get everybody up
in arms and to solicit more anti-American posts, which will
inevitably result in a stream of abusive posts, similar to
the bout we went through a month or 2 ago. That's not what
this site is about.
.
PLEASE do not respond seriously to this sh*t-stirrer, it
will only evoke cruel commentaries.
.
Thanks.
Jules
You are a loser and an idiot.
Tony you are loser and a shi.t stirrier. Now please go away
and leave this sight to the real travellers American or
otherwise I don't care, but this page is for travel info not
your b.s.
Are what we call you for various reasons. I was on a train
in Belgium and got on to the carriage to have French spoken
to me by a man in a group of travellers. I put my hands up
and told them that I spoke English (I had heard them
speaking English) and the wife responded with, "Oh honey,
don't bother talking to her, she speaks that Aussie English,
she probably won't understand what you're saying."...by the
way, I have a degree in Linguistics....please?
I hope you aren't at an accredited university doing this so-
called research. If you ask a biased question, you'll get
answers which prove nothing. Yes, I have three or four
"horror stories" of people who were rude to me because I
was an American. I also have thousands of stories of people
who were great to me, including dozens of times when people
were specifically said they were glad to meet an American.
But your question throws all the good stuff away, doesn't
it?