Post: #26

(06-11-2015 03:14 PM)Enigma Wrote:  

Quote:America has not a good reputation in Europe. Either because of the politics or of the behaviour of the tourists. Mostly a mix of both. Also in Germany there are strong anti american voices. Cut out the politics - Bush really destroyed your image. Its the attitude some americans carry. Why nobody speaks english? America is so much better, america is the best and all this stuff. It just need one american to talk stuff like that to label 8 others bad. And those people are out there, they even spread their stuff at youtube.

And a lot of people still hold a negative stereotype about Germans. Hitler really destroyed your image.

lol, I like when others take shots at us.
As an American I can't be bothered to criticize any other country/culture/society but my own.
When foreigners talk shit it only confirms their inferiority complex

Post: #27

Meh. Every country has good and bad. The international tourists here in Chicago seem just as bad as some of the Americans I see abroad.

We do have a lot of fat asses wearing yoga pants though... that's disgusting.

I always wonder why people ask me for directions when I'm in Europe... I must not look American.

Post: #28

Stereotypes 101...
Question: 'How do you distinguish English people?'
Me: Easy, Fucked up teeth!

Voila!
Dude at 0:52

Post: #29

I love America; the country and the people. I'd move there in a shot as it is still the best place in the World to get rich, fast.

However, Europeans tend to think of Americans as being like your slightly lower class cousin who made it big in scrap metal or something; vulgar, loud and nouveau riche.

Post: #30

edited due to privacy concerns

Post: #31

I love my fellow Westerners. We all have our shortcomings.

The Germans make some fair points, but at least we can speak to strangers without shitting our pants

As for the Brits and Aussies calling us "fat, loud, and obnoxious"

Post: #32

Wow a load of NAAALT (not all americans are like that) followed by some "yeah well you Europeans aren't as worldly and sophisticated as you think, you just live in a continent with loads of different countries and cultures and we dont!!"

and then lastly "you English, and Australians are fat too!!" Yeah well, not as fat as you.

Post: #33

delete

Post: #34

When I was at uni we found it pretty easy to spot the American. Australians don't wear baggy oversized white tees, backward caps or oversized shorts that go past the knee nor do other international students. There is a certain style of dress that is very recognisably American whether they realised it or not. Their bright white straight teeth was also a tell tale.

Also noted was that the American sense of humour was generally lacking and they found it really hard to pick up sarcasm or satire unless it was really obviously signposted which Australians don't do. It's like you needed someone to hit a snare drum or they wouldn't realise you were joking. They were generally much more gullible than Europeans which meant when chatting to American exchange student girls we would give ourselves outlandish names and scarcely believable jobs (astronaut intern at NASA, builder of medieval castles in Australia etc). I dated an American by the way who was pretty cute. I made a lot of friends from the US too.

Their excitement levels were noticeably higher than Australians and they could be really raucous about things I didn't see as that amazing. "Oh my gawd" and "like" were pretty common fillers in sentence construction. We used to tease them by repeating "like" immediately after an American said it but the habit was so ingrained it seemed difficult to shake off which was highly amusing for many of us.

That said, the New Yorkers and Bostonians adapted particularly well. They could adapt well to Australian humour. Those from the rest of the country seemed a bit different, more earnest and naive.

The impression they had of the Australian education system was that it was "easy" as we normally only have one essay and one exam per course (or two essays and no exam). Having said that, they would write an essay in about 3 hours whereas to get top marks you needed to do some heavy research and take time to ensure it was written in a polished way (I'd take about one to two weeks to write an essay).

They were rich (you generally need to be to study abroad in Australia). They had plenty of money from their parents and they had huge sums of money set aside for their education.

The girls were generally very physically active without necessarily being in good shape. Plenty of them went running for exercise.

There were a few religious ones but not many. They seemed super weird as on the whole Australians don't generally read Bibles and talk about their love for Jesus. The Texans got destroyed on their political views which were so very far to the right of the Australian centre ground (which is definitely to the Left of the American centre ground). Things like gun control, abortion, universal health care etc are areas where there is a definite consensus in Australia and they tend to run counter to the views of the average Texan exchange student from Dallas or Houston.

Most of all they were really, really nice and friendly. That's rare I think in the world. People tend to be friendly to their mates and fairly distant or neutral towards everyone else. Americans seemed to talk to everyone as though they were a best friend.

I still haven't been to the States but when I do I have friends in New York who will put me up and show me a good time.

Post: #35

(06-11-2015 10:00 PM)Eskhander Wrote:  Also, SOMETHING UNNOTICED!
They think of White Americans almost exclusively.

Unfortunately a lot of the world thinks American = white, even though there’s plenty of black American athletes/celebrities who are globally famous - as everybody knows the President isn’t white.

I’ve found that many Asian-Americans refer to white Americans as “Americans” e.g. if they say somebody is dating an American guy, it’s implied that he’s white. A foreigner, I think Americans are all of colours.

In Tokyo people thought I was an American (I'm a British Indian).

(06-12-2015 10:34 AM)CJ_W Wrote:  Japanese girls do eat Sausage, in fact, a LOT of "Non-western food is ALL OVER the place here. The "In" Thing for young cute Japanese girls is actually...going to mc donalds or starbucks. Go to any McDonalds in Shibuya/Roppongi/Shinjuku after 1am on a weekend and they're PACKED with young Japanese people hanging out, eating, sleeping and drinking. There's fast food EVERYWHERE in Japan, and Japanese people line up in droves to eat it, The only time I go to Mc Donalds is when I want to do indirect game there! That's how much non-Americans eat Mc Donalds.

The Japanese junk food portions are a lot smaller. I also never saw any diet sodas on sale in McDonalds or KFC in Tokyo. The average drink size with a meal is small by US standards. This is true in UK too, US medium coke = UK large coke. The Japanese also walk everywhere so they’re slimmer.

Post: #36

(06-12-2015 12:52 PM)WalterBlack Wrote:  

(06-11-2015 10:00 PM)Eskhander Wrote:  Also, SOMETHING UNNOTICED!
They think of White Americans almost exclusively.

Unfortunately a lot of the world thinks American = white, even though there’s plenty of black American athletes/celebrities who are globally famous - as everybody knows the President isn’t white.

We Europeans - more easy to speak for all of them - think about your blacks too. #blacklifematter

Post: #37

America is the country everybody loves to hate. Many other countries love to hate us and talk so much about how we are fat, ignorant and loud.

In reality they look up to us and they inspire to be like us. Although as are in a decline, we are still on top and everybody loves a winner.

Post: #38

Benny the polyglot has a much better take on Americans

http://www.fluentin3months.com/usa-clashes/

Post: #39

(06-12-2015 07:53 PM)realologist Wrote:  In reality they look up to us and they inspire to be like us. Although as are in a decline, we are still on top and everybody loves a winner.

Your comment is a brilliantly succinct (yet unintentional) example of why Europeans think so many Americans are ignorant.

Post: #40

The commentary was funny and very light. It's all stereotypes but I don't understand why some of the people here are so angry. RELAX. That video was meant to be funny and light. If it meant to be offensive those people would start talking about American foreign policies.

Post: #41

(06-11-2015 10:47 PM)NomadofEU Wrote:  

(06-11-2015 03:14 PM)Enigma Wrote:  

Quote:America has not a good reputation in Europe. Either because of the politics or of the behaviour of the tourists. Mostly a mix of both. Also in Germany there are strong anti american voices. Cut out the politics - Bush really destroyed your image. Its the attitude some americans carry. Why nobody speaks english? America is so much better, america is the best and all this stuff. It just need one american to talk stuff like that to label 8 others bad. And those people are out there, they even spread their stuff at youtube.

And a lot of people still hold a negative stereotype about Germans. Hitler really destroyed your image.

lol, I like when others take shots at us.
As an American I can't be bothered to criticize any other country/culture/society but my own.
When foreigners talk shit it only confirms their inferiority complex

I wouldn't say they were talking shit, they were asked opinions on america, they gave both good and bad, as prompted by the people filming

Quote:Japanese girls do eat Sausage, in fact, a LOT of "Non-western food is ALL OVER the place here. The "In" Thing for young cute Japanese girls is actually...going to mc donalds or starbucks. Go to any McDonalds in Shibuya/Roppongi/Shinjuku after 1am on a weekend and they're PACKED with young Japanese people hanging out, eating, sleeping and drinking. There's fast food EVERYWHERE in Japan, and Japanese people line up in droves to eat it, The only time I go to Mc Donalds is when I want to do indirect game there! That's how much non-Americans eat Mc Donalds.

Don't forget how Tacobell had a 2+ hour wait for weeks after it opened, and I wouldn't be surprised if it still had a fairly long wait just to get its shitty tacos.

Post: #42

- Thread about how ignorant Americans are, posted by a European on a forum created by an American and with mostly American members.

- Europeans get mad when I point out that they have a hard-on for trashing Americans.

Post: #43

(06-13-2015 11:58 AM)Enigma Wrote:  - Thread about how ignorant Americans are, posted by a European on a forum created by an American and with mostly American members.

- Europeans get mad when I point out that they have a hard-on for trashing Americans.

As my grandfather used to say when I'd get mad when he'd periodically drop some knowledge on me: "Truth hurts don't it?

Post: #44

The fattest Americans stay home, they don't travel. There's no point in having a pissing contest over who has the fattest citizens anyway.

Many, many Americans don't travel. Places that get a lot of American tourism should be thankful for those American dollars. Sure, Americans can be some dorky ass tourists, with their shorts and white socks pulled up and fannypacks and baseball caps, but German and Japanese tourists stick out just as badly.

There are parts of Europe where German tourists are despised more than Americans.

I'll echo many of the points already made here. Once you get out of the major international destinations like Paris, the fast food restaurants abroad are filled mostly with locals. Americans will be found at some overpriced tacky restaurant with a huge menu that their budget hotel recommended.

In my experience Brits and Aussies are way louder and make far worse drunks. I'll avoid them more than I avoid Americans.

Videos like this do a disservice because in my experience, the vast majority of people I meet have a very high opinion of America (though not when it comes to politics). Europeans love American music, American food, American clothing. I get asked frequently what it's like to live in America and what do Americans think of their home country. So no, Europeans do not get a "hard-on" for trashing America, not that I've ever seen. Then again, I make a serious effort to distinguish myself from my countrymen.

If I had to criticize Americans is that they don't travel much (maybe it's a good thing) and when they do, they're pretty goddamn ignorant. Our school curriculum for world history and learning about other cultures is dismal. Americans tend to speak only English and make very little attempt in understanding local language, culture, or ways of doing things.

Post: #45

(06-11-2015 10:00 PM)Eskhander Wrote:  Also, SOMETHING UNNOTICED!
They think of White Americans almost exclusively.

Along with blacks, those are the only people they think are American.

G

Post: #46

(06-13-2015 02:48 PM)Geomann180 Wrote:  

(06-11-2015 10:00 PM)Eskhander Wrote:  Also, SOMETHING UNNOTICED!
They think of White Americans almost exclusively.

Along with blacks, those are the only people they think are American.

G

There's logic and sensibility to it this world view. I don't believe in multiculturalism either as a minority born in america. It's really unnatural in the modern world.

Most immigrants to the U.S. are/were economic refugees which was the principle reason for immigrating.

Now that the global economic scales are balancing more it makes even less sense to immigrate into a culture that's so diammetrically opposite of your parents or forefathers.

Assimilation only makes sense if you're one of only a few marrying into the native population and you plan to adopt the culture and language of the land. Otherwise it makes no sense at all. This goes both ways..I feel the same about whites living in asian or latin countries.

Post: #47

I like hanging out with Americans the most when I travel, as a Canadian we are very similar culturally, there's one thing I noticed though, its that Americans LOVE to talk politics. I don't follow US politics much, I'd rather talk about travel or pussy!

Post: #48

(06-13-2015 11:58 AM)Enigma Wrote:  - Thread about how ignorant Americans are, posted by a European on a forum created by an American and with mostly American members.

- Europeans get mad when I point out that they have a hard-on for trashing Americans.

[/img]

If it wasn't for the UK the Europeans and you Americans would be using floor urinals like barbarians.

Post: #49

(06-13-2015 03:46 PM)scotian Wrote:  I like hanging out with Americans the most when I travel, as a Canadian we are very similar culturally, there's one thing I noticed though, its that Americans LOVE to talk politics. I don't follow US politics much, I'd rather talk about travel or pussy!

Heh, I'm guilty of this at times. I've learned to gauge when people are capable of having a civil discussion though and I've learned not to take too hard of a position on anything. Never know who you're going to piss off.

Post: #50

(06-13-2015 03:46 PM)scotian Wrote:  I like hanging out with Americans the most when I travel, as a Canadian we are very similar culturally, there's one thing I noticed though, its that Americans LOVE to talk politics. I don't follow US politics much, I'd rather talk about travel or pussy!

I noticed Americans are much more aggressive and in-your-face than Canadians, in general. Canadians often seem very passive and unwilling to assert themselves or assert their masculinity.
Though it depends on the province too. Canadians from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, rural Alberta, and the Yukon are more like Americans. People from Western Canada (Vancouver) are super effeminate. Other parts of Canada are in the middle.