International travel
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It really depends though. If you are an openminded american who respects the locals and doesn’t have any issues talking a stand against the shitty politics and the mess the USA calls an economic situation, then you will likely not have an issue.
If you are an obnoxious asshole who thinks the USA is the greatest place ever and that any other place is beneath you, you might experience some substantial blowback.
Most people are clever enough to differentiate those two groups.
If the US starts a war against the country you travel to that might change though.
That’s kinda my point. People aren’t judging me based on my nationality, because they can just notice that I’m not a dick.
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I’m a) currently travelling in Europe, and b) not American. I have encountered plenty in the six weeks or so I’ve been here though. Right now I’m sitting on a riverboat that is about three quarters Americans.
I’ve found that some of the stereotypes are true. Mostly the Americans are loud. Some are loudly ignorant. Some make questionable choices - I’ve seen a few wearing the American flag on their clothes, or blatant bible references.
However, the vast majority of the Americans I’ve spent time talking to are embarrassed by the current political shenanigans. We’ve encountered a few in full throttle support, but it’s rare.
I’ve found the Canadians interesting. Most we’ve spoken with are avoiding visiting America and plan to do so for a few years yet. More than one has said they’re afraid an over zealous border guard would dent them entry, which would affect any travel plans for years into the future, so they’re not taking the chance. Sounds fair to me.
Are Americans abroad garbage? No, not all. Some are. But they do stand out like dog’s bollocks.
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You sound like the type of people OC is being confused with.
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The international community has 0 responsibility in this.
Your fellow Americans did this to you by voting MAGA.
Bring your pain to them.
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I’m a Russian, hold my beer.
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That’s kinda my point. People aren’t judging me based on my nationality, because they can just notice that I’m not a dick.
Yes. Being American gives you an unique way to be a dick, but you don’t have to take it.
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I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but anytime abroad I tell people I’m from Jersey. First and foremost I identify as. New Jerseyan. “American” and “Canadian” are so incredibly broad. Are you from Vancouver? Toronto? Are you a Newfie or from Edmonton? Shit, are you Quebecois? The same applies in the US, I don’t for a second begin to think of any of the regions as being remotely similar. Northeast, Atlantic, Midwest, West Coast, all very different places with very different people. I didn’t include the South because they’re the worst.
So yeah, I’ve kinda always just led with that. Maybe us people from Jersey are just like that though, I dunno. I won’t lie, sometimes it leads me to saying things like “I’m an hour outside of New York.” I leave off “city” because New York State may as well not even exist, it’s essentially a barren wasteland of former mining towns that are in a depressed death spiral of long, gray winters and trips to the finger lakes.
You understand differentiation for demographics in certain areas, but no one else does, it just confuses people abroad when you talk about what city you’re from. Like if I started talking about Melbournites, vs sydnesiders you wouldn’t be able to chime in on the conversation.
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You understand differentiation for demographics in certain areas, but no one else does, it just confuses people abroad when you talk about what city you’re from. Like if I started talking about Melbournites, vs sydnesiders you wouldn’t be able to chime in on the conversation.
New York City generally gets folks understanding where I’m from, but I have the benefit of living an hour outside of arguably one of the most recognizable cities in the world.
I get what you’re saying, and I kind of use it as a tool to continue conversation. Any time I meet folks from somewhere else, I tend to ask them about it. I’ve had some long conversations about places I never knew much about with Uber drivers or waiters, and I suppose I project that onto people too, that perhaps they’re interested in the minutiae of life in northeast American suburbia. It definitely pales in comparison to people from war-torn African countries, but it is what it is.
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You sound like a yank. The international bias is against all of us. You might be able to get a different bias if you assert that you’re Californian, but a random Spaniard doesn’t know what a Midwest or a new jersey is and is annoyed that Americans expect everyone to know.
It’s like if a Mexican were to assure you that they’re from Chiapas when you ask if they’re Mexican. Firstly the average American doesn’t know what Chiapas is, and will probably assume it’s either a city or country, not a state, but even if they know it’s a state in Mexico they don’t know what the hell that means because most Americans don’t know shit about Mexican internal politics and safety.
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You sound like a yank. The international bias is against all of us. You might be able to get a different bias if you assert that you’re Californian, but a random Spaniard doesn’t know what a Midwest or a new jersey is and is annoyed that Americans expect everyone to know.
It’s like if a Mexican were to assure you that they’re from Chiapas when you ask if they’re Mexican. Firstly the average American doesn’t know what Chiapas is, and will probably assume it’s either a city or country, not a state, but even if they know it’s a state in Mexico they don’t know what the hell that means because most Americans don’t know shit about Mexican internal politics and safety.
The fun part about when someone tells me they’re from a place I’ve never heard of is that I get to ask them about that place now. I enjoy it. I don’t expect everyone to know it, but maybe I do expect them to be interested in conversation.
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New York City generally gets folks understanding where I’m from, but I have the benefit of living an hour outside of arguably one of the most recognizable cities in the world.
I get what you’re saying, and I kind of use it as a tool to continue conversation. Any time I meet folks from somewhere else, I tend to ask them about it. I’ve had some long conversations about places I never knew much about with Uber drivers or waiters, and I suppose I project that onto people too, that perhaps they’re interested in the minutiae of life in northeast American suburbia. It definitely pales in comparison to people from war-torn African countries, but it is what it is.
I completely agree, it’s entirely fascinating, if you have time to converse with someone about the culture of the specific areas of where you live, that would make for brilliant conversation. It’s just that people won’t know the culture, without that conversation, so they might know some of the names of the cities and states, but they wouldn’t know what the people are, generally like, in those areas. If you’re talking with someone who is more familiar, they would understand you’re communicating your beliefs and culture, but anyone outside that lived knowledge, doesn’t understand that, if you mention you’re from a certain place, that means you align with certain beliefs. Although I can certainly understand still leading with that, and maybe more people will get a feel for it, the more you explain and get chances to have those conversations.
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It’s just like if you meet a Russian who left. I would hope you’d have the nuance to think “oh, they escaped, fantastic for them and I’m so sorry about their country” not “oh they must love Putin”
Unfortunately, as a Polish person, reality proved to me over and over and over again that in this particular scenario, the latter is just most often the case.
Russian people in general have special love for strong men in power. Make no mistake, they somehow even managed to turn Marxist ideas into authoritarianism and it made a massive damage to the international perception of the idea of communism. To this day general populace im my post-communist country, when you say socialism, they see Stalin.
Depends?
I was born in mainland China, my parents are sort of sympathetic to PRC (but they are not communists), as in, they want to see Taiwan be reunified and opposed the Hongkong Protests. Simultaneously, they are also somewhat sympathetic to trump and their shitty policies, and they are anti-immigration despite us being immigrants, and they hate homeless people and neurodivergent people.
Meanwhile, I grew up in the US (arrive before I turned 10), I oppose the CCP, support Taiwan’s democracy and Hongkong protests, oppose trump.
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You shouldn’t. People are more likely to be interested in who you are as a person than your country’s politics. You might get some negative bias, true. But you can work pass that.
I’m from the country of Orban, and I do feel shame sometimes saying that. But I have rarely experienced anything more than some cold looks.
The everyday folks who support a dictator tend no to travels abroad. People outside your country are not exposed to them
The everyday folks who support a dictator tend no to travels abroad.
I remember seeing videos of mainland Chinese people going to western countries to counterprotest against the HongKong Protestors. As a Chinese American, I cringed at that so much.
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I’m a Russian, hold my beer.
Do people actually hold that against you? The worst I’ve had as an american was explaining that most Americans don’t support Trump, Elon is a Nazi (they didn’t get the memo in east asia), and then contextualizing whatever other weird impressions they have.
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I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but anytime abroad I tell people I’m from Jersey. First and foremost I identify as. New Jerseyan. “American” and “Canadian” are so incredibly broad. Are you from Vancouver? Toronto? Are you a Newfie or from Edmonton? Shit, are you Quebecois? The same applies in the US, I don’t for a second begin to think of any of the regions as being remotely similar. Northeast, Atlantic, Midwest, West Coast, all very different places with very different people. I didn’t include the South because they’re the worst.
So yeah, I’ve kinda always just led with that. Maybe us people from Jersey are just like that though, I dunno. I won’t lie, sometimes it leads me to saying things like “I’m an hour outside of New York.” I leave off “city” because New York State may as well not even exist, it’s essentially a barren wasteland of former mining towns that are in a depressed death spiral of long, gray winters and trips to the finger lakes.
anytime abroad I tell people I’m from Jersey
You tell me you’re from Jersey, I’ll ask you about a tiny island in the english channel.
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Yeah. Also, like, I’ve never met locals who are like that. I’m American. I travel pretty frequently. It is obvious from my accent, and also from the fact that I tell people I’m American when they ask. And also due to the confused look in my eye when someone tells me the temperature. I’ve never run into anyone who openly hates Americans visiting their country.
The only time that I experienced genuine dislike for my nationality was when I told a Serbian person at a training that I was giving that I’m American. I think that feelings run deeper when your home has been bombed or invaded or similar by another country.
My father in law has no time for Germans, which I kind of get since he is a Dutch Jew and half of his family was killed during the German occupation of the Netherlands.
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Do people actually hold that against you? The worst I’ve had as an american was explaining that most Americans don’t support Trump, Elon is a Nazi (they didn’t get the memo in east asia), and then contextualizing whatever other weird impressions they have.
Not really. To be open, I don’t live in Russia for over a decade.
There were minor incidents even before the big war, like people abruptly stopping speaking to me upon hearing my nationality, or asking why I support (I don’t) Putin or why I don’t stop him. One guy explained to me very matter-of-factly that all Russians are intrinsically evil and deserve supervision because of it… Didn’t know how to answer that one. Very rarely I was thrown insults in the streets.
But other than a very few incidents, all people I know outside of Russia were always welcoming and supportive. Recently, I received more threats and hate speech from my pro-putin compatriots than I ever received anywhere else in the world. -
Yeah. Also, like, I’ve never met locals who are like that. I’m American. I travel pretty frequently. It is obvious from my accent, and also from the fact that I tell people I’m American when they ask. And also due to the confused look in my eye when someone tells me the temperature. I’ve never run into anyone who openly hates Americans visiting their country.
Do you tell people you’re from America, or from a random state or town and not even mention the country. I’ve had never, ever had someone from America tell me they’re from America or USA when I’ve asked where they are from. And I’ve never, ever had anyone from any other country do the same. Which subconsciously reinforces biases, as much as I hate to admit it.
