s/o "European" myths about Americans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we all own guns, ALL of us. in fact, the reason Americans keep their hands on/above the dining table is to show everyone that you're not holding a firearm. (explained to me by a slightly inebriated French hostess, some years ago)

I think the opposite? Americans keep left hand in our laps while eating. Europeans eat with both hands holding knife and fork.

Haha I agree with the gun comment but also yes, the American style of eating, with only one hand! I find this so strange!

crap, I was possibly also inebriated at the time. maybe it was that americans keep one hand in their lap to hide their firearm? apparently, I have bad American AND bad French table manners.

A snotty acquaintance from Milan said that the American habit of eating with one hand in the lap reminded him of "the Zulu." He doesn't have a high opinion of Americans in general...

[Anonymous]

I am French/American married to a French man. This short video (made by a woman like me, with one French and one American parent) is spot on of French people's perception of Americans. Especially the super friendly woman giving directions. It is very funny.

https://youtu.be/vWmPObduQPQ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:-Americans like free bathrooms everywhere
-they like to tip
-they like to use credit cards and hate carrying cash
-air conditioning

OP here. Yes to all of these! The tipping thing - they expect to tip for everything and are happy to tip 20%+. I still can't get used to having to do this and also find the idea of actually handing someone cash really awkward.
The credit card thing - yes also, I've started doing it here too, and it's because everything has an annoying price, because of the tax. So if you pay with cash you get so much annoying change because everything costs $3.68 or whatever.
And yes, everywhere is extremely air-conditioned and I find it hard to get used to that - both the way it is SO cold inside when it is hot outside, so that you actually need extra layers, and the drying effect of the a/c.

I lived in Germany and a lot of the locals thought that AC wasn't healthy. French friends said the same. I've never, ever heard an American think AC was unhealthy.

OP here - yes I think I sort of feel that way. I accept it as a necessary evil, but if I were building a house from scratch I'd use alternatives such as underfloor cooling, like my parents have in the hot country they live in.

I think it depends on where you live. If you live in Northern Europe, it doesn't get hot enough for a long enough time to warrant AC. I grew up in New England and we never has AC. Living here in DC with 90'+ day after day and really high humidity- I am a born again lover of the AC. When we retire back to NE, I don't know that we will turn it on very much.

I want to add that we were in London during a "heat wave" and it was in the 80's - they were admonishing people on the Tube to keep drinking water to avoid dehydration. We were fine. We went to Paris and it was in the mid 90's an everyone was complaining (Parisians and tourists).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spin off from the European myths thread, I am English (so soon I won't be European ) and here are some of my stereotypes about Americans:

- Americans require EXTREMELY cold drinks. If it's a cold drink, it must be served filled with ice. Fridge-cold drinks without ice are not acceptable

- Americans can be identified in the summer by their shorts. Shorts are worn in some places in Europe in the summer but not very commonly outside the beach. Extra American points if there is a shirt tucked into the shorts and a belt, with white socks and running shoes.

- This doesn't apply to people in NYC, but Americans love their cars, have enormous cars (even the ones many people consider to be "small" or "average" are big to me) and drive everywhere. This is a function of low gas prices and poor public transport/infrastructure

- Americans eat at really weird (to me!) times - really early. Lunch at 12, sometimes even earlier. Dinner at 6, sometimes earlier. Before I moved here, the first time I encountered this was a client coming from here who I invited for dinner; he said yes but he'd be arriving late so did I mind having a late dinner.... at 7:30. I thought he was joking, but no!

I will think of more but I think that's a start!

I see shorts--a LOT of shorts--in London every summer on young women. Up North, I see shorts ALL WINTER (with tights) in Manchester. A few years ago Next and other high street stores were pushing suiting for young women that consisted of shorts and blazes. And I know multiple little boys for whom shorts are part of the school uniform (in UK). Have you maybe not been home in a really long time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:-Americans like free bathrooms everywhere
-they like to tip
-they like to use credit cards and hate carrying cash
-air conditioning

OP here. Yes to all of these! The tipping thing - they expect to tip for everything and are happy to tip 20%+. I still can't get used to having to do this and also find the idea of actually handing someone cash really awkward.
The credit card thing - yes also, I've started doing it here too, and it's because everything has an annoying price, because of the tax. So if you pay with cash you get so much annoying change because everything costs $3.68 or whatever.
And yes, everywhere is extremely air-conditioned and I find it hard to get used to that - both the way it is SO cold inside when it is hot outside, so that you actually need extra layers, and the drying effect of the a/c.

I lived in Germany and a lot of the locals thought that AC wasn't healthy. French friends said the same. I've never, ever heard an American think AC was unhealthy.

OP here - yes I think I sort of feel that way. I accept it as a necessary evil, but if I were building a house from scratch I'd use alternatives such as underfloor cooling, like my parents have in the hot country they live in.

I think it depends on where you live. If you live in Northern Europe, it doesn't get hot enough for a long enough time to warrant AC. I grew up in New England and we never has AC. Living here in DC with 90'+ day after day and really high humidity- I am a born again lover of the AC. When we retire back to NE, I don't know that we will turn it on very much.

I want to add that we were in London during a "heat wave" and it was in the 80's - they were admonishing people on the Tube to keep drinking water to avoid dehydration. We were fine. We went to Paris and it was in the mid 90's an everyone was complaining (Parisians and tourists).

I was in Rome in July and it was 105 degrees. No AC still.... We were dying.

[Anonymous]

I see a trend with "smiling". Is smiling a bad thing? I suppose they see it as inauthentic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see a trend with "smiling". Is smiling a bad thing? I suppose they see it as inauthentic?

PP here who said that she was viewed as American because of smiling...

One person told me it looked like we were "touched in the head" by smiling so much. Like we're just happy, crazy simpletons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spin off from the European myths thread, I am English (so soon I won't be European ) and here are some of my stereotypes about Americans:

- Americans require EXTREMELY cold drinks. If it's a cold drink, it must be served filled with ice. Fridge-cold drinks without ice are not acceptable

- Americans can be identified in the summer by their shorts. Shorts are worn in some places in Europe in the summer but not very commonly outside the beach. Extra American points if there is a shirt tucked into the shorts and a belt, with white socks and running shoes.

- This doesn't apply to people in NYC, but Americans love their cars, have enormous cars (even the ones many people consider to be "small" or "average" are big to me) and drive everywhere. This is a function of low gas prices and poor public transport/infrastructure

- Americans eat at really weird (to me!) times - really early. Lunch at 12, sometimes even earlier. Dinner at 6, sometimes earlier. Before I moved here, the first time I encountered this was a client coming from here who I invited for dinner; he said yes but he'd be arriving late so did I mind having a late dinner.... at 7:30. I thought he was joking, but no!

I will think of more but I think that's a start!

I see shorts--a LOT of shorts--in London every summer on young women. Up North, I see shorts ALL WINTER (with tights) in Manchester. A few years ago Next and other high street stores were pushing suiting for young women that consisted of shorts and blazes. And I know multiple little boys for whom shorts are part of the school uniform (in UK). Have you maybe not been home in a really long time?

OP here - I only moved here a year ago from London and I have been home several times since then! Yes, there was a trend a few years ago for shorts with tights, and "city shorts" (what they called the suit-shorts), but I really don't feel like they took off, in London anyway. Yes, kids wear shorts in school and out; I wasn't including them. I do not often see adult women wearing shorts outside of beach resorts, is what I guess I should have said

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anything that is not burger, fries, a burrito is "ethnic". Along the same lines, Chinese food = general tsao/sesame chicken/egg rolls/the works.

NP here. I agree with this somewhat, but I don't think Europeans think about our opinions about Chinese or Mexican food, although they may think we are squeamish about some foods and eat only steaks and potatoes (probably not too wrong)

In my experience Europeans are even less knowledgeable about Asian or Latin American foods than Americans, probably due to lack of exposure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see a trend with "smiling". Is smiling a bad thing? I suppose they see it as inauthentic?

OP - no, I like the smiling! It's just different, and part of the stereotype that Americans are super-friendly. But keep smiling, please!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we've been traveling in Eastern Europe, many people immediately peg us as Americans. I've asked a couple different people how they they knew and they said some variation of , "You have straight, giant, white teeth and you awkwardly smile at seemingly nothing."

This is awesome.

[Anonymous]

We are also overweight. Back in the 80s, I visited the Soviet Union and at the beach our tour group saw all these overweight Soviets and thought it was so amusing. I'm afraid that we're the overweight ones at the beach now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm half American and half Asian, and grew up in both countries. To natives of my Asian country, Americans are very loud. They talk loud and do things loudly (big gestures, etc.). Everything is big-big people, big cars, big houses, big TVs, etc.

Hell, I'm American and feel this way. I also think sometimes there are too many choices. What would it be like if there were only four types of bread to chose from? Would our shopping go faster? I'd like to find out.

As another American I totally agree with you, but also think the fact that you picked bread as an example is pretty funny because everytime I visit my German in-laws I am terribly impressed by the scope and variety of their bread choices. It's one thing they have way more of than us (and yeah, it's pretty much all way better).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spin off from the European myths thread, I am English (so soon I won't be European ) and here are some of my stereotypes about Americans:

- Americans require EXTREMELY cold drinks. If it's a cold drink, it must be served filled with ice. Fridge-cold drinks without ice are not acceptable

- Americans can be identified in the summer by their shorts. Shorts are worn in some places in Europe in the summer but not very commonly outside the beach. Extra American points if there is a shirt tucked into the shorts and a belt, with white socks and running shoes.

- This doesn't apply to people in NYC, but Americans love their cars, have enormous cars (even the ones many people consider to be "small" or "average" are big to me) and drive everywhere. This is a function of low gas prices and poor public transport/infrastructure

- Americans eat at really weird (to me!) times - really early. Lunch at 12, sometimes even earlier. Dinner at 6, sometimes earlier. Before I moved here, the first time I encountered this was a client coming from here who I invited for dinner; he said yes but he'd be arriving late so did I mind having a late dinner.... at 7:30. I thought he was joking, but no!

I will think of more but I think that's a start!

I agree with all of the above! Especially in SoCal where I spent many years. I've seen people have lunch at 11:30!!

Do you have any tips on where to meet Brits?
I've been in the US 10 years, but on the west coat until recently.
I'm looking to meet some Brits here because I always enjoy having some British friends for the banter. My husband is American and I have lots of American friends too, there's just something different about the British banter.
Cheers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:-Americans like free bathrooms everywhere
-they like to tip
-they like to use credit cards and hate carrying cash
-air conditioning

Clean and with toilet paper too! Who doesn't like this?

Free bathrooms are hardly ever clean. Clean ones are run like businesses. America doesn't have bathrooms outside malls/ restaurants/ bus or train stations.