Reply to What distinguishes your attire as American?

Forum Index » Beauty and Fashion

Reply to "What distinguishes your attire as American? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I think the friendliness thing is misunderstood by a lot of Americans. There's this perception that Americans are friendly and people in other countries are not. This is not exactly right. It's more about how people present.

Americans smile all the time when they are not actually happy. Like if you are an American on vacation in, say, Paris, and you need to ask a local a question, people will walk up with big grins on their faces. Like really, really big smiles. It's not because they are SO happy, it's because Americans are conditioned to smile as a way of being approachable and non-threatening. Americans also smile when nervous, uncomfortable, awkward, etc. As a result, American tourists smile a lot, perhaps even more than Americans do in everyday life.

For the French person, though, think about how they experience it. Some total stranger comes up to you with a huge grin on their face. Likely they speak either hard-to-understand French (it is not common for Americans to nail French pronunciation or accents) or they speak English very quickly. So the French person might look confused for a moment or take a minute to reply as they figure out what is being asked. During this time, the American is smiling at them, which feels strange. Then French person isn't smiling, not because they are mean or hate Americans, but because they are thinking, trying to concentrate, etc.

It's just very confusing from the perspective of the non-American person. Why smile when what you are saying is "I'm lost" or "I need help"? Why not just have a neutral facial expression unless you are having a strong emotion? It feels strange and yes, a little fake.

It's not about friendliness. There are friendly people everywhere. It's specifically about the smiling and how it often feels inappropriate for the situation.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics