Americans overseas who embarrass all Americans

@FBM,

Back in Munich, about 80% of all Americans you would get to see were either soldiers, or busloads of retirees, or college frat boys and frat girls on a mission to get drunk at the Oktoberfest. Neither class of people were a tribute to their country, and the other 20% just weren't enough to turn America's image around.

Now that I'm living in a suburb of New York City, I'm seeing plenty of idiot tourists from Germany returning the favor. It all boils down to Karma, I guess.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

You must be kidding...

edit - see Thomas's post, which I had not yet when I posted this.
On one of my first travels of significance to me as an adult, I saw a group of americans being amazingly loud mid day in a hotel lobby in Mexico City. I could hardly believe my ears and was embarrassed. That was only the first in years of further such observations.

At the same time, I know such behavior isn't only manifested by us.

1 Reply

I can spot a German tourist in a second. They all wear Birkenstock sandals with socks Laughing

and they're loud, very loud and always looking for an ashtray.
They wear speedos at the beach and carry huge amounts of cash with them and buy, buy, buy....I'd hate to see the baggage overage they pay at the airlines. Yet, when it comes to tipping the waiter, they're more than frugal....in Germany the tip is included in the restaurant tab, so they don't feel that they should pay extra tip here.
They rarely stop at the 4-way stops or for pedestrians and strangely enough they tend to single me out and ask for directions. Oh the surprise when I answer them in German. Laughing

1 Reply

I was in a woderful little pub on the Atlantic coast of Ireland--a sign out front said, "Next beer, 3000 miles," and just beyond that was one reading "Last beer until Boston." It was truly a wonderful place, beautiful inside and out. I was there once when a pack of wild German college students descended upon us. They were all wearing Birkenstocks with socks, they all had backpacks--excuse me, rucksacks (i was corrected several times)--and they had all come to sing and dance. There was a back room, a shed really, where a local traditional music group would play, and peole would dance. The Germas danced as though they thought the object was to stomp their way through the floorboards, and deciding that our understanding of the English language must be deffective if we didn't immediately understand what they said, they determined to correct the problem by shouting everything they said.

They weren't really a bad bunch, and we did have fun, but when on blond Bruhilda began paying particular attention to me, i decided the time had come to slip away.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

I was in a woderful little pub on the Atlantic coast of Ireland--a sign out front said, "Next beer, 3000 miles," and just beyond that was one reading "Last beer until Boston."

I think I've seen this pub. Was it in Galway? (And yes, this probably makes me one of those German college students.)

1 Reply

@Thomas,

A lot of it is psychology of perception, I think. The assholes stand out in memory - along with their natinoality/race/etc - whereas the polite people don't do anything to make themselves memorable. The mind tends to label groups according to their degree/strength of impression. I'm not a psychologist, but it seems to me that this process might explain a lot of the racism and nationalism that's behind our mutual rejection of each other based on cultural/racial/national identity, blah blah. The mind is a terrible thing.

0 Replies

@Thomas,

It was outside Sligo, and it was called Ellen's Pub. (Owned by two male employees of the Post Office, and no woman in sight--it apparently got the name from the first licensee in the 17th century). Sligo is north of Galway, but not that far.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

I took a bus from Sligo to Galway once. Unfortunately, we didn't get to stop for a beer.

1 Reply

@Mame,

I took the bus from Galway to Tierney (a small village west of Galway city in County Galway) and it stopped at every pub along the way. The first time, i got off with everyone else, and went into the pub and ordered a pint of stout. I'd barely started when the driver came in telling every one to drink up. The next stop, i ordered a half, and sure enough, the driver showed up a few minutes later telling everyone to drink up. After that, i just stayed on the bus.

2 Replies

@Setanta,

Great story Wink

but ewww, stout.

Was the driver drinking? Smile

0 Replies

@ossobuco,

ossobuco wrote:

You must be kidding...

edit - see Thomas's post, which I had not yet when I posted this.
On one of my first travels of significance to me as an adult, I saw a group of americans being amazingly loud mid day in a hotel lobby in Mexico City. I could hardly believe my ears and was embarrassed. That was only the first in years of further such observations.

At the same time, I know such behavior isn't only manifested by us.

I can relate to that (as to Americans) by only one variety of experience:
on my way home from school in the 1940s, seeing a NYC bus full of wild,
yelling, running, obstreperous teenagers returning from school
in mid afternoon. The loud, rowdy students were all whites
and of the same ethnic group (not mine).

The bus driver was very impolite WITH GOOD REASON.
That was horrible; humiliating. I hoped that no one 'd think that I was among them. I tried not to pay attention -- look away.

David

0 Replies

The book, The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, was not published a few years ago. It was more like 51 years ago. That's sorta looking back at America when she was a teenager. And, a little more than a decade following WWII.

2 Replies

@CalamityJane,

CalamityJane wrote:

They rarely stop at the 4-way stops or for pedestrians and strangely enough they tend to single me out and ask for directions. Oh the surprise when I answer them in German.

Reminds me of a little incident in Albuquerque. RJB, Osso, and myself were looking for a particular store, so stopped for directions. The guy we asked was German, and gave good English directions. No Birkenstocks, no lederhosen, just a normal, well spoken guy from Germany.

1 Reply

@Pemerson,

I read that at the time, or close to the time, but am blank on the details. I think of it as just part of my getting a rounder view.

1 Reply

@roger,

I remember that day. Also remember that before we had given up and stopped at a Flying Star Cafe to just ask anyone there, myself and then RJB, in the car, were trying to communicate with a telephone operator from my cellphone company re the address, Roger being the driver and having enough on his mind.

Comedy live.

0 Replies

@Setanta,

I was in a small rural pub in the Kerry village where I was raised some years back. The sort of place where the local farmers come for "a quiet pint" still wearing their wellies. A coach load of Yanks (as we called them) arrived. One particularly attractive lass attracted a lot of attention, dressed as she was in a mini-skirt with thigh-high boots. One local decided to engage her in conversation. "Ware arr oo fhrom atall?" he asked her. "I'm from New Yawk" she replied. "Chrisht, New Yorrk, is it? Jew know me sishter, Bridie Coffey? She moved dere 50 yer ago."

2 Replies

@ossobuco,

ossobuco wrote:

I read that at the time, or close to the time, but am blank on the details. I think of it as just part of my getting a rounder view.

I never read the book either because I think all us Americans at the time knew exactly what they meant.

I really never identified myself as American - you know, those people who lived Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Some of my real friends, when younger, were from Europe. One, a woman from England, used to drive an ambulance during that war. Their families were killed or broken up, they had lived through some real agony. They didn't act out, be silly. Neither did I.

0 Replies

@lmur,

Heh heh. When I was in the Army, I was traveling by bus - in uniform. Sure enough, this dear lady tells me her son in also in the Army. She thought I should know him. Army was a big place in the early '60s. Really big.

0 Replies

...Americans are OK as far as I can tell nor better or worse then every other nation...nevertheless if I were to think about an hypothetical nightmare situation concerning American typical behaviour that would have to be the image of those boring extra nice neighbours ringing at the door with a cake in their hands...I kind of understand the need given the colonial past, but I admit I would hate it...in all fairness I detest in my own country the eternal Latin tendency for drama...

0 Replies

@Pemerson,

Pemerson wrote:

The book, The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, was not published a few years ago. It was more like 51 years ago. That's sorta looking back at America when she was a teenager. And, a little more than a decade following WWII.

Wrong book. Ugly Koreans, Ugly Americans.

1 Reply

Americans overseas who embarrass all Americans

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know