Yes, Europeans may not notice the Americans who AREN’T loud and obnoxious. A couple of years ago I was riding the Paris Metro with my girlfriend. I got into a little conversation with a woman sitting across from me. I was speaking in my heavily-accented French. The woman was trying to figure out where we were from, and guessing wrong. When she found out we were Americans, she was very surprised.
Ed
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(We got the last laugh as they had to leave as the bar closed but the owner invited us to stay and chat.)
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I think you may have unwittingly found the answer. Americans receive lots of unearned privileges like this one, and the people who don’t get them can be a little testy about it.
[QUOTE=Krokodil]
[QUOTE=altiod]
(We got the last laugh as they had to leave as the bar closed but the owner invited us to stay and chat.)
Actually the owner asked us to stay. He asked us because we have both have worked with Amnesty International and we know a little about the situation with Burmese refugees in Thailand. He has a friend who recently fled Burma and was interested in getting contacts. Or he was hitting on us. It was 3am.
When we have been in Germany we have always been well received. They buy my husband beer and talk nonstop about politics and sports. Usually sports and explaining the rules of football, baseball and hockey.
When the oh-so-polite germans ask about my political views for the US, and it is translated for me by my husband, I state in my usual peeved voice, " They are all fucking stupid."
Strangley enough, my statement never needs to be translated.
I think that Kenyans resentment over the incident is purely emotional, not much to support it logically. Basically they disagree with american policies, and when ObL attacked the embassy over those policies, something like 3 americans and 260 Kenyans were killed. They see themselves as paying the price for American policies, and resent the US for that.
“American Hair”: Look at a group of yanks. Then look at a similar group of non-yanks. You’ll soon see what I mean.
I see groups of yanks and non-yanks all the time and I have no idea what you’re talking about. Can’t you elaborate for us?
I think owl’s perfect “sophisticated European hairstyle” is that of Kip (Aaron Ruell) in Napolean Dynamite. Am I wrong?
I’ve lived in Chile and have travelled extensively throughout Europe, yet the strongest anti-American sentiment I’ve ever experienced was in my own home from my brother-in-law. My husband’s family is Indian and he is here attending college. One of the first things out of his mouth when we got into a serious discussion about his college experience was, “All American high schools are awful. They produce stupid Americans and those Americans reproduce and make more stupid Americans. All Americans are loud and stupid and fat.” I explained to him the quality of my high school education was outstanding and admitted that perhaps the public school system needed significant work, but indicated that painted an entire country, particularly one he was living in at the time, with such a broad brush was just as ignorant as he thought Americans were. I also suggested that if those were his sentiments and he was planning to go back to his native country anyway, I wasn’t sure why he was receiving an education in the States in the first place, particularly since he appeared to be failing most of his courses. I asked if they were too hard for him or if he just lacked the discipline to go.
Still, I can see what those Dopers across the pond are talking about. You can spot a gaggle of Americans pretty easily, especially those who haven’t travelled much. They tend to do everything very loudly - they laugh loud, talk loud, dress loud. However, there are many people from different countries who act that way. I try to blend in as much as possible, but I’m sure sometimes people look at me and think, “Great, another yank.” I’m sure that sentiment will be even stronger when I visit India because I won’t be able to blend in as easily.
I think I don’t speak loudly. A couple of my former coworkers complained that they couldn’t hear me when we chatted at lunch. The restaurants were not particularly loud. Some Dopers have met me in person. Do I really talk quietly? I didn’t think so; but my coworkers got me wondering.
A couple other things from EuroTrip '82:
[ul][li]In Italy (I don’t remember if it was Milan, Florence or Venice – but I think it was Venice) there was an elderly American couple. ‘Hey Murray! Go stand by that statue. I want to take a picture of it!’[/li][li]In Munich: My friend went to the American Express office to get some money. There was a family (parents and teenaged daughter) in line, and the mother was complaining to someone about their hotel. ‘There was a towel on the floor!’ Geez, we’d been living in hostels for a couple of weeks, and these people were complaining about a towel on the floor?[/li][li]In Vienna: An American man was trying to get a First Class ticket on a train, for himself and his dog. The ticket agent calmy explained that dogs are not allowed in First Class. They are permitted in Second Class. The man (looked to be in his 50s) raised his voice a bit: ‘I’m an American, and I always travel First Class. My dog is a prize-winner, and he always travels First Class with me! This is ridiculous!’ When we got to the ticket cage, my friend and I said apologetically, ‘We’re not all like that.’[/ul][/li]Generally we were treated well. In Oostende an old man brought his 8-year-old daughter up to us to ‘show her the Americans’ and tell her how the Americans freed their country from Nazi tyrrany. We were embarrassed, since we obviously were not part of that and both of us ‘had issues’ with Reagan.
We heard several comments about boorish Germans, and I did see one German (dressed in a fringed buckskin jacket and floppy leather hat) who was obnoxiously drunk.
English hair?? http://www.masterclowns.org/kooky.htm
English hair?? http://www.islandconnections.com/images/branson/rba.jpg
English hair?? http://www.posterworx.co.nz/images/music/Lp0591SidVicious.jpg
I guess I’m still confused.
Sorry, I don’t know how to make URLs show up as my own phrases.
To make the URL show up as your phrase, type [ url=“URL in here” ]your phrase here[ /url ] (without the spaces).
Or, when you are typing in the reply field,
click that icon of the “globe-and-chain link” (symbolizing the World Wide Web) above the reply field
in the pop-up box that appears, type in the text that you want to act as a hyperlink; click the OK button
in the next pop-up box that appears, paste or type in the URL you want to link to; click the OK button.
Done!
I will grant that “the mullet” is American hair. Although I think I’ve seen Scottish hooligans with mullets -not sure.
How about that woman on What Not to Wear with the mullet - anyone see that? Why do some women think that hairstyle is attractive? Do they think they are fooling anyone into thinking they have long hair? It’s no more “long” than a comb-over is “not bald.”
Well, then, Dubya has European hair. And apparently Kerry didn’t. Hmmmm.
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![Dutch hair [look at the eyebrows]](http://www.noworriez.nl/images/lubbers.jpg){kind=link}
