In the backpacking world, Americans have a pretty good reputation.
In my experience we tend to be a bit more willing to adapt to local customs, and America still has a lot of goodwill around the world- people in even the most remote corners of this planet have an uncle or friend in America. Perhaps another factor is we are less likely to travel to remote locations as a group and our drinking culture is different. Finally, we are notoriously free with our smiles, “pleases” and "thank you"s.
One thing I do get a lot is a bunch of Europeans sitting around in a hostel ranting about those “damned Americans” or questioning me in a hostile manner about America’s foreign policy. It does bother me. I don’t hang around French people ranting about how uncouth I find the French. And I think they ought to realize by now that we are not all personally George W. Bush.
Dig it out and ask what ingredients you aren’t too certain about, we can try and figure out a good sub for the items in question. Or perhaps find a place to order it online =)
I love exchanging recipes with my european eve online corp mates - I love trying something new.
That is one of the reasons I like to eat where the locals eat when I travel. When I went to Germany last time the friend I was staying with was amused that I didn’t want to eat at the american style place [which was fairly expensive from what I understand] and wanted to stay home and exchange recipes and share cooking. I taught him to make huevos rancheros and bread pudding, and he refined a couple of my foods [mom is of german descent and we had spent time stationed in germany, and we had a german maid/cook so I grew up with german foods]
I have always found that if the only phrases you know in a language are excuse me, please, thank you, hello and good by you can get away with mangling the local language and combining it with english.
OMG I can. Let’s start with British college students. How the hell do they drink so much?! My university had several British exchange students, and it seemed like every weekend I’d see them on the bus up to campus stumbling around, yelling, and flashing their trashy thong underwear to all and sundry. I went to a pretty quiet hippy school, and that kind of behavior really did stand out. They were by far the sluttiest, trashiest, loudest and most obnoxious people in town.
Working at a hotel, I got a lot of British tourists that would confront me with “Why did you invade Iraq.” I’d explain that I never actually invaded Iraq, and I never voted for the guy who did. If they had looked around, they’d have noticed they were in the most liberal hippy peace-loving town possible. But no, I’d constantly get shit as if I personally wrote US foreign policy.
I think what most people in the rest of the world don’t understand is that the “ugly American” is acting the same way they do there as here. It’s not like they become pricks the second they step off a plane.
Here’s my personal stock answer, it might help you:
“I would like to personally apologize on behalf of all Americans about the foreign policy, antics, insanity, and poor grammar inflicted on the world by the Bush administration. After 9/11, Americans got scared, and they forgot what America is supposed to be about, and a small group of militant extremists managed to take control of the country. I love America, but it’s not my America anymore.”
This usually helps people realize that not all Americans are like what they see on TV, and that most of us didn’t lose our minds.
Just resisting the urge to say “fuck you” would be ample goodwill ambassadorship for me. I can’t think of any other nation whose history is clean enough that I’d be apolgetic in comparison. I’ve got dirt on even the Swiss and Canadians, and I don’t doubt they are raised to be as ignorant or in denial of their misdeeds as Americans sterotypically are.
No rude European visitors in America? Or is perceived rudeness just different custom?
I changed currency for tourists in Honolulu years ago. The Germans were shockingly cold and bursqe. But there wasn’t any ill-will behind it - they just wanted their transactions completed and to be on their way, and didn’t see any reason to hold things up with “please; how’ya doing today; thank you.” The little social lubricants that, in their minds, are unecessary when the machine functions as it should with perfectly meshed gears.
The French (males) were more leisurely, in that they took their time to make sure I undersood I was a servant, an incompetent servent, and an incompetent servant in a culturally inferior society at that.
No, (and this isn’t funny): during the Second Boer War the British determied to cut the Boer’s support by rounding up all their families and Black servants and herding them into concentration camps. Since the Canadians were used to ranging around in big, open country, they took the job of burning the non-combatants’ homes and moving them to the camps, where 26,000 died
The problem is that the cookbook assumes that I am following Bulgarian traditions of food preservation. It is normal for Bulgarians to go into a frenzy of canning and jam-making at the end of summer so that they have canned peppers and tomatoes and whatever to last them through the winter. Drying peppers is also normal - it’s common to see houses with strings of dried peppers hung up. I don’t have any of these things, but that’s what some of the recipes call for.
They also call for spices that I don’t know the words for in English, including chorba, which is actually a specific mix of spices you can get at any market in Bulgaria. But not so much in the US. But I can still try these things. I don’t know how 100% authentic they’ll be, but they’d probably still turn out okay.
LOUNE, I’d be happy to do that! Keep in mind I’m a vegetarian, but you should probably be grateful for that. Bulgarian vegetarian food is usually very tasty (it’s similar to Greek or Turkish food), it’s when you get into meat stuff that internal organs start coming into play. (One of the most popular “comfort foods” all over the Balkans is something called shkembe - aka sheep stomach stew.)
And let’s not forget tipping. Apparently Americans are viewed a lot more kindly than tourists of many other countries for their relative generosity.
You probably think you are earning non-Americans’ affection with this, but I suspect the prevailing reaction is barely concealed contempt and derision.
Self-loathing, even if sincerely felt, does not generally engender respect. While certainly not universal, it appears to be a more common trait among Americans than residents of other countries.
I doubt for instance that the French spend a great deal of time worrying about how citizens of other countries view them, and apologizing for their countrymen’s misdeeds.
I believe that’s where the term “concentration camp” came from. So the British actually invented the concentration camp.
Hey – if someone who’s British bugs you about Iraq – bug them about Ireland. (Didn’t the official report on “Bloody Sunday” just come out?)
We notice outliers more than unassuming people; and we tend to perceive that which reinforces our prejudices. Nevertheless there are two behavior patterns I’ve observed far too often for it to be just chance correlation.
Many Americans travelling abroad tend to be self-centered and naive. And many Parisians definitely delight in insulting toward foreigners.
From “backpacking” I’ll guess your Americans may be of a somewhat younger generation than those on which my anecdotal information is based.
**
Daily Scum** editor: “Nope. That just doesn’t have the bite we are looking for. Now get back out there and find a bar where they are knocking the holy crap out of each other!”
