[INFLAMMATORY STEREOTYPING]
The question has been raised in another thread, with answers being along the lines of “Don’t worry, the locals can just tell.” But I’m intrigued: How DO the locals in a place tell who’s a tourist?
Living near a major tourist-destination city, I see a lot of them, and yes, I can tell with my trusty “tourist-dar”. Telltale signs are:
Body language: Locals know where they’re going, they walk straight ahead without turning their heads to look at the same things that have been there their whole lives. They also appear around the faceless business buildings. Tourists have their heads on a swivel, and they’re always looking at the historic buildings and reading plaques.
Guidebooks, cameras, and (a dead giveaway) phrasebooks. Omit that last for Americans, but even when they’re from different parts of the country you can tell them anyway.
Groups getting off and on buses with big windows and strange colors. The Japanese ones especially stay in tight groups, and they ALL have cameras on neckstraps.
The Europeans are so skinny! You can tell a fellow American by his potbelly, or even HER potbelly, even if he’s from 2000 miles away, but you almost NEVER see a European who isn’t slightly built and kinda short. I think that may be the biggest giveaway for Americans visiting Europe, btw.
Mode of dress: Harder to tell here. We wear almost anything because we come from almost everywhere. Probably an easier task for the locals in other countries.
Are there any other specific items your tourist-dar looks for, in whatever country you’re from?
Seems to me you threw a lot of stereotypes together.
I live in a tourist city and have a lot of trouble telling who’s a tourist. I can be at a cafe in the “scenic building” with several tour buses outside with German and Italian airline logos in the windows.
I try to strike up a conversation with a girl with a camera in one hand and a map in the other. But it always seems to be a local waiting for her boyfriend, who’s scowling at me from behind the bar.
I live in the San Francisco area, and we can tell the tourists: they’re the ones wearing shorts in the summer. “We’re going on a vacation to California! Fun in the sun!”
The obvious middle-aged American tourist in Europe is usually identified by being overweight, wearing white tennis shoes, a fanny pack, a sweat shirt (sometimes with puffy appliques or sequins) and generally speaks more loudly than the locals. (I think Americans have a speaking tone comfort-zone that is far louder than that of the rest of the world.) Interspersed between these obvious tourists are the rest of them - fitting in with the locals in both dress and speech. We never notice them.
I used to think that we (Americans) were the most badly behaved tourists, then I met the Germans…
I go to Yosemite National Park a lot (my username gave that away). While we are all “tourists”, some of us (like me) are chonic visitors. I can tell the “tourist-tourists” by…the weird clothes. I can just tell. The tourists from Europe dress differently, and behave differentlu. While I cannot pinpoint it all exactly, a few tip-offs are:
*Weird t-shirts.
*Shiny, flashy gold handbags, gold leather anything.
*Short-shorts on men.
*Standing too close to you (the “personal space” thing).
These are all huge generalizations, of course, and not meant to be taken too seriously.
Last night on my way home on the Tube I made a special effort to analyze what stood out about all the American tourists I saw (admittedly a small number - hell it is November). Here is what I noticed:
Americans in plain, ordinary casual clothes look so dam neat and tidy! All the jeans & sweatshirts look brand new. White socks are also a dead giveaway. When Londoners are ‘in mufti’ they either tend to wear clothes that have become comfortable friends through many wear/wash cycles, or else they choose something more overtly fashionable. Younger German, French & Italian tourists tend to go for the ‘casual but with style’ look but are easy to spot since they hunt in packs.
Almost all Americans seem to buy just the one brand of small backpack. I don’t remember the brand but if you look in your closet I bet you find one!
Mature Brits would never wear nylon wind cheater style jackets - ever.
American women over 40 tend to wear chunkier jewelry - especially earrings. Europeans would prefer something more delicate. The Americans also tend to have more ‘styled’ hair than is common here.
Only tourists get on at Leicester Square and get off at Piccadilly Circus. You walk further getting down to the platform and back up again than you would at street level.
Tend to dress more comfortable than those people who are there doing work (The button down shirt and slacks is almost universal for businessmen). One only appears as a tourist if he wants to be, wherever I go, I try and buy some of the local clothes, or dress accordingly. Eventhough, I still look lost and butcher the language to no end.
When I was in Australia I was told by many people that us Brits could always be spotted because we’re the only ones sunbathing in 40-degree heat, and because British men have longer sideburns than anyone else.
Anyone who:[ul]
[li]looks at a Metro map for more than one minute[/li][li]looks with any curiosity at their Metro fare ticket[/li][li]stays at a hotel with 5 miles of the White House and doesn’t wear a business suit when they leave[/li][li]goes to Arlington National Cemetary and goes immediately to JFK’s grave or Tomb of the Unknown Soldier[/li][li]is with school-aged children in the middle of the day[/li][li]buys the crappy T-shirts on the Mall[/li][/ul]
Are you serious? I’m not going to argue over the skinny thing, for obvious reasons, but I think you might be just a little bit mistaken on the length thing.
In 1990 the average adult Dutch male was 182 cm (5 feet 11.65 inches) tall. That would mean that my 180 cm is just a little below average. (And over the last 10 years the average length has only increased.) According to the site I got this information from (Dutch only, sorry - but there are graphs) the average length would now be 185 cm (6 feet 0.83 inches). These figures won’t differ much for German and Scandinavian people.
I’ve been to the USA a couple of times now, and I always felt kind of tall, something I don’t have over here. And when I did see someone tall in the US, I noticed it mainly because of the contrast with “regular-length” Americans.
Slightly more on-topic: the money confusion gives away tourists. Tourists prefer to pay with bills. Americans always regard colour-coded money with that Monopoly-look. And Americans have a knack for carrying around their money in a wad, in stead of in a wallet.
ticker, does walking from Tottenham Court Road to Speaker’s Corner make me a tourist? (I’ve got the money thing down pat.)
SkinnyGuy, I wouldn’t even know where to find Speaker’s Corner (more or less) – that either makes you a veteran Londoner or the world’s most prepared tourist…
The only problem with your reasoning Skinnyguy and ElvisL1ves, is that Dutch and Holland people are known to be some of the tallest in the world. I am working with a Hollandish guy who is probably almost 7 feet tall, yet I have met french people who barely clear 5 feet.
I think the real issue is that Height is just a general guage, and Europe varies so widely, it’s not a very valid argument.
mattk, the last four times I was in London, I entered the park at Speaker’s Corner, and every single time there was a group advocating the legalisation of … marihuana. Do you know how boring this is for a Dutchman? I mean, if I wanted to smoke pot, I would have stayed home. You tend to remember such a thing. (But I do have the London AtoZ in my pocket whenever I’m there.)
:: climbing on my high horse ::
Schieschkopf, you’re treading on thin ice here. Holland is NOT a country. Holland is a part of the country The Netherlands. Its inhabitants are called Dutch. And don’t ever, ever accuse me of being from Holland. I’ve killed people for less. :mad:
Hollandish? Outlandish maybe.
:: getting off the horse again ::
Nope, I’m going to be stubborn here. ElvisL1ves said “almost NEVER”, and I have a very hard time believing that. Of course, if he had said that most Europeans were taller than Americans, I’d have brought up southern Italy and my mother (4 feet 11).
[bragging]
It always gives me a profound pleasure whenever I (a visitor to the country) am asked “Do you know have to get to…?” in London by native Brits, and more often than not I know the way (with or without my AtoZ, which I always keep hidden).
[/bragging]
ElvisL1ves said “almost NEVER”, and I have a very hard time believing that. Of course, if he had said that most Europeans were taller than Americans, I’d have brought up southern Italy and my mother (4 feet 11).