Is the stereotype of the insular American accurate?

In My Humble Opinion
41

Also possibly of note is the notion of “vacation” in America vs. other countries. You have countries like Germany and France where law governs that full time employees get something like five or six weeks of paid vacation per year. In the US, you have to have been working at a company for probably 10-15 years to get that kind of vacation. I’ve been interviewing lately and have been surprised at the stinginess of American companies on this point - most have offered either one week for the first year or none the first year with the prospect of earning a week after that year.

So even when many of us have the money and ability to travel, we just don’t have the time off to travel that far. I just can’t take a month in the summer to see the world - I have only a couple of weeks and with immediate family in the Quad Cities, Tulsa, Orlando, and Los Angeles, it’s hard to fit all that in and take a decent vacation, much less one that takes me out of North America. Right now I actually have a crapload of free time at my current job, but the job itself sucks, so I’m looking elsewhere. This means starting over and trying to re-earn vacation time so even though I’d like to go to Europe (finally I have the money to do so!), I just won’t have the time. It’s very frustrating.

42

I don’t think the responses you’ve received are defensive. Most people who aren’t American or Canadian simply don’t grasp the immense size of those two countries compared to Europe. The distance between Kansas City and St. Louis (two cities in Missouri) is about the same as the distance between London and Paris. North Americans have had to explain this so often that it is second nature to us.

To respond to your second set of questions, first, remember that mass media has homogenized American culture considerably even since I was young. With that in mind:

  1. Not only is there a considerable difference between urban and rural areas, but there is a difference between the culture of the densely populated northeastern U.S. and the rest of the country, where major population centers are several hundred miles apart. The “old South” (the states that comprised the Confederacy during the Civil War) still claims to have a distinctive culutre, but there has ben so much in-migration from other parts of the country the distinction has nearly vanished in most cities.

Most rural comunities are culutrally homogenous, but there are rural areas that are predominantly white, predominantly Black, predominantly Hispanic, predominantly Native, etc.

  1. Not as much as you’d think. There are a handful of coastal cities (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco) who pride themselves on being cosmopolitan, but other ports are not that different from inland areas.

  2. Most Americans are descendents of immigrants and may be only the first or second generation of their families to have higher education. Also, people with differing education levels often work together.

  3. Income is the major determinant of social status in most parts of the United States. Most immigrants and people who have migrated from rural areas to cities tend to be lower income, and cluster in lower income areas. That in itself assures that there will be more diversity in lower income areas.

  4. I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking here. Traditionally the vast majority of Americans assimilate within two or three generations. Major cities may still have a few ethnic enclaves. But on my own block, which is generally classed as “white, suburban” we have south Asians, east Asians and pretty much every western European group.

43

Yep, the question really doesn’t work when you get to the US.

My Wife and I recently drove 580 miles (round trip) to adopt a dog from a shelter.

It was a long day, but worth it.

Our closest relatives are 100 miles away. The next closest ones are 1000 then 1400 miles away.

Manhattan is a different world from where we live. So is California, Florida, Iowa or just about any other State.

44

Indeedy, Enipla. My best friend lives maybe halfway across the state. It is a full day’s drive to visit her–about 7 hours. Americans, on the whole, are used to these huge distances and regard long drives as pretty trivial when compared with Europeans (IME); when I lived in Denmark a 30-60 minute drive was a goodish way to go, but to me it was what I did to get to the next town for a nice evening out. People never seemed to grasp the sheer size of where I was from.

I don’t think we’re being very defensive here. These “Americans are so provincial” threads are pretty regular occurences, and we get a little bored and exasperated.

45

I don’t know about that…

  1. People in urban areas vs. rural (I’m quite sure there’s a difference.)

I grew up in a tiny town in Iowa with a population of 990. One of my best friends was Korean, and my Spanish teacher was Bolivian (she was actually the art teacher, but being a native speaker, she was roped into teaching Spanish as well).

  1. Coastal communinties vs. central (Probably.)

I live in Rochester, Minnesota, and I work at the Mayo Clinic. We have sizable Somalian and Hmong populations, and I’ve worked with people from all over the world. I spent a year at a college in Iowa with many, many international students.

  1. People of lower vs. higher education

I’ve had a year of college and then some vocational training.

  1. People of lower vs. higher income

My income is low to medium.

  1. People of various ethnic backgrounds, eg. are Americans of British ancestry more or less likely to experience ethnic diversity compared to, say, Americans of Ukranian ancestry.

I’m a plain, vanilla English/Irish/German mutt.

46

Australia is nearly as large as the continental US (about 90%) and I’m certain from personal experience that a hugely greater proportion of Aussies have travelled overseas than Americans (although I can’t seem to formulate a good Google search to back that up) so I don’t buy the size argument. But the US having a much larger population and more varied geography does have a lot more to see within that area. People who think the US has varied local cultures (eg deep south vs west coast) need to get out more, these differences are tiny compared to those in different regions of Europe, India or China.

My experience in the US is the folks in the more cosmopolitan areas, basically the northern East Coast and southern California, are much more like Europeans and Aussies in this repect. Those in the middle, not so much. It’s as if, having never been outside the midwest “culture” they don’t know (or perhaps don’t want to know) what they’re missing. I’m personally aware of folks in Utah, where my company is based, who refuse to get passports to make sure they will never get sent overseas for work (and this was pre-9/11, BTW).

Personally I’ve been to NZ, Britain, Wales, USA, France, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Malta, Korea, India, Italy, Spain, Canada, Mexico, and the Isle of Man (not in that order!).

Like the others I’m not sure what counts as an ethnic experience, but my practise in all those countries is to get out of the tourist areas and explore, or even better live with a local. Locally we have very strong Italian, Vietnamese, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Turkish and Korean communities that I visit regularly (yes, mostly for eating!).

The only language I speak fluently is English, but I can pick up enough French, Italian and Spanish to get by when I’m there. Asian languages I have no chance at.

47

How many countries have you visited?
Most of Europe (my family goes on pan-Europe tours almost annually), the US, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia Brazil, and India.

**
How many ethnic cultures have you experienced? (In person, not in movies or TV.)**
Hell, lots. My dad’s Singaporean, my mom Indonesian, and we live(d) in Hong Kong. I went to an international school with expat kids, study in Sydney, and travel pretty much whenever an opportunity comes along. And I watch a lot of anime. :stuck_out_tongue:

**
How many languages do you speak?**
Do dialects count? I speak three Chinese dialects, two Indonesian ones, Malay (all from being raised in the right places), English, and am functional in French.

  1. People in urban areas vs. rural (I’m quite sure there’s a difference.)
    Have always lived in very urban places.

  2. Coastal communinties vs. central (Probably.)
    No landlocked countries for me.

  3. People of lower vs. higher education
    Working on my first degree right now.

  4. People of lower vs. higher income
    Parents rich. Me poor.

  5. People of various ethnic backgrounds, eg. are Americans of British ancestry more or less likely to experience ethnic diversity compared to, say, Americans of Ukranian ancestry.
    Immigrants get to see and experience a lot more, but the quirks are diluted with every generation in the new country. Assimilation, etc.

48

Countries: Just Canada, the US, France, and Spain.

Ethnic cultures: Depends what you mean by “experience.” I really don’t know how to answer this question. I mean, I know people from lots of different backgrounds, and I’ve lived in two very different cultural milieux (three, if you count queer, which I prefer to), but…

Languages: English, French, Spanish, Esperanto, some Italian, small smatterings of German, Japanese, and Latin; I’m currently trying to teach myself Catalan.

49

Well, it does get tiring answering the same questions on a regular basis. I wasn’t fortunate enough to be born into a cosmopolitan, wealthy family that could pay for me to trip around the world. That’s about the sum of it. So what am I supposed to do? Curse God for making me an unlettered, lower-middle-class American fool?

50

How many countries have you visited?
Thirteen - Australia, Fiji, Bahamas, England, Scotland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Canada.

How many ethnic cultures have you experienced? (In person, not in movies or TV.)
I don’t know. I suppose at least the thirteen of the countries I listed, plus the different cultures in the US where I’ve been, such as Redneck West Virginian, Citified West Virginian, Pittsburghers (anti-West Virginian), New Yorkers, upstate New Yorkers, Los Angeleans, and so on.

How many languages do you speak?
Only one (English) well, but I have a smattering of Spanish and Italian.

51

How many countries have you visited?

Canada, Ireland, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, and the BVI. That makes 8.

How many ethnic cultures have you experienced?

Those of all the countries mentioned above, plus people I’ve been friends with at home or here at school: Korean, Indian, Pakistani, Jordanian, Chinese, Russian (rather extensively), Norwegian, South African, and Congolese (I forget which specific ethnic group). Lots of Jewish culture of all stripes, if you want to include that. And then many of the various regional US cultures.

How many languages do you speak?

English (native language), nearly fluent French, some German and Arabic, and an inconsequential bit of Italian. I’d only actually claim to speak the first two.

52

I’ve been to France, Canada and I lived (on a US Military base) in the Philippines.

Ethnic Cultures? Do you count various American Ethnic cultures?
I only speak english. I struggled through HS Spanish and I really tried to learn some French but I find learning new languages really difficult for some reason. I can understand a few words of Spanish, French, Italian and even a little German or Sweedish but that because I frequently watch foreign movies.

I live in NYC and it is cheeper for me to fly to Paris than to fly to Oklahoma City to see my mom. To fly from the middle of the country to Europe or Asia is much more expensive than flying from a coast.

53

Add Romanian and Bangladeshi to my list of ethnic cultures, I had forgotten them.

Oh, and I’m another one who doesn’t think there’s really a fair comparison between Europeans and Americans on this point. The closest foreign country from where I normally live (Maryland) is Canada, and it’s a day’s drive just to get to the border. It’s much longer for anyone who lives south of me. As far as I’m concerned, an American can be quite well traveled without ever leaving the country or even his or her native coast/region.

54

Although it is getting better, US citizens don’t get the vacation time that Europeans do.

I would love to go to Europe, but the time and money just aren’t there. I’m 44 years old, just last year was the first time I made it to DC, our Capitol. And it was a side trip for a wedding we attended.

So. I’ve been to Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. All of those destinations are pretty inexpensive, and I can usually get a direct flight. Sometimes though, I have to change planes just to get to Mexico.

I’ve heard that Colorado has a greater number of SCUBA divers per capita than any other state. We can get down to the Caribbean for next to nothing for a week, or even a long weekend.

55

Countries visited: American who has visited Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakstan, & Kyrgyzstan. Seven in total.

Cultures experienced: White/Pacific Islander mix who lives in a largely hispanic neighborhood, so let’s call it three.

Languages spoken: English fluently (but with a Boston accent that makes people question that claim), Russian poorly, French atrohpied to crude approximations.

I’m really not buying the claim that “This board (or the internet in general) is more worldly/educated/enlightened/etc” than the population as a whole. We’ve had a decade of internet access available to just about any who want it (longer if you had money), so it’s not like we’re all a bunch of undergraduates just discovering BBSes.

56

Since the title of this thread is titled “Is the stereotype of the insular American accurate?” I think a few numbers would be appropriate.

In 2002 (according to the Travel Industry Association) about 10.7 Million Americans visited Europe while 8.7 Million Europeans visited the US, with about half of the Europeans coming from the UK. It seems the numbers haven’t changed much since then. Judging by what I can find on infoplease, Americans visit France about two and a half times more often than the French visit the US. Americans are three and a half times as likely to visit Italy as vice-versa and three times as likely to visit Spain. People from the UK, on the other hand, are about 25% more likely to visit the US than vice-versa. This situation is occurring despite the current strength of the Euro relative to the Dollar which basically means that America is on sale for Europeans these days.

57

Countries visited: Canada (Niagra Falls and B.C.), Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Antiqua, St Thomas, Grenada, Dominica, and a few other Caribean islands I can’t remember. Within the US I have been in 22 states. I will be visiting Alaska this year.

I am not typical among my friends. I have friends who have never been outside Pennsylvania.

Ethnic Cultures: I don’t really know. I do not “think about” that when I am with people, I would guess nothing too remarkable.

Languages: I can muster enough Spanish to get a cold beer and chat about the weather. I think people are impressed that I am making an attempt with their language, compared to Americans I have come across with the attitude that they are spending American Dollars so the natives had better understand English (spoken loudly with a mock spanish accent).

58

Countries visited: England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Lichtenstein, Russia, Canada. I think that’s all, so 9.

Cultures experienced: That’s too difficult to put a finger on. Many.

Languages: I speak passable English most days, depending on how much I’ve had to drink. I minored in French in college, but lack of practice has depleted my skills.

As to the other questions:

  1. I live in a rural area. (I’ll resist going into a rant about how I’m sick to death of people assuming that people who live in rural areas are stupid.)

  2. Central.

  3. Four years of college, Bachelor of Arts degree.

  4. Me alone? Low income. With my husband? Lower middle.

  5. I’m as white as they come. Background is German/Norwegian on dad’s side; German/French/English/Dutch on mom’s side.

59

Countries visited: 7 Canada, Mexico, Iceland, England, Greece, Tanzania, the Netherlands.

Cultures experienced: Closely (as in friends and family) 4 or 5. More loosely (neighbors, coworkers) 10+

Languages spoken: English and enough to order food or find a hospital in 2 more.

One thing you are missing here is that I can find all of those cultures in neighborhood in parts of the US. I’ve lived in a part of suburban Chicago that had huge Japanese, Hispanic, Polish, Indian, and German populations. I’m talking first and second generation immigrants. All within a 5 mile radius.

60

Countries visited: Eight or so. I’d love to visit more.

Ethnic experience : Not sure what this means. I grew up with various slavic influences, and I’ve lived or worked where there were other ones, but I’ve only lived with two.

Languages: I’ve studied several – years of Latin on my own. Three years of Spanish, eight of Polish, studied Japanese on my own. But very little of it “took”. I’m fluent in Americanish, can read signs in the Hispanic parts of towns, can read technical articles in French if I have a dictionary, I’ve found, and speak Japanese at the “Shogun” level (In other words, I speak Japanese as well as if all my knowledge of it came from watching the TV miniseries “Shogun”)