# Non-U.S. Dopers: What Are Typical "American" Traits? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 17, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010 "2008-09-17T18:25:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/21 "2008-09-18T01:57:54Z")
When my British friend comes over here, he seems to be constantly noticing that peculiar American trait of “If this much is good, THIS much should be even better”. He has merry fun taking pictures of all things over sized and gaudy. Examples: A motor home the size of Willie Nelson’s, pulling an Escalade, pulling a ski boat, pulling ATV’s. A seven year old with a 44 ounce pail-o-pop in one hand and half pound loaf-o-Snicker in the other. A 105 lb. woman with a 50" chest. Giant pickups with 48" tires. A house, in the middle of a desert surrounded by 3 acres of turf grass. A police force for a town with less than 5000 residents being armed with M16,M4’s,M14’s etc. etc. REALLY big hair. ---
**Author:** ![SomeBodyUK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@SomeBodyUK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SomeBodyUK)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/22 "2008-09-18T02:06:15Z")
British Indian guy living in Southern California here… Horrible dress sense, such as wearing white socks with sandals. Nobody in UK wears socks with sandals. In fact, white socks are rarely worn, apart from for sports. As far as I know, the last time loads of British men wore white socks was around the time of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Bringing up my race in inappropriate situations - that’s REALLY offensive in UK. I’m of Indian heritage, but you can’t mention it in an interview. Q. “so where are you from?” A. “Britain” Q. “No I mean, where’s your family really from?” A. “They live in England too, but my parents are from India” Q. “Oh,I (a) love Indian food , (b) have an Indian friend, © work with a guy from India [delete as appropriate]” This has happened to me in job interviews in LA. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/23 "2008-09-18T02:28:06Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Why do you say that? Was that directed at me in particular? This is directed at any American who tries to pass himself or herself off as a Canadian. If you are not a Canadian, then please don’t pretend that you are. If you do not fit one of the uglier stereotypes, then being known as an American will help fight that stereotype. If you do fit one of the uglier stereotypes, then I don’t want you making people think that you are a Canadian. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/24 "2008-09-18T02:48:52Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > \*\*2. Listism or Goalism. \*\* > That is “I’ve done Dublin, I’ve done London, I’ve done the Taj Mahal”, I hear this all the time. There’s an element of oneupmanship but basically it’s as if the average American tourist is keeping a tally of all the things on Earth they must see and is ticking them off. People from other nationalities do this but it’s most salient IME amongst Americans. This could just be the simple fact that I live in Europe so am not in any great hurry to visit other European countries, whereas an American tourist is likely to have a packed itinerary. I get the sense that many American tourists never really get time to get a proper feel for a place. Probably has a lot to do with having only 2 weeks’ vacation time. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/25 "2008-09-18T02:58:30Z")
Americans tend to identify themselves by state, which in many cases is less than edifying. This was pointed out to me by an Australian after he was that I answered his “where are you from?” with “Boston, in the US.” ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/26 "2008-09-18T03:12:45Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > This is directed at any American who tries to pass himself or herself off as a Canadian. If you are not a Canadian, then please don’t pretend that you are. > > If you do not fit one of the uglier stereotypes, then being known as an American will help fight that stereotype. If you do fit one of the uglier stereotypes, then I don’t want you making people think that you are a Canadian. Back in the Med around '86, the summer after they had some terrorist kidnappings and murders in the area I decided that a cover story in case of misadventure was prudent.. I had two identities planned, one was Canadian, the other was German. I got better deals in the marketplaces pretending to be German, too. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/27 "2008-09-18T03:51:56Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > This is directed at any American who tries to pass himself or herself off as a Canadian. If you are not a Canadian, then please don’t pretend that you are. > > If you do not fit one of the uglier stereotypes, then being known as an American will help fight that stereotype. If you do fit one of the uglier stereotypes, then I don’t want you making people think that you are a Canadian. I totally agree and it infuriates me that Americans do this. I have never lied about being American\*, and to the best of my knowledge, have never received any negative treatment as a result. The worst thing I can think of was when a German guy in a hostel in Sarajevo asked me why Americans like George Bush. I think he was shocked by the vehemence of my statement that many Americans do _not_ like George Bush. By the way, any Americans who want the red carpet rolled out just for being American, go to Albania. I am not kidding. Albania is a beautiful country filled with extremely friendly, hospitable people who LOVE America, for bombing the shit out of Belgrade (well, technically that was NATO) and supporting Kosovo. They have American flags flying all over the place and my friends and I got great reactions whenever we told people where we were from. \*Well, I told carpet sellers in Istanbul - who are some persistent motherfuckers - that I was Bulgarian, in the hopes that they would realize that I was also from a poor country and not in the market for a thousand euro carpet. Their reaction was inevitably “komshi!” which means _neighbor_ in Turkish (and Bulgarian; it’s a borrow word), which was cute. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/28 "2008-09-18T04:02:14Z")
> [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](#): > > - when Americans hear my accent they always seem to want to tell me about their study abroad in Europe or whatever. I don’t care. Maybe if we get to know each other then I might want to know more about you but please stop trying to tell me how international you are. And no, I don’t want to hear about you often you listen to the BBC. All the cool kids are watching al Jazeera English (not really available in the US, marketplace of ideas my arse) anyway. Part of this is southern and not really due to your birthplace. It’s _good manners_ to find something- anything- in common with the person you’re talking to and include them in the conversation. Since you’re foreign born then it’s probable to them that you don’t give a damn whether Tennessee beats UGA or vice versa and you probably don’t go to Maple Road Methodist Church and probably didn’t grow up with the same cultural touchstones, they’re trying to drop a dead mouse at your feet by saying “Ah, you’re from… away. I’ve been there!” ---
**Author:** ![put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/put_down_the_sabre)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/29 "2008-09-18T04:11:51Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > But why do you call us USians? We’re Americans. USians looks and sounds weird. United Statesians? Yoo-ess-ians? It’s a Simpsons reference. pdts ---
**Author:** ![put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/put_down_the_sabre)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/30 "2008-09-18T04:16:33Z")
> [@SomeBodyUK](#): > > British Indian guy living in Southern California here… > > \ > > Bringing up my race in inappropriate situations - that’s REALLY offensive in UK. I’m of Indian heritage, but you can’t mention it in an interview. > > Q. “so where are you from?” > A. “Britain” > Q. “No I mean, where’s your family really from?” > A. “They live in England too, but my parents are from India” > Q. “Oh,I (a) love Indian food , (b) have an Indian friend, (c) work with a guy from India [delete as appropriate]” > > This has happened to me in job interviews in LA. This is tangentially related to another peeve of mine - USians often seem to assume that the US is the only country that has any ethnic diversity/immigration. You see, people come _from_ the old country _to_ the new world, anything else causes a bit of a brain fart with some Americans. I sometimes get the feeling that English/Italian/Irish is used more as an ethnic badge than as a marker of national identity by Americans: this explains why someone who has never been within 500 miles of Ireland (nor have their parents) can describe themselves as ‘Irish’, and the confusion about origins such as yours. I can just hear your interviewers’s thought process now … “no he can’t be British, he doesn’t look British … oh _Indian_… how nice”. pdts ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/31 "2008-09-18T04:22:55Z")
> [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](#): > > - This one irritates me! Americans often put what seems to me to be too big an emphasis on their ethnic backgrounds? Oh cool, you’re Scottish? No wait, you’re American - your grandparents were Scottish. This one really ticks me off, especially when people think that if they start off with “Har har! I’m Irish! I like whiskey!” they can take potshots at my actual, legitimate minority status. Oh, you’re Irish? Gee, that’s wonderful, but I’m Jewish and queer. Call me back when your childhood gets scarred by constant beatings at school and you have to look over your shoulder half the times you lean in for a kiss because you don’t know if someone’s going to shoot you for being “a fag”. Call me back when your friends all start telling “mick jokes” and mean it. In the meantime, lay the fuck off _my_ identity. ---
**Author:** ![put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/put_down_the_sabre)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/32 "2008-09-18T04:26:29Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Part of this is southern and not really due to your birthplace. It’s _good manners_ to find something- anything- in common with the person you’re talking to and include them in the conversation. Since you’re foreign born then it’s probable to them that you don’t give a damn whether Tennessee beats UGA or vice versa and you probably don’t go to Maple Road Methodist Church and probably didn’t grow up with the same cultural touchstones, they’re trying to drop a dead mouse at your feet by saying “Ah, you’re from… away. I’ve been there!” Nice theory, and it may account for some of it - but many of the examples I’m holding in my head of this are other people on my grad programme, who are from most of the United States. People from California seem particularly prone to this, somehow. I’m not talking about a gentle conversation starter, I’m talking about… Me: Hello, [asks for his coffee or whatever] Them: [gives coffee] So where are you from? Me: The UK Them: Oh I went to Oxford once, stayed in London … [go on and on and on]. I suppose the socially mandated response would be for me to ham up my accent and fawn, ‘oh gosh, you are so international! I’ve never met an American with such unique insight into my culture before’. But I just want to pay for my coffee. To me, that’s just plain _bad manners_. Actually this reminds me of a related phenomenon… Them: Where are you from? Me: The UK. Them: [condescending eye roll or sigh] I know _that!_ But what part of England are you from? Me (in my head): Listen to me you little fucker, I’m not from England. Don’t know the difference between England and the UK? That’s fine, it’s complicated, I’m not up on the Puerto Rico situation. But if you’re going to be ignorant about it then put your fucking eyeroll and sigh away. Me (really): [unpronouncable-to-English-speakers name of big Welsh town they’ve never heard of] Them: [look befuddled, answer sheepishly] I studied abroad in London! pdts ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/33 "2008-09-18T04:34:06Z")
PS- about what I said earlier- I read somewhere (don’t ask me for a cite) that two Australian aborigines meeting in the Outback who are total strangers would sometimes stand face to face and, addressing the wind but not each other, begin reciting their ancestry. Since there aren’t _that_ many aborigines, chances are good they’ll come to a common ancestor (real or mythical) or common relative soon, and once they do they’ll greet each other as they would a member of their tribe/clan/family, but first they have to establish that connection. Sorta the same thing. If I were to meet Mississippienne say, on a plane flight, and we struck up a conversation (and the Doper connection was never revealed), it might start “pretty day today isn’t it?” but somehow, someway, hard to explain just how, within a minute I would probably know she’s from Mississippi and she would somehow know I’m from Alabama- even if neither asked “where are you from?”, it’d somehow be offered to the conversation. Now, we know from this that 1- we’re both from the Deep South 2- we didn’t attend any of the same schools 3- we probably don’t have any relatives in common The only places in Mississippi I’ve spent any time are Biloxi and Starkville. I’d somehow mention this to see if she’s from either one. She’d do likewise probably if she’s been to Montgomery or Birmingham or whatever. If there’s still no connection, we move on (and this is all “meaningless” pleasant small talk, mind). At some point I might or she might ask a question that’s really not about what it’s asking at all but more of a depth charge. Example: “Did you see Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live as Sarah Palin the other night?” Seems innocuous enough, but what this is _really_ guaging is "were you offended by it? Are you for McCain or Obama or do you not really have strong feelings either way? [which would be unusual since being southerners, strong feelings are never in short supply- we might not _know_ something about a subject, may never have even _heard_ of it, but I guarantee you we both have opinions on it.😛 So let’s say I ask the Tina Fey question. If Mississippienne (whose real life politics I honestly don’t know) should say if Mississippienne responds with “Man, what was that old man _thinking_ when he chose her as a running mate?”, then… we’ve found the clan of which we’re both a member. Connection made, I can now address her as a relative. If she should instead respond “Man, can you believe how much hell they’re giving that poor woman?” this lets me know “Okay, since I’m pro-Obama, this isn’t an avenue I want to go down.” (For those who’ve seen me in 201 recent “Sarah Palin is evil” threads and aren’t really familiar with southern culture, it may come as a surprise that I would _never_ start an argument about the woman in “the Waking” but would more likely smile and nod… and change the subject.) And we’ll talk about something until one or the other of us fires another depth charge. Of course if all else fails, her being from Mississippi and me from Alabama, we can always discuss how much we dislike Yankees who come to the South and bitch non-stop but won’t leave.😃 (Sorry to pick on Mississippienne.) Anyway, the “I spent a summer in Antwerp back in the '70s” might seem an irrelevant stretch when said by someone from Columbus, GA to somebody from Norway, but they’re _trying_. They’re reciting genealogies in the hope that you’ll say “Ah yes… my uncle Georg once was arrested for taking an underaged Czech girl to Antwerp” and they can add “Oh really? My brother Walter was arrested for taking a 14 year old Cuban girl to Eureka Springs, Arkansas once! How 'bout that.” It’s not totally a southern thing of course. I remember reading that Churchill (I believe it was Churchill) did the same thing, always trying to find something common to talk about. There’s an anecdote that once he was introduced to Pablo Neruda at one of Onassis’s parties. He hadn’t read Neruda’s poetry, only had a general idea of who he was, was a bit out of the loop by this time on Chilean politics, and after a moment’s thought he said “I’ve always thought it must be odd… to be from such a long and narrow country.” (It was the one thing he could think of to make a connection.) ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/34 "2008-09-18T04:34:19Z")
Just to clarify: I was addressing most of that post to the not-so-hypothetical Americans who have never been within 500 miles of Ireland (or wherever) yet still call themselves Irish (or whatever). ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/35 "2008-09-18T04:51:43Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > \*\*2. Listism or Goalism. \*\* > That is “I’ve done Dublin, I’ve done London, I’ve done the Taj Mahal”, I hear this all the time. There’s an element of oneupmanship but basically it’s as if the average American tourist is keeping a tally of all the things on Earth they must see and is ticking them off. This is sort of a running joke among ourselves too, and has been for quite a while. There’s an old movie from the 1960s called “If it’s Tuesday It Must Be Belgium”, about a bunch of Americans going through Europe on a bus tour of a week or so. One of the supposed pluses of such a tour is that you “hit” or “do” a lot of cities in a relatively short time. You might not get the feel of the contemporary lifestyle and culture of the inhabitants, but you do see most of the “sights”. It might have something to do with Europe being so far off that we’re afraid we’ll never get to go back (sadly true in many cases–it’s just too far, and now, too expensive). I threw the coins in the Trevi Fountain the last time I was in Rome, but it hasn’t worked so far. Most other places than Europe are even farther away. Meanwhile, we go to a nearby country like Mexico to lie on the beach, so the emphasis tends to be not so much on sightseeing, unless one goes to the Maya coast. > [@](#): > > \*\* > 3. Machismo\*\* > Amongst American men in their 20s and some older there’s a distinct macho culture that isn’t as much in evidence here. Here, it’s by and large okay to be a nerd, a geek, or cultured, or gay or whatever. It doesn’t really matter. Relax, great you like fucking women, so do I, I just don’t need to go on about it all the time. 🙂 You’ve hit a big one here. I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this message board that I don’t really get the way that any male celebrity who is slightly less macho in affect than, say, Bruce Willis times the top pro quarterback of the season squared, they are ‘teh gay’. Have a sensitive appearing face (John Lithgow)? Somewhat pintsized _and_ wear glasses and quirky hats (Johnny Depp)? GAY!!! Gay as the day is long… Same if you like visual art, especially if it’s all that “intellekshul modern stuff that’s not even a picture of anything.” I can’t remember that attitudes were ever so restrictive until recently. And as for “nerds” and “dorks”, the continual deprecation of them by one well known poster here certainly illustrates the contempt in which some people hold them. I mean, such contempt as it must take considerably time and energy just to keep it up. Not least because this person is a decade or more beyond college, by which time you’d think it wouldn’t matter. > [@](#): > > **4. Lack of shyness** > American men and women aren’t as usually as shy as other Anglophones IME again. I’m shy, but sometimes speaking in a foreign language makes me less so. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/36 "2008-09-18T05:17:05Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Back in the Med around '86, the summer after they had some terrorist kidnappings and murders in the area I decided that a cover story in case of misadventure was prudent.. I had two identities planned, one was Canadian, the other was German. I got better deals in the marketplaces pretending to be German, too. Reagan made me do it… another Cowboy getting innocent people killed. ---
**Author:** ![SomeBodyUK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@SomeBodyUK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SomeBodyUK)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/37 "2008-09-18T05:27:30Z")
> [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](#): > > This is tangentially related to another peeve of mine - USians often seem to assume that the US is the only country that has any ethnic diversity/immigration. You see, people come _from_ the old country _to_ the new world, anything else causes a bit of a brain fart with some Americans. > > … > > I can just hear your interviewers’s thought process now … “no he can’t be British, he doesn’t look British … oh _Indian_… how nice”. > > pdts A lot of Americans I’ve met are suprised that there are non-white Brits. Some come round to the idea there there are black-British people cos they remember them from the Olympics! I hear the “LA is so diverse” crap all the time. I suprise them by saying LA isn’t actually that diverse compared to London. They’re even more suprised when I tell them that Indians are the largest minority in UK. I was once asked why my teeth are not bad! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/38 "2008-09-18T05:33:56Z")
> [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](#): > > I live in the American South. I’ll just list the negatives (more interesting!) > > - USians can’t see themselves as just another country Kind of offensive, and reminds me of **Aldebaran** who used to call us US’ers. It’s like Scots who don’t like being Scotch; I think we deserve the same courtesy. > [@](#): > > - This one irritates me! Americans often put what seems to me to be too big an emphasis on their ethnic backgrounds? Oh cool, you’re Scottish? No wait, you’re American - your grandparents were Scottish. I don’t know where you come from, but I will tell you that if you come from a vast, mostly homogenous country, and are from European heritage, you damn well do try to keep alive something of that heritage. This is why there are “Danish Days” in Solvang and “Holland Days” in Holland MI, not to mention all those Saint Patrick’s parades, and the English and Irish pubs in Santa Monica most of whose clients are Amercans. IMO this doesn’t apply so much to newer immigrants, because they generally don’t assimilate as quickly as the Europeans did 100 years ago. Most of us have ancestral cultures from Europe and you’re not going to tell us we can’t take some ownership in them. We didn’t leave our language and culture at the harbor when we boarded the ships. I have a Dutch name. My Dutch patronymic ancestor came to New York in 1640, and that’s about 11 generations ago. So I am genetically 1/2048 Dutch, if I remember my powers of 2, but do not tell me I’m not going to identify at least a little with The Netherlands, and, more relevantly, that I’m not going to try to learn about conditions in 16th and 17th century Holland, to better understand why and how they emigrated. > [@](#): > > - when Americans hear my accent they always seem to want to tell me about their study abroad in Europe or whatever. I don’t care. Maybe if we get to know each other then I might want to know more about you but please stop trying to tell me how international you are. And no, I don’t want to hear about you often you listen to the BBC. All the cool kids are watching al Jazeera English (not really available in the US, marketplace of ideas my arse) anyway. If you don’t want to know anything about us then why are you bothering talking to us at all? I’m sorry this isn’t the Pit, because I’m getting more annoyed as I reread this. Like **Sampiro** said, there’s a natural inclination to try to find something in common with the other person. It isn’t just a Southern thing. “You live in London? Cool! I went there a couple of years ago. Nice town, had a great time”–and that pisses you off? That one of us wants to mention that he or she listens to foreign media, or reads The Guardian, or Der Spiegel, maybe–just maybe–hoping to dispel the notion that we _all_ voted for Bush, twice, and that we get our news from Fox TV and the National Enquirer? “Marketplace of ideas my arse”…and then you expect us _not_ to mention that we don’t always accept the information spoonfed to us by our domestic media? Please. Give us a break. > [@](#): > > - willingness to put up with terrible infrastructure. The roads and skies in particular are crammed or falling apart. > > pdts well, there you have one of the big reason many of us wish we could move elsewhere. They’re the ones who wish the local, state, and federal government would just raise the taxes to get these things done the way they should. I’m one of those. ---
**Author:** ![put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/put_down_the_sabre)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/39 "2008-09-18T05:52:08Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > \ > > Most of us have ancestral cultures from Europe and you’re not going to tell us we can’t take some ownership in them. \ So I am genetically 1/2048 Dutch, if I remember my powers of 2, but do not tell me I’m not going to identify at least a little with The Netherlands, and, more relevantly, that I’m not going to try to learn about conditions in 16th and 17th century Holland, to better understand why and how they emigrated. Quite a straw man there. No one said either of those things. But if you tell Dutch people that you are ‘Dutch’, then you are misleading them (in international English it means that you are a citizen of that country, usually) and if you think you have anything special in common with modern Dutch people (rather, more than the average white American) then I’d say you’re deluding yourself. Feel free to “take ownership” of your genetic background, and “better understand” your ancestors… that isn’t the issue here. On the evidence presented, you telling me that you’re ‘Dutch’ would be like a UKish person with one Indian grandparent, after growing up in a leafy part of west London, with no exposure to modern Indian (as opposed to UK-Desi) culture, claiming to be ‘Indian’. Absurd. > [@](#): > > If you don’t want to know anything about us then why are you bothering talking to us at all? Another straw man - I don’t not ‘want to know anything about’ anyone. But the truth is, most people (from every country) are quite incredibly tedious to me. As I believe I wrote above, I am interested in the people I become friends with, but the same tedious data dumping (and it is often the same - captured brilliantly by the ‘studying abroad’ entry on the stuffwhitepeoplelike blog) gets old, fast. > [@](#): > > I’m sorry this isn’t the Pit, because I’m getting more annoyed as I reread this. _Shrug_ you know how to start a Pit thread. > [@](#): > > Like **Sampiro** said, there’s a natural inclination to try to find something in common with the other person. It isn’t just a Southern thing. “You live in London? Cool! I went there a couple of years ago. Nice town, had a great time”–and that pisses you off? That one of us wants to mention that he or she listens to foreign media, or reads The Guardian, or Der Spiegel, maybe–just maybe–hoping to dispel the notion that we _all_ voted for Bush, twice, and that we get our news from Fox TV and the National Enquirer? “Marketplace of ideas my arse”…and then you expect us _not_ to mention that we don’t always accept the information spoonfed to us by our domestic media? Please. Give us a break. Well firstly, nobody sane has the notion that all Americans voted for Bush twice (though he did have a popular vote majority in the millions in '04). Again, straw man. It’s not so much the mention of foreign visits or media sources, but the droning on. I very briefly lived in Japan - many Americans are shocked when I mention this in passing after knowing them for some time, it would seem to be de rigeur to have slipped it into conversation right after meeting them. Amongst the (western) foreign community there, many USian people get very frustrated when Japanese want to show off how ‘cool’ and ‘international’ they are, or talk endlessly about their highschool exchange to Florida, or talk in broken English when Japanese would do much better. There’s a similar phenomenon at work in the US, I think (or at least those parts I frequent). > [@](#): > > well, there you have one of the big reason many of us wish we could move elsewhere.\ How easy is it for you guys to move to Canada? I hear Vancouver’s lovely. pdts ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010/40 "2008-09-18T06:09:11Z")
[quote=“Hostile\_Dialect, post:34, topic:464010”] Just to clarify: I was addressing most of that post to the not-so-hypothetical Americans who have never been within 500 miles of Ireland (or wherever) yet still call themselves Irish (or whatever).[/QUOTE It doesn’t matter! Distance and expense rob the vast majority of us from ever making it over there. Does it also take away our heritage? To read some of your posts I imagine you think we were all sprung up fully formed from our local soil in 1775, and thereby have no valid claim on any other heritage. The different countries our ancestors came from is a big part of what makes us who we are. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-u-s-dopers-what-are-typical-american-traits/464010.md?page=3)