amusingly true

[winterbadger]

Americans don't travel well. We are one of our least successful exports, to the extent that the US State Department, in conjunction with US businesses, has issued a 16-point pamphlet telling its citizens how to avoid behaving idiotically while abroad. It advises them not to brag and not to lecture. It says it is inappropriate to tell people about the Bible "unless you are a professional missionary identified as such."

This is a good idea. There are undoubtedly some Americans who will look at the tips and decide against travelling at all - if they can't bore on about the Superbowl or walk around Paris recommending the Bible to people, what's the point? But it doesn't go far enough for American visitors to Britain. If you want to avoid being openly hated, by all means take the State Department's advice, but if you wish to escape being secretly loathed, you need to take the following extra precautions.

For more, read this piece from the Grauniad

Comments

[plutosonium.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm sick of "American's don't do this well", "Americans don't do that well", and "Americans, generally, suck". Those kind of statements (while funny to the speaker) do nothing to engender comfortable relations between groups. I may not have been thrilled with some of the many, many international visitors I get at work, but I'm not generalizing that "The Swedish are all snotty", "The Poles drink too much", or "The Spaniards are stinky". For one thing, you can't generalize to a whole damn country. And for another it's rude.

[winterbadger]

Hmmm. Well, this was the email response from my friend Nick (who has spent a good deal of time lilving in Germany.

I find alcohol to be the great social lubricant abroad, as at home, especially if you volunteer to buy the next round. I try to avoid politics altogether when abroad. If you must speak politics, try to stick to general differences in social policy. For instance, Germans always seem impressed that there is a lifetime time limit on welfare in the US and that it's not much money in the first place. I've yet to speak to a German that doesn't highly resent that those who are out of work in their country receive 90 percent of their previous salary for up to a year, and 50 percent of their previous salary indefinitely after that. Noting superficial differences in day-to-day life (i.e. "So you guys really like cold cuts for breakfast, huh?") will only make you look stupid. When in Rome...

I've never been to the UK so I can't speak for the Brits generally, but those I have met abroad or in the US actually seemed quite friendly.

It's hard to make friends with Germans. You certainly can't just start up a conversation with them, but if you are in a situation where you have reason to deal with them on a regular basis (i.e. work or landlord-tenant type relationships), you can become friends. Bavarians and Austrians are a little friendlier, but this is a matter of relative degree.

If you get in an argument with a Pole, you've probably become his friend. You can often get into an argument with a Pole within five minutes of meeting one on the street. Poles love arguing. Also, buying the next round seems to work especially well in Poland.

I've scored a lot of points in Iceland and Hungary by learning a few salutations and niceties. Icelanders and Hungarians believe, correctly, that nobody is interested in learning their languages so this tiny bit of effort wins lots of goodwill. On the other hand, the summer I worked in Hungary I made a series of unwitting faux pas. Hungarians pretend to be cool and laid back but secretly take offense at minor lapses, or so it appeared to me. I felt like I was always either offending people because I spent money too easily and blew off others small debts to me, thus appearing to be an arrogant rich American, but if I didn't do so I was a stingy rich American. Similarly, if I was too cool than others seemed to think I was stand-offish and arrogant, but when I tried to be friendlier then I became too nosy and instrusive.

I've only been in Canada for one day. It seemed exactly like America except with slightly different street signs. I did not hear anybody say "eh" or "hoser." However, when I turned on the radio, I did find a rock station playing Rush.