Like (probably?) many of you, I like to travel and so I read a lot of travel articles. And then, because I read a lot of travel articles, the “algorithm” knows to suggest travel articles to me, which… causes me to read more travel articles.
So I came across this article recently called 40 Ways to Spot an American Abroad and I thought I’d share (and give a bit of my commentary). The article’s titled 40 ways, the URL is “10 ways”, when I saw it originally it was 20 ways, and I didn’t count the exact number they listed, so let’s just call this “some number” of ways to spot an American traveling abroad
Ways To Spot An American Abroad That Are Calling Me Out
So some of these ways to spot an American abroad definitely made me “feel seen” and I recognize things that I do
- Grown Men wearing shorts – I guess I hadn’t realized this was something that only Americans do? The article compares it to “a grown man in NYC sporting a child’s Spider-Man backpack”
- Walking While Eating –Â On our most recent trip, we had gotten some croissants at a local French bakery and were eating them on our way to our first stop of the day when I realized that nobody else was eating while walking. I wondered if that was an American thing. Turns out it is!
- Going to McDonalds – Okay okay you got me – I eat at McDonalds on vacation. Though I’ll say that when we were at McDonalds on this most recent European trip, it was full of people that to me appeared to be locals.
- Wearing Graphic Tees – Okay now you’re just getting mean! 🙂
Ways To Spot An American Abroad I Agree With (even if they’re not me)
A few of these ways I think are generally accurate though personally they aren’t me
- Wearing Baseball Caps
- Applauding –Â This drives me crazy too
- Not understanding the metric system – I am not a pro at the metric system but having worked on teams with people from Canada and Europe, I understand it fine. The biggest trick someone taught me about temperature was that 16C ~= 61F. Then you can kind of figure it out from there up and down
- Drinking too much – as I’ve mentioned before, I personally don’t drink alcohol
- Not knowing a foreign language –Â At least on this one
Ways To Spot An American Abroad I Disagree With
- Saying “bro” and “sup” – sure, there is a certain class of Americans that do this, but I think it’s the vast minority.
- Glued to their phone – Sure, Americans are often glued to their phone, but my experience has been that pretty much everyone in the developed world is – Americans no more than anyone else
- Too many selfies – again, Americans do this, but so do many Western Europeans and other cultures I think
The Bottom Line
This is just a sampling of the list – feel free to checkout the entire list of 40 Ways to Spot an American Abroad. I’m curious to hear your take on what you think are the best ways to spot an American abroad. Is it because we’re loud? Overweight? Drink too much? Only eat at McDonalds? I’m curious to hear your take.
What do you think of this list of ways to spot an American abroad? What was your favorite? Or do you have one that isn’t on the list? Leave it in the comments below
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A few more suggestions for your list, regarding the behaviors of the American tourists:
1. They always smile back when someone looks at them.
2. They are holding the door for others.
3. They tip a lot, in restaurants, cabs etc.
4. They are very friendly.
5. They’ll do their very best to communicate with non-English speakers, and they’ll be very tolerant of limited English language skills.
6. Often, they have Apple phones, and don’t consider that to be a status symbol, unlike many non-Americans.
I was born and raised in Europe, so I’m not praising myself 🙂
Whoever wrote that article has not traveled the world much.
Selfies: I travel to Asia multiple times a year and there are vast numbers of locals taking selfies, waaaay more Asians taking selfies than Americans. They take them everywhere and for almost any reason. So much so that it annoys me.
Glued to the phone: lol…they must not have ever been to a large Asian city lately where virtually everyone is glued to their phone. About 95% of them in every large city I went to was glued to their phone.
Baseball caps: When I travel to Asia I see lots of non-Americans wear baseball caps.
Short pants: this is one of the few comments that is correct. In the big cities in Asia, no matter how hot it is, adult men do not wear shorts outside of their home. I did this once in Hong Kong when it was super hot and quickly realized that I was the only adult wearing shorts. I felt so embarrased that I quickly walked back to the hotel to change my pants.
I’m always amused at my family in Europe wearing socks with their sandals. I’ve stopped needling them about it but I have yet to get a satisfactory reason why they do this.
As to drinking too much, the mainland Europeans see the Brits as being way bigger drinkers. Maybe that’s because there’s less stigma there to being knee crawling drunk while wearing a business suit in the afternoon.
Also, I’m with @Jason about baseball caps and that the person who listed hese doesn’t seem very accurate. It’s like a list of stereotypes that’s 1/3 true.
Regarding applause, the only time Americans normally applaud is at the end of a performance so that one mystifies me.
Rick Steves tries to sell the idea that if you just “live like a local” you can enjoy your travel more. The reality is that 99.9% of Americans (or really people from anywhere who are traveling to a foreign place) can try as hard as they want but people will still know they are tourists. I try not to be obvious by wearing something super out of place but in general, I am a tourist.
Usually, people will spot Americans by their technology, handbags, and clothing. For example, if you show up in Asia wearing an American Eagle T-shirt or a Columbia jacket in Europe, whip out a new high-end cell phone or laptop and they will notice. Occasionally this may draw judgement like dressing really casual or underdressed in a Japanese shopping mall or at a cafe in Paris. But, what you may perceive as judgemental looks can also be envy. That teen looking at your jeans or your shirt may look to buy that product later. Being a “cool American” is trendy some places.
While traveling around Rome years ago I quickly learned that asking for coffee to go is not done in small shops. All coffees are served in small glass or ceramic cups and meant to be drunk there not outside.