IMDonehere

The best source of information regarding Turkey on Fodor's is a fellow named Otherchelebi. Today he wrote an introduction about Turkey briefly describing the history of modern Turkey including how the country evolved, education, and the religious and ethnic composition.

Although the US is well-known, what would you like a foreigner visiting the US, to know about the country. I am not referring to restaurants, hotel, and sights but our history, politics, educational system, culture, and other relevant information.

SambaChula

That some of us do not suffer fools gladly.

MichelleY

Indian casinos are not on reservations. They can buy property anywhere and build a casino.

IMDonehere

That is not true Michelle. I worked in Indian Country. Under The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 there are all sorts of covenants that require pacts with the state in which Indian casino can operate.

The vast majority of casinos are on reservations. Those not on the reservation require negotiations with the state and are not simply a real estate transaction.

There are also three levels of gaming, two of which require approval by the state.

LilianM

Things I've learned living in the USA..
Americans are the most honest people I've ever met;
Very welcoming and trusting;
The hospitals are excellent ( I'm not talking about the Obama care, which is not good, just the hospitals)
The hospitals are very clean and offer great service;
I love the freedom of religion and speech they enjoy;
The most patriotic people in the world.
In the USA your dreams can come true if you work hard enough and do not take advantage of government.

nytraveler

Unlike most countries the US is actually a confederation of 50 different states - with 50 different sets of laws that can differ significantly. The federal government is in charge of international relations, defense and interstate commerce, national monetary policy, etc. The Feds provide limited support to education, healthcare, local transit (within cities and commuter trains) and infrastructure - but most of the money for all of these come from individual states and communities. This results in a huge diversity in education and healthcare from state to state and city to city. The Feds support roads (for cars and trucks) and airlines. The car is king and support for out national train network is minimal as is that of local trains/pubic transit everywhere.

So you have a number of states (MS, AL, WV, SC) that are "takers" from the Feds since their economy does;t support even basic needs and other states (NY, NJ, MA, CT) that are "givers" and the taxes from those states are used to provide Federal support to the poorest states.

The US is a country of immigrants - if not this generation - many are people are 3 or 4 generations or less. So we have a huge diversity of ethnicities, nationalities, religions and cultures. (Queens county, part of NYC, has immigrants from 112 different countries.)

The US is NOT a caucasian country. Per the last census the breakdown is
White 72%
Hispanic 16%
African Am 13%
Asian 5%
Native Am 1%

(Overlaps since hispanic/latino may also identify as caucasian or African Am)

Distribution varies tremendously by state and metro area.

Politics are generally right/center - there is little that would be considered left in most of the world.

Overall taxes are low, and especially low for the wealthy and corporations compared to european countries - one of the reasons that public works/ services are limited.

Less than 1/3 of americans has ever left the country - and for most who have the destinations have been Canada, Mexico or the Carib which tends to lead to a lot of naivete and even fear among some people with limited education/exposure to the rest of the world.

And the obvious - the US is a huge and very wealthy country - and would be able to provide well for all of it's citizens if we could figure out how to get out of our own way.

emalloy

Most Americans speak English and are not great at other languages, except in large cities, the southwest, and south Florida where many people speak Spanish, or along the northern border with eastern Canada, where many speak French. Many larger cities and most casinos have people who speak some of the Asian languages.

That said, you will find that people will try to understand you and will try to be helpful to locate someone who can.

We have beautiful National and State parks that are well worth finding no matter where you are in the country.

IMDonehere

There is not only a diversity of ethnic backgrounds and color but vast differences in cultural and intellectual activities. The US has the some of finest museums, universities, symphonies, dance companies, writers, and artists in the world. But we also have a population that supports reality TV shows, supermarket tabloids, and hundreds of hours of TV dedicated to gossip and nonsense.

American football can be its own religion while baseball, auto racing, and basketball have huge followings and soccer is finally coming into its own.

Something like 80% of Americans believe in angels while atheism is growing more than any religious group.

It is truly a land of contradictions.

Fra_Diavolo

At least half of us strongly disagree with whomever is in power -- this increases with the length of their tenure. We are still arguing over what our Constitution means over 200 years later. Federalism is still an issue.

The Civil War isn't over, either. In our country, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past." (William Faulkner) Even the McCarthy Red Scare, the Vietnam War and Richard M. Nixon are considered subjects upon which reasonable people might disagree.

Each ethnic group has a grievance which can be uncovered with the merest scratch. (Dominant ethnic groups grieve over their diminished stature.)

In short, we are perfect subjects for the sort of drama in which the civilized layers are peeled back to reveal the savage underneath.

jamie99

I think many visitors lack a basic knowledge of geography and how far one place can be from another place. Guess LA is not the only place that stopped teaching geography.

BigRuss

>

What a load. That's a statement based on income tax derivation and who gets what from the Feds, much of which is transportation infrastructure. Typical NY'er at the center of the universe foolishness. I defy any NY'er to live on 30k annually in that city and then do so in MS, WV, SC, or AL and see which quality of life is better - the answer is NOT the QoL in NYC.

fdecarlo

> Even the McCarthy Red Scare, the Vietnam War and Richard M. Nixon are considered subjects upon which reasonable people might disagree.

Sure. How'd that whole "Open the gates to China" thing work out for our country? Second question in the pop quiz: guess where both Henry Kissinger and Hank Paulson decided to retire?

fdecarlo

Don't drink the water, or get sick or injured enough to require hospital services.

IMDonehere

Let's try and stay away from political discussions. Just state your case and move on.

Inakauaidavidababy

We put our trousers on one leg at a time, and if you cut us we bleed.

HappyTrvlr

That the United States is a very large country thus, a day trip to Niagara Falls from NYC is not really possible.
It takes about six hours to fly non-stop from NYC to LA.
We hope you don't get sick or injured, but if you do, we have excellent medical care and major medical centers.
Americans are friendly and helpful. Ask a question and you'll get help.
Avoid the chain restaurants and dine at authentic regional restaurants.
Have breakfast in a diner.
Go to a farmers' market.
Visit at Thanksgiving and find a place that serves a traditonal Thanksgiving dinner.
You can use computers in public libraries, sometimes free, sometimes for a small fee. They have printers too.

MichelleY

IMDone. I was half joking. We met a family from Switzerland in Virginia City and they were so impressed that the reservations were turned into money making casinos. Not always true. How convenient to have a casino close to a California freeway.

IMDonehere

I guess you are referring to the San Miguel Casino. I do not know who is in charge these days, but years ago it was a young tribal member, that everyone wanted to give a sharp smack to his head.

MichelleY

Only familiar with Northern California.

welltraveledbrit

Wow, potentially a very heavy topic! This comes with lots of disclaimers about the danger of writing in sweeping terms about anywhere/anyone. I seem to remember spending an age in graduate school learning how everything was situational, partial and contested but into the breach anyway!

Many foreigners (particularly in Europe) may be very familiar with the negative portrayal of the US in their local media; a country that is wracked with political conflict (see above), debating issues that seem out-of-date (death penalty, abortion etc), nationalistic, too many guns (see latest shooting), we are often regarded as hypocritical -particularly in the Middle East, and can be seen as the land of opportunity but perhaps not compassion.


So what's the America they may not see or know? Here's my stream of consciousness take...

We've been trying to define America since de Tocqueville but the difficulty is the sheer size, range and diversity of this country. As a foreigner who has lived here for 25 years I'd say that America is so many different things and we all tend to think our corner of it, or our vision of it, is how it should be.

In my experience Europeans comment on how polite, helpful, hospitable, friendly and warm Americans are and how clean it is here.Though my father never understood why there was fruit on his plate along with the egg and bacon at brunch!

Those from poorer countries are often surprised to see homeless people here.

The US is a multicultural society, it's more religious than many other places but there are also strong secular protections. We enjoy both religious freedom and freedom of expression. There's a wonderful tradition of volunteerism that runs deeply here. Overal those living in the US are very generous in their charitable giving.

There's a libertarian streak that runs across the political left and right. Some may feel this is an overstatement but generally self reliance is highly valued and individual success is revered. I won't mention Trump so lets go with Horatio Alger! Despite the reality of political and economic dynasties we gravitate towards narratives of the self-made success story.

Some laws are local, some national - as nytraveler explained.

The US has defined itself through "exceptionalism".

The East and West coasts are different from each other but in many ways they are similar - generally more urban than the rest of the country, with larger immigrant populations, they tend to be more multicultural and more liberal.

Historically America has been seen as a meritocracy and indeed in many ways it has been a less class-bound society than many others, for example the UK. Though recent studies show this changing - apparently now there is more social mobility in Europe than the US.

However, there are deep and raw exceptions to this meritocracy, primarily revolving around race. Structural discrimination (in law, housing and employment) has been and remains at the heart of American society - despite our narrative of opportunity. This contradiction of opportunity and exclusion occasionally creates moments when the cleavages in our society become impossible to ignore. I don't say this to be provocative but you can't talk about the US without discussing what nobel laureate Gunnar Mydral called the "American Dilemma".
It should be said that the US is not the only society wracked by a history of discrimination, lets not talk about the UK and our colonial misadventures.

The US is everything from cities to suburbia, small tightly knit farming communities, areas of urban decay and urban renewal, great wealth and great poverty, tropical islands, tundra, mountains, valleys, coastal areas, low and high desert, swamps, meadowlands and much more. Americans speak in many languages and share many cultures; from indigenous languages to Spanish, Mien, Chinese, Igbo, Urdu, Russian,Portuguese, Navajo, Creole, Hebrew, Tagalog etc.

Americans (US) are born but also made. The point of the United States is not a singularity, it is contested and diverse and this may be its strength.

-----

Apologies to other our other American friends in Canada, Mexico and further south but it's hard to say US throughout. To a foreign visitor I'd say America is a geographical term and describes a much larger area than our nation, which is the United States.