Steph

I have travelled throughout Europe in the course of my research and have always been struck by the friendliness, politeness and good manners of the Americans I meet. (I am British by the way) Yet for some reason the Americans tend to get knocked by the readers of this forum. Am I missing out on something or what?

Ess

Steph, I think most of the knockers are Americans themselves. We are critical of ourselves.

Liz

I'm British too, and I agree that most Americans are nowhere near as 'bad' as their reputation. To me, they mostly seem very friendly and polite, although they sometimes have a view on things that is different from mine.

I think that stories of their rudeness and ignorance is just an apocryphal tale! It's always 'my friend met an American and he...'

Clive

This thread looks very much like a dummy posting, made by an American (not a Brit) who feels that the U.S. tourists are getting a bad rap.

Janice

Dear Steph and Liz,
Some of us prepare a lot, and try to behave ourselves, so we're pretty critical or people who give American's a bad rap. The tales are not apocryphal, though. The guy who will live in my memory forever trying to pay for coffee and pastry in Rome with American dollars and then getting into a snit because "after we bailed your a***s out in the big war, the least you could do is take real money." With God as my witness, I wanted to pretend to be from any other country in the world 'til we could get out of that cafe!