Bitter

By referencing clothing, I am not referncing the stereo types (jeans and white tennis shoes), because (despite misinformation contained on this board) Europeans wear such things. BUT brands and styles will vary from US to Europe. This may not overtly tell you that someone is not a local, but it starts the wheels turning in your head (conciously or subconciously).
Good point about use of fork/knife.

RufusTFirefly

m_kingdom: I trust you are excluding Germans, Dutch, and Scandinavians from the "more style and flair" crowd. These groups are, for the most part, definitely not stylish and have little sense of flair. I haven't found the majority of Europeans to be any more cultured than Americans or even Canadians.

Keep in mind that while in vacation, very few tourists come into extended, close contact with the truly common people. Most travelers gravitate to the tourist areas of the big cities or popular tourist spots outside the big cities where you meet a skewed sample of the local population.

French, Italian, German, etc. plain folk are no more sophisticated or cultured than American and Canadian plain folk.

miguelgcuadra

It is obvious am an american when i request lots of ice... either europe or south america. can not have a drink or refreshment without ice..

Treesa

Teeth, teeth, teeth. We have the best teeth and the brightest smiles.

Jolie

SeaUrchin - your post about the German tourist wearing the "USA" clothes and white shoes made me smile. It made me imagine there's a German travel website where he got advice on how Americans dress, so he can blend in with the locals.

degas

Americans usually smell pretty good, even on a packed subway in Aug. We are also generous and usually give the scam-artist street beggars a few coins.

kswl

We lived in Florida from 1994-2002, on the west coast (Clearwater, St. Pete) We could ALWAYS spot German tourists--they lived the stereotype by wearing dark socks with sandals!

m_kingdom2

My dear, I've been involved with many Scandinavians, they are very chic, very elegant, and beautifully figured by birth, something Americans rarely are.

tuscanlifeedit

I hope you like this true story:

In Frankfurt airport in September, we were involved in a huge, chaotic, jumbled, totally inefficient and very slow security line. We were packed in a tiny corridor; there were no lines, and every now and then a "worker" of some sort would come over and yell at the 100 or so people that were jammed in this hallway.

It was a mess, and a lot of folks were complaining, albeit not too loudly and I really didn't see any bad behavior, especially considering the crazy situation. I remarked something like, "what a mess."

The man in front of me, who was German, about 35 and dressed in business clothing, turned to me and very snottily said, "It is the fault of you Americans and all your insane security fears."

I was quiet for a moment, mostly because I didn't know how to respond. Then, I looked at him and calmly said,
"We're Canadian."

We are not Canadian, but US citizens. However, the lie was worth telling to shut the guy up. He turned purple and muttered under his breath before turning away.

I actually enjoyed my time in this line.

RufusTFirefly

m_k--you met the exceptions.

Ryan

To try and say that you can define 300 million people when 34 million of them were born elsewhere, 96 million are "minorities" and the highest number of voters ever for a political candidate still equates to less then 20% of the entire population is absurd.

So, 1/3rd of Americans are obese. OK, well 2/3rds aren't.
Americans wear brightly colored clothing and tennis shoes. I suggest you walk down the average NYC street.

I've been involved with the retail sector off and on for about 12 years. The one thing most senior level retail executives can tell you is that the hardest things in the industry to do is to figure out the mind-numbing array of choices that the average consumer expects to have. If we were all so-alike, then that would be a reasonably easy task.

In my personal experience, trying to get 12 people to agree on a pizza topping is more then enough evidence for me that you can't define 300 million by a few broad stereotypes.

m_kingdom2

My dear, there's no sense in having a fabulous smile on a size thirty frame.

richardab

tuscanlifeedit,

That was a cop-out. I would have told the guy to go F**K himself an stood up for who I was and what I believed.

I would never say I was Canadian, not that there is anything wrong with being Canadian. I like their Maple Syrup and bacon.

I had a similar indident while in London two weeks ago where a guy proclaimed that "everything was wrong in America" . I didn't tell him to f**k off, but I came close. But I did make my point.

richardab

Someone once told me that if you are a third generation in America, then you are an American.

I believe that if you are a citizen, then you are American.

Wave the flag.

ira

>What make an American stand out? .... It's usually acting like a idiot, misbehaving or being overly demanding. <

Aren't you still talking about Germans?

themanfromnantucket

tuscanlifeedit, Move to Canada. Would you lie at tax time to pay more taxes? I didn't think so. Would you lie no to get better health care?

You should have said "your welcome" to that Geraman character for saving his ass from communism.

QC

Does anyone know where I can go to get advice on European travel?

The Fodors Political Flamewar board has a "Europe" category that SEEMS to be helpful, but it just isn't working.

SurfSide6

Miguel, greetings. I live in Miami and often go to social occasions where most of the participants are Hispanic. I have often been referred to the “American”. At first my response was to answer “you are Americans also”. Now I just smile and try to remember to practice more of my Spanish. I not sure why the Latin community here has that perception.

Some Americans including me tend to talk louder than Europeans. I have to catch myself when I want to call across a room for a friend to come look at a certain item.

suze

I believe that Americans talking (sometimes loudly) and traveling around in groups are what makes U.S. tourists stand out in a crowd. Because I travel solo I believe people cannot tell where I am from until I speak or am spoken to and don't understand.

ucsun

people are people and each country and culture has similar people...loud ones, quite, polite, rude,...etc. in roma, i saw plenty of rowdy types and saw plenty of polite types. and saw the skin heads and thug types. same mix as here in the OC.

i think expectations play a big part of our perceptions.