[Allan31420]

I’d like to get opinions on the ignorance of the average American tourist, plus any stories, personal or otherwise, that people might have of this phenomenon. This may seem like stereotyping Americans, but please no Americans posting unless they have a good story. We know you mean well.

I can start a few:
1) Ignorance of time and space: It’s common in Canada to find Americans in the summertime who bring winter clothes and winter sport equipment with them on vacation when it’s blazing fire outside. Also, they don’t seem to know that Canada is the second-largest country in the world by land mass and the first if you consider the water masses in their borders. On at least one occasion, a couple wanted to walk across Nova Scotia (a province several hundred miles long) in a few hours and make it to another Canadian city that was a couple thousand miles away by dinnertime. Ignorance of geography both native and foreign is a well-known American trademark, but that’s just goofy.
2) Americans who sew (this is legendary in Canada) Canadian flags onto their backpacks when they go to Europe so they can pass off as Canadian and get less flack from Europeans. Almost never works. You can always tell who is an American once they begin talking.

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Name : Allan31420, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 22, City : Halifax, Nova Scotia, State : NA, Country : Canada, Occupation : Student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[t27547]

i think before you can reasonably expect people to respond to such a post, you will have to clarify who ‘we’ is (as in ‘we mean well’) and why you would encourage what you yourself consider to be stereotyping. personally, i do not think stories of american tourist ignorance are in any way different from stories of japanese, canadian, french, british, australian (etc.: insert any other nationality here) tourist ignorance. they display the stupidity of a few individuals as typical for a nation – which is really pathetic.

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Name : t27547, Gender : F, Age : 32, City : munich, State : NA, Country : Germany, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 

[Nadine]

I’m French. Since I moved to Texas few years ago, I get a lot of comments about France and how the country is beautiful. However, I’ve being more surprised by comments from American tourists who say to me: ‘you know, France is beautiful, but the only problem is that French people speak French!’. They are meaning well but it’s always ‘funny’ to explain that in France English is not the official language! And that didn’t happen just once!

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Name : Nadine, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 43, City : Austin, Texas, State : TX, Country : United States, Occupation : social worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Kelly]

I’ve never tried passing as a Canadian. And both my spouse and I have done our best to be good tourists – learning enough Spanish to be polite and to shop when visiting Mexico; brushing up on high school German so that we could be polite in Germany; I even learned some French before visiting Quebec. Among other things, this bit of what I considered basic tourist preparation led to our being asked for directions by both American and French tourists in several cities in Germany! We’ve never worn shorts into a museum, church, or historic site; never demanded American food at a foreign restaurant. We know how to read maps, we know how to change currency; we know how to use the post office and the telephone booths. So what’s your problem?

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Name : Kelly, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, City : Austin, State : TX, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 

[missjohn31620497]

Americans hardly know anything about any country besides their own. I remember a conversation I had with an American co-worker here in Washington, DC who had a stereo-typical view of islands. I told her that I’m from Trinidad, a Caribbean island with a population of about 1.3 million. She literally said ‘Oh no! A million people on a tiny island?’. I guess she was picturing a million of us standing shoulder to shoulder on a land mass the size of football field (the Gillian’s Island mindset). In fact, modern, industrialized Trinidad is 5,128 sq. km. New York City is only 308 sq. km. but has more than 7 million people ‘packed’ into it. Americans forget that Cuba (11 million) is an island, so is Singapore (4 million), even the mighty Japan (125 million) is basically 4 islands making up one nation. Americans also think that all islands are purely sun, sea and sand. But Jamaica (2.5 million) mines bauxite and produces aluminium. Trinidad’s got oilfields both inland and offshore as well as natural gas and nitrogen reserves and isn’t crawling with tourists because tourism doesn’t drive the economy there.

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[Matthew21845]

Here’s a funny story for you. I worked in a London hotel for several years and greeted countless tourists from the US and found almost all of them very pleasant and charming and clever. I can’t think of any hilarious anecdote showing poor taste or ignorance, except perhaps one couple who wore some fetching pink tracksuits for the whole time. The funny thing is I sense this is not what you expected…

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Name : Matthew21845, Gender : M, Age : 30, City : London, State : NA, Country : United Kingdom, 

[Susan27483]

When I traveled to the States with my family in the late 1960s, we never went farther south than Minneapolis, which is pretty close to Canada. One guy in a parking lot looked at our car license plate and said ‘Saskatchewan, now what state is that in?’

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[Marcel-C]

As a Canadian, we all have stories about Americans asking silly questions while up here. True, they are relatively ignorant while in a foreign country, but who isn’t? That’s part of being a tourist. Canadians are just as reliant as Americans on maps and asking locals stupid questions. Canadians have this chip on our shoulders about Americans, especially when it comes to geography. I say we all just give them a break. If it weren’t for them, tourism wouldn’t be as easy and affordable to the average person around the world as it currently is.

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Name : Marcel-C, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 30, City : Toronto, Ontario, State : NA, Country : Canada, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Eric]

You didn’t want an American response, but you’re getting one. It doesn’t ‘seem’ like you are stereotyping Americans, you ARE stereotyping us. We are not all ignorant of geography/cultures, but at the same time I don’t feel it necessary to earn a degree in Canadian culture before visiting there. I’ve met numerous people visiting the United States (from Japan, France, Germany, Mexico) and they seem to lack certain ‘basic’ knowledge about America. I’ve even heard a story similar to yours about Germans who wanted to drive to Colorado for the weekend, not realizing it was a two-day drive from Indiana one way. Should I assume that everyone from (pick a country) is mind-blowingly ignorant? Your message demonstrates a high degree of prejudice against Americans. I wonder if you even know any.

P.S. I would never sew a Canadian flag onto anything. I like being an American, and if someone doesn’t like it, that’s their problem.

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[Dominic]

In Venice last summer, two Americans were outside St. Mark’s Cathedral. No. 1: ‘Say, what’s that big building?’ (like no one had heard of it or seen it in paintings by Canoletto, or even a Venice guidebook). No 2: ‘It’s a church’ (No way!). No. 1: ‘But what’s it for?’ No. 2: ‘I think it’s like a museum, and it might have some other stories.’

In London, on the main Marylebone Ring Road, opposite St. Marylebone Parish Church, a perfectly respectable and attractive Victorian church with a very small dome. An American tourist said to me, ‘Say buddy, is that St. Paul’s Cathedral?’ Like, yep, in our weather the dome just shrunk in the rain…

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Name : Dominic, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Anglo-Saxon-Celtic, Religion : confused semi-Roman Catholic, Age : 26, City : London, State : NA, Country : United Kingdom, Occupation : Publishing, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[JT]

Although you don’t want Americans to respond, your baiting comments suggest otherwise. First, in regard to weather, you live in the Great White North. Quite often we get the same ‘cold weather’ perception in Minnesota…or Michigan…or Maine. Deal with it. You know better. The United States isn’t as big as Canada in area, but you have to realize there are 282 million people in this country; confusion and ignorance will rear its head. But most level-headed Americans are well aware of the geography of the United States if you’d bother asking them rather than formulating such an opinion based on ‘at least one occasion.’ Secondly, the ‘phenomenon’ of Americans sewing Canadian flags onto their backpacks I think is merely advice that foreigners give to Americans. I know many Americans who have traveled to Europe, myself included, who heard that advice, smiled and ignored it. Why does one have to sew anything onto the backpack? But I guess it’s like wearing a Yankees cap to other major league ballparks. You’ll get a lot of grief because the Yankees are constantly in the spotlight (i.e. the United States). I can name more Yankees than I can Expos.

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[Jeff31174]

1) On one of my first trips to Amsterdam, the restaurant we were in was hosting a Bingo Night. The first ‘winner’ was American and couldn’t receive his prize until he answered the question ‘Tell us something you love and something you hate.’ His answer: ‘I love sunsets (awwwwww) and I hate Dutch inefficiency.’ This was met with lots of booing and hissing; I was ashamed to be from the same country (which at times seems far less efficient than most of the Dutch services I encountered — what was he thinking?).

2) On a later trip to London, my traveling companion wanted to visit the museum with the Egyptian and Greek artifacts, but he couldn’t remember which museum this was (British Museum). We happened to be passing the V&A at the time, so we stopped in to ask where we should go: ‘Excuse me, is this the museum with the treasures you stole from the Greeks and Egyptians?’ Sheer embarrassment – I haven’t been back to London, nor do I travel anywhere with this guy anymore.

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[Susan]

A dear friend from Montreal recently asked me if I was going to meet some other folks from our dog discussion board in Washington DC for drinks. Hello?! I’m in Chicago! She and I had a good laugh over her faux-pas, but the point is–it’s not meant as an insult to be ignorant of another country’s geography. It just happens sometimes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been going about my business in downtown Chicago, and a foreign tourist will ask me ‘Where’s the Sears Tower?’ while standing right in front of it. I usually smile, point upwards, wait for it to register, and go on my way. So funny!

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[V.S.]

I can hardly see why this is a constructive question and can’t understand why the site director posted it. It’s obviously a thinly veiled attempt to get a bunch of people to make fun of ‘stupid Americans’. Yes, I’m an American (you didn’t actually think that no Americans would respond, did you?), and I can certainly agree that some Americans do stupid, embarrassing things while traveling in other countries, but what does it accomplish to start a ‘slam’ board about them? Wouldn’t it serve a much better purpose to ask Americans about their preconceptions of your country and then (kindly) educate them where they fall ignorant? You imply that you don’t want to stereotype Americans, yet your first sentence does that wholeheartedly. I would consider myself an ‘average American tourist’ when I am abroad, but I am hardly any less informed or intelligent than foreign tourists who come to America. As a matter of fact, I believe the last time I was in Canada, I talked to a couple of Canadians who had traveled to MY neck of the woods and froze because they had only brought summer clothes to visit notoriously foggy San Francisco! I guess your ‘average’ Canadian tourist is just as ‘ignorant’!

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Name : V.S., Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 33, City : San Francisco, State : CA, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, 

[Christina]

I didn’t plan on responding to this question which appears to be an open invitation to bash Americans while operating under the guise of ‘asking a question.’ But I have decided to be heard, despite the request that Americans refrain from responding. I think it is just as ignorant to generalize all Americans as geographically inept and culturally insensitive dolts as it is to be a traveler from any nation who chooses not to inform themselves on the customs, practices, geography, or history of a country they are visiting. I’m new to this website but based on the reading I’ve been doing while here, I understand its purpose to be one of the promotion of understanding and dialogue among all people of all cultures and to put hurtful stereotypes to rest. Is this ‘question’ accomplishing any of this? I do not ‘mean well’ in my unwarranted response to your question. I am angered by it. I have travelled extensively in Europe and never donned a Canadian flag. I have seen loud, obnoxious Americans and have been embarrassed by them, but I hoped while studying abroad that I would encounter enough intelligent people in my host countries who could differentiate between myself and the ugly ones. Futhermore, I have seen loud, obnoxious Germans in Greece; heard about destructive English soccer ‘hooligans’ in Japan…where does it end? I would implore the poser of this question to look within and examine his true motives in asking such a question. In fact I’m very curious to hear the explanation for such an inflammatory topic thread.

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