The Stupid American Tourists
Dmitri May 23rd, 2007
Why are Americans Considered Stupid? - The American Tourists
This is a follow up on my previous article Are Americans Stupid? aimed to explain the reasons and realities of the “Ugly Stupid American” concept. It is the first part of a series which will explain the various factors which cause such a negative generalisation of Americans, the world over.
An American tourist couple outside a cathedral in Italy. The couple got yelled at and the lady had to cover her legs as shorts and sleeveless shirts are not allowed at Catholic churches, basilicas or cathedrals.
The Saga of American Tourists and Cultural Conflicts
American tourists in other countries tend to be the ambassador of “Americans are stupid” stereotype. They often dress like they are going to play football (soccer) or are in a golf tournament which gets them the smirk of the locals. They expect everyone in the world to speak English and use US dollars. This is emphasized when they are often heard shouting, “Does anyone here speak English” or “How much is that in real money?” in busy markets in Bangkok or Riviera. They tend not to mix with anything that is not American. Wherever they go, they keep close to an American guide, eat only American food and stay only in American hotels. Anything which is cultural rather than americanised takes them out of their comfort zone. When they are in foreign lands, Americans are always herded like cattle and guided by their American guides at all times.
They mutter things like “evil” or “devilish” when they visit local temples in Asia or Greece. They tend to see Swastika decorated temples, road signs and houses as Nazi symbolism of racism. They often tend to break local laws and disrespect local tradition which usually puts them in soup like the image shown above. Most American tourists who visit strongly sovereign un-American countries like France, Italy or India find that being an American in these countries is not a privilege. This often comes to them as a shock as they expect to be treated royally which makes them end up being bitter against those countries.
Stupid Until Proven Intelligent Syndrome
In Europe and most parts of Asia, a person is considered ‘Intelligent Until Proven Stupid’. Therefore unless a person behaves in a way that makes him or her look really stupid, they are generally left to their own judgments and individual choices. On the other hand it is assumed both in the United States and elsewhere in the world that Americans are ‘Stupid unless proven intelligent’. In the United States, media and the government treats their people like a bunch of morons who need to be guided in every step of their life. Unlike Europe, Americans seem to need expert guidance for everything, from how to wash clothes properly, cook an omelette, invest in shares or have sex. Every small aspect of their life seems to be guided by research findings, which are often doctored by the media to fit corporate and government interests. If they travel, they have travel staff and books giving them directions and guidance for every small aspect of their trip.
Cultural Inexperience
Americans are not as culturally experienced as the people in Asian or European countries with rich heritage. They make this fact quite obvious to the rest of the world which again makes them the target of mockery and sniggers. They display a crude dress sense along with their lack of sophistication and tendency to use swear words at the drop of a hat. In the lingual abilities, most of the people in America are mono-lingual except the immigrants. The only language they speak is English or Spanish which is unlike Europe or Asia where people can speak an average of three languages fluently and many can do five or more. Their cultural knowledge of the world revolves around wars, blood and gore like American Civil War and World War 2 rather than peaceful civilizations like Greek, Sumerian or Indus valley civilizations. This gives them a bleak and xenophobic outlook of the world which ultimately leads to racial bias and subconscious racism.
This article is meant to be informative and not to incite dislike for Americans. Not all Americans fit the given reasons but a large majority do which is why this article will help them recognise the ’symptoms’ of being an American. I have refrained from giving any tips as I am optimistic that Americans could read this article and understand what the root of the problem is, which needs to be avoided.
- World Culture , Internationalism , America
- Comments(24)
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If brains were money American tourists would be among the poorest beings on earth. I have never had an intelligent experience with any American tourist or non. If they didnt have the money no one would have tolerated them. I work in tourism and I know a lot about that.
The sad thing is, this is very true. The typical American expects to be treated like they own the world! I am sorry, Abraxor, that you have not had an intelligent experience with any Americans. Some of us are not entirely ignorant as the stereo-type suggests; however, sadly most Americans are like this.
This is very sad, but also very true. For my job, I travel 90% outside of the US and I am a US citizen. I tend to gravitate towards Europeans, as most of my travel is to Europe. I find Americans (usually on vacation in Europe, although not so much lately as the US dollar is in the toilet) to be very rude and expect everyone to cater to them. I know this is not what they perceive, but they need to step into the shoes of Europeans (and all non-US shoes) and understand that they “appear” to be rude with the loud voices, swearing, and also they expect everyone to cater to them and speak English. Hopefully, this will change. By the way, I am American and when I travel, I am very respectful of this, and I also speak Spanish and fluent Italian, and am always trying to learn new languages and speak those languages when spoken to. Hats off to Europe! I love it there and am actually hoping to move there in the near future.
How Americans behave abroad is not as disturbing as how they behave at home. It is natural that person abroad will appear ignorant. By definition if you are in a country that is strange to you then you will appear ignorant. Even Swiss people act like pigs when confronted with a trough. Bangkok, for example. The real problem is that a huge majority of Americans do not even have passports. They do not want to travel. They think the US is the best country on earth and they voted for Bush. They are Christians who believe the Bible to be literally correct and they will watch the world destroyed to prove that Armagedon is real. Those are the ones we should worry about.
I hate to be arrogant but I’m not just American, I’m a Texan. Why should we care about the rest of the world? America is the dominant force in the world. Our media is the worlds media, our culture is the worlds culture (Dont tell my you’ve never drank a Coke, or seen a movie from Hollywood), our language is the worlds language. Americans take great pride in their homeland and rightly so, everyone on the world wants to be like us and envies us. To knock Americans for not caring about other cultures is not fair.
God bless Texas!
The Swiss do not demand or shout that the Thai people should speak German, Romansh or French. They do not demand prices quotes in Swiss Francs in the markets of Bangkok. If you encounter a loudmouthed Swiss in the US who demands you speak German, calls you an idiot for not doing so or demands prices in Francs, I’d be happy to hear that you gave him a good piece of your mind.
Fear of the unknown may be excusable, however arrogant superiority complex is not. Neither is branding every person who doesn’t speak English as stupid or claiming that the US dollar is REAL money.
thought the Americans spoke the language of the English.What is this American language then?.I never heard of it.And perhaps not as envied as you think.
Jerry, dominance doesn’t equal righteousness. Just because something is dominant, doesn’t mean that it is of the highest quality that it could be. Why should you care? Because your life could be better too, friend!
I do take a lot of pride in being an American, because there are tons of great things about this country–which obviously may not be on display when we travel. But I live in Florida, which gets massive amounts of international tourists. And for the most part, they are just as obnoxious, if not more so, than American tourists I’ve seen abroad. I could write long posts about stupid, disgusting, and immature things I’ve seen Europeans and Asians do just in my hometown, but what would it say about me if I categorized all Asians and Europeans just by that?
This post leans heavily towards how self-absorbed Americans are while on vacation. News flash: EVERYONE is self-absorbed on vacation! Everyone wants things to be all about them, and gets frustrated when they don’t know how to adapt. Everyone makes stupid fashion mistakes, offends the locals, overheats and snaps. I find the tone of this post to be a little lofty, assuming that because Americans screw up, that must mean that, by nature, Americans ARE screw-ups.
What I find weird is how, if Americans were to snicker behind the back of a foreign tourist in the US, let alone brag on a blog about doing so, it would be seen as proof that Americans are backwards and intolerant.
But if Americans are laughed at behind their backs in foreign countries, it’s STILL proof that Americans are backwards and intolerant–not their mocking hosts!
Double standard?
Vi! I couldn’t agree more. The anti-american sentiment on this website is not even remotely fair or balanced! It saddens me that the world sees all americans as stupid or ignorant, but there are many intelligent and articulate amercans out there! i’m proud to be an american. thank you for your post!
I have to agree that the average American knows jack about other countries, and everyone else knows about America. I’m from Argentina but have lived in Florida for the past 9 years. I have met a bunch of ignorant Americans but i have also met alot of smart,very well-traveled Americans that know a lot about other countries and their cultures and are very appreciative of them. I do not believe in stereotyping an entire country just because some citizen makes an ass of himself overseas. I have been mocked for being Argentinean as we are perceived to be very arrogant and nationalistic. Im nothing like that but believe me, i have MET THAT TYPE and see why people would think that. However, there is nothing wrong with loving your country, so i respect those people who publicly announce it.
Wow, I am so embarrassed and ashamed. I have always felt American’s were fairly ignorant and self righteous (and I AM an American).. after reading all of this… I want to hide my head.
Austria - here I come!
Ill admit that most Americans are retarded, but many of the reasons you listed are not valid.
For example the tourists who were wearing shorts in an italian cathedral. Ive traveled europe quite a bit and I have never seen this happen, many many people were wearing shorts and they werent just Americans.
Americans like to swear… I agree, you could say our favorite word is fuck. But Italians swear just as much, the english swear more than Americans they just say Bloody, and Bastard and of course “fuck all”, have you ever seen Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey?
Those travel books that have phrases in different languages are common in all countries.
Americans and travel guides… hmmm have you ever seen a Japanese tour group? Or Chinese for that matter? They dont speak a word of english or german or french or Italian for that matter (Except for their phrase books that only American have) and follow their tour guides everywhere.
On language there is not not single country in europe that speaks “An average of 3 languages fluently” thats a bunch of crap. They speak their native language and maybe they are fluent in english. But other than that I would speculate that those who speak 3 or more languages is no where near the majority.
And finally “Their cultural knowledge of the world revolves around wars, blood and gore like American Civil War and World War 2 rather than peaceful civilizations like Greek, Sumerian or Indus valley civilizations. ” The Greek civilization wasnt peaceful, neither was the Sumerian. Not enough is known about the Indus Valley civilization to say they were peaceful or not. But we do know that the Indus Valley civilization was wiped out by what appears to be warfare.
If you are going to Bash Americans, bash our politics. We elected Bush twice and half our country thinks that creationism should be taught in school. Half our country believes that Global Warming is a hoax. More than half our country believes that if we drill for oil in Alaska and offshore that it will somehow bring the global price of oil down.
These excuses to bash America you have listed are very shallow and reflect more on the Anti American sentiment of the tourist destination countries than they do on Americans.
Jerry,
You are just the type of American that the world dislikes so much - self-righteous, xenophobic, and blindly patriotic. I would not hesitate to guess that you have never left the US with the exception of picking up prostitutes in Mexico. You probably call yourself a Christian, but your thoughts are obviously not at all Christ-like. Americans like you embarrass me.
I am a patriotic American too - but my patriotism is not born in a feeling of superiority to others. My patriotism is founded in a hope that one day peaceful, educated, intelligent Americans will finally prevail and pick our country up off its ass; and that the other Americans might actually come to realize that America is not the only country on the planet with “culture”, and that not everyone envies us and wants to emulate us.
Don’t worry Jerry, maybe you will see the light when America falls from grace (which it has), your bank account is empty (which it will be), and there are no jobs to be had. See: Soviet Union in the 1990s.
@Jerry- I really hope that your comment was just a joke. Do you really want to live in world with mono-culture consists of walmart,mcdonalds,tasteless movies,geographic ignorance that produces people like George Bush, Sarah Palin,and Paris Hilton?? I’m not American, but I’ve been living in here for four years and I think that there are stupid and intelligent people everywhere. The US, unfortunately, just has more of the stupid ones but that doesn’t mean intellligence doesn’t exsist. I have met some very ingenious, considerate and not at all arrogant Americans in here, but while I’m met one of two of those people I also see a ton of COLLEGE STUDNETS who can’t solve a quadradic eqaution. Being from an Asian country I found this unacceptable. And yes I have drank coke, but I do not like it at all.
American people are also disliked because of their arrogance. The economic and military power their contry enjoys seems to give them the right to look down on everybody else. This seems to be the attitude of most American abroad, who are loud, boastfull, ostentatious and inconsiderate for the countries they visit. If you don’t speak American English, you are an idiot. Right.
I think that this article is great! I’m an American Tourist, but when I travel, I try to blend in as much as possible. You won’t catch me in printed shirts, khaki shorts, and Birkenstocks in Mexico or France. I’m just saying that you can’t say the America is the Best without some sort of comparison.
On the subject of Americans being stupid, I believe that 110%. How embarrassing is it that we are the 18th smartest country? All of these flag-waving, hootin-tootin people that haven’t even been out the country humiliate me. When Americans travel, we should try to be more considerate and less obnoxious. Study the customs and traditions of the country you will be visiting before you visit it. I’m not ashamed to be American, but to tell you the truth, I was for a long time.
@Jerry-
Have you even been out of the country? The way that you talk makes me sick. How could you even say things like that? You may think that American is dominant, but people in say China for example won’t think so. Do you know that we owe over 1 trillion dollars to China. If they ever called us on our debt, we would never be able to come back from that.
I was sitting on the train from Versailles back to Paris . Just before the train left, a group of loud American tourists filled the benches behind me. They each wore shirts that said things like “I love Paris” or “Got Rome?” proudly emblazoned under pictures of “must-see famous stuff.” The following experience confirmed to me that the American tourist is one of the most unpleasant creatures on the face of the planet, which almost justifies the rude way the French treat them.
For the next hour I heard one woman in particular from this group complaining loudly to her sympathetic and equally inane travelling companions about how hot it was and how the French were so rude and she couldn’t believe how they didn’t have all the signs doubled in English. And why can’t they speak English to her (she’s sure they know how they just won’t because they’re French). Oh! She just can’t believe how sweltering hot it is and the French don’t have drinking fountains. Next time, she assured her friends (and the rest of the train compartment who could still hear), she wasn’t going to come to France at all, but rather go to Las Vegas, because, she’s heard, they’ve built an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower there, and it’s not as far, they speak English. All I could think was, “Good riddance!”.
The biggest problem thet the citizens of the US are confronted with is their mental isolation, geographical too; their knowledge of foreign cultures is limited and their manners are almost nonegsistive. One of my friends actualy told me that an american guest went mental when he found out that Jackie Chan’s movies aren’ sinchronized but just subtiteld. They also tend to be straped to their guides while others (especially Germans, Italians or British) spend hours walking through the streets of let’s say Trogir discovering them on their own. Another example: My homeland- Croatia is actualy called Hrvatska, Germany- Deutschland, Sweeden- Svenska, Spain- Espana, Italy- Italia, Switzerland- die Schweiz, and many more. Also there is a lot of countries and capital cities that americans don’t know how to read correctly: T’bilisi, Georgia; Moskow, Russian Federation, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico etc.
Gordan.. what is your point? So what if we call Hrvatska Croatia.. that is what we call it! It would be like us to expect Italians to call the US “The United States of America” instead of “Gli Stati Uniti” or Philadelphia instead of Filadelfia …
Gordan, just on your last point, there are many other languages besides English that use vernacular or mispronounced versions of geographic and city names (I’m thinking specifically about French, I can’t speak any other languages). These names are in common use in English just because of tradition stretching back centuries. But they don’t have to. Peking has become Beijing, Bombay became Mumbai, etc. The reason those names changed? Because the Chinese and Indian governments said so and the media followed suit. My suspicion is European governments are less sensitive to what foreigners call their cities in foreign languages. If nobody has ever corrected English speakers then how do you expect them to know the correct pronunciation? I’d suggest pushing your Hrvatska government to issue a press release. Give it a decade to filter through the schools and the airlines to adopt the right names and you’ll be able to cross one of your grievances off your list.
i agree that alot of americans are like this but not all i’m from america but i”m not rich or arrogant i love other cultures and respect them for their strengths if i go to a country where there is a language i dont speak that makes me the idiot walking around with no idea wats going on not the others and i’m aware our education system is well below that of some other countries thats y they eaily learn multiple languages and we have a harder time then of course there are those who are ignorant and refuse to try and learn a second language
The problem is that Americans go to travel in other countries with a sense of entitlement, that creates an ugly American complex. Fed by years and years of propaganda nationalism, they are ingrained to believe that the world revolves around Americans and Americans should be treated like elites. When that bubble is burst, they start whining and moaning about how the entire world is anti-American and how everyone is “jealous because they can’t be like us”. It gives away their a deep rooted complex, behind their “we are the best” facade. This is not something that we usually find in people of other countries, people who are NOT Americans.
Americans have an impression that they are always right and anyone who doesn’t agree with them is wrong and isn’t worthy of consideration. I have found this trait even in the self-proclaimed “liberal and open minded Americans”. So much that I have lost whatever little faith I had, in the existence of a more human American. They are like kids who put their fingers in their ears and shout, “I am not listening, blah blah blah!”.
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