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I was reading several traveling blogs, trying to come up with ideas for my january trip and I found a lot of blogs with Americans, Canadians, Australians talking about their European tour and how shocking/disappointing it is to be in Europe and come to the realization of the fact that in Europe people don't care if you're australian, canadian or american!
I mean Europeans don't dislike you if you're from those three countries, but they're not gonna fall in love with you just because you come from those places you know?
Like I'll quote and australian guy
"I felt Europeans were not friendly at all, when I'd tell them I am aussie they didnt seem to care much"
what was this australian guy expecting? that europeans were gonna throw a party just because he's australian, or go into a neurotic state because he's an aussie? lol
or Americans too
"I am an American, what will europeans say when I visit and they know I am an American?"
THEY'LL SAY NOTHING, Europe is VERY MULTICULTURAL and full of tourist from EVERYWHERE on this planet!!!! one trip to the supermarket and I'll easily come across people from 50 different nationalities, from chinese tourists, to all kind of arabs, turkish and africans immigrants, to people from all over the americas to people from all over europe to jews to japanese girls with cameras to just about any kind of person u can imagine!!!
No one is gonna care if you're from the US!!! trust me, most people will not even care to ask or even look at you!!
Canadians also with their strange backpacks, and their flags walking around letting the world know they're canadians, as if the rest of the world actually gave a crap!!! you always see them with the backpacks and NO ONE even looks at them and goes, oh canadians!!! it's so comical!
I don't know why but this attitude is very common on these three countries.... for some reason they expect their presence will cause shock on people because they're white-Americans, white-Canadians or white-Australians (I wonder if it's a post-colonial trauma left by the english) but its so bizarre and funny!!!!
once I met this australian girl in the netherlands and she was telling me how lonely she feels because Dutch men are not falling for her, she was thinking they would do so because being australian and all (most dutch guys were absolutely oblivious and didnt even care about the fact she was australian), but for some reason she thought that was going to be a HUGE advantage, "Oh I am australian = 50 dutch guys fall in love"
Is it like a new world anglo thing? or just delusion?
If you travel enough, no nationality is really amazing to meet. Maybe Bhutanese or North Korean. Also, Australians (and Germans, Brits) are by far the most common nationalities to meet on the road. They're everywhere. I also meet lots of other Canadians around, more than I would expect actually. It's just not much of a surprise to run in to anyone in general, let alone these three.
I've never met anyone snobby about that, though. Are you looking for trouble?
Some of it's personal delusion. Some people seem to think they'll be viewed as "exotic", and therefore especially attractive. These are people with no prior experience with international travel, so they have odd expectations.
But some of what you mention is political. Depending on what their country is doing in the world at any given time, Americans may be terrified that everyone will hate them. During the Vietnam War, young Americans actually went so far as to sew Canadian flags to their backpacks. That is when the Canadian-flag-on-the-backpack thing started. Canadians did that to avoid being mistaken for Americans. So now, whenever the US does something hugely controversial (like all these wars in the near East), Americans are afraid of public opinion in Europe.
It's funny that the Australian guy you mentioned thought he had to tell people he's from Australia. As if the accent isn't a dead giveaway, lol! And yeah, people aren't going to befriend you based on your nationality. That's bizarre. Well, maybe there was a time historically when that was true for Americans. For a few decades after WWII, Americans were well-received in Europe, I'm told, and people were especially friendly towards them. But that was a long time ago.
why do some Americans, Australians and Canadians get surprised people in Europe don't care where they're from?
Quote:
I was reading several traveling blogs, trying to come up with ideas for my january trip and I found a lot of blogs with Americans, Canadians, Australians talking about their European tour and how shocking/disappointing it is to be in Europe and come to the realization of the fact that in Europe people don't care if you're australian, canadian or american!
Well I live in The Netherlands, . What I know the most people go and blog about their one single non succeeded experiences. It is does not mean that it is applicable for whole EU. I have traveled a lot, for me it does not matter if they know where I am from. I know for some people their nationality and the country is way too big but not for all.
I was reading several traveling blogs, trying to come up with ideas for my january trip and I found a lot of blogs with Americans, Canadians, Australians talking about their European tour and how shocking/disappointing it is to be in Europe and come to the realization of the fact that in Europe people don't care if you're australian, canadian or american!
I mean Europeans don't dislike you if you're from those three countries, but they're not gonna fall in love with you just because you come from those places you know?
Like I'll quote and australian guy
"I felt Europeans were not friendly at all, when I'd tell them I am aussie they didnt seem to care much"
what was this australian guy expecting? that europeans were gonna throw a party just because he's australian, or go into a neurotic state because he's an aussie? lol
or Americans too
"I am an American, what will europeans say when I visit and they know I am an American?"
THEY'LL SAY NOTHING, Europe is VERY MULTICULTURAL and full of tourist from EVERYWHERE on this planet!!!! one trip to the supermarket and I'll easily come across people from 50 different nationalities, from chinese tourists, to all kind of arabs, turkish and africans immigrants, to people from all over the americas to people from all over europe to jews to japanese girls with cameras to just about any kind of person u can imagine!!!
No one is gonna care if you're from the US!!! trust me, most people will not even care to ask or even look at you!!
Canadians also with their strange backpacks, and their flags walking around letting the world know they're canadians, as if the rest of the world actually gave a crap!!! you always see them with the backpacks and NO ONE even looks at them and goes, oh canadians!!! it's so comical!
I don't know why but this attitude is very common on these three countries.... for some reason they expect their presence will cause shock on people because they're white-Americans, white-Canadians or white-Australians (I wonder if it's a post-colonial trauma left by the english) but its so bizarre and funny!!!!
once I met this australian girl in the netherlands and she was telling me how lonely she feels because Dutch men are not falling for her, she was thinking they would do so because being australian and all (most dutch guys were absolutely oblivious and didnt even care about the fact she was australian), but for some reason she thought that was going to be a HUGE advantage, "Oh I am australian = 50 dutch guys fall in love"
Is it like a new world anglo thing? or just delusion?
The American one is because they are half-expecting a backlash just for being an American. During the Bush years, there was a lot of anti-American sentiment targeted at Americans abroad. It became VERY tedious and annoying to be an American abroad, and get that damn, "where are you from?" question, only to have the asking person to go on the verbal offensive on you, after you'd answer them.
The Canadian response is a reaction to that. Half of the time they were the worst offenders of all nationalities with the anti-American rants. The other half of the time, they are making damn sure they aren't going to be confused as an American. Hence, the over-eagerness to go on the rant themselves to an extreme.
I can't answer for the Australian one. Maybe it's EXACTLY as you say, that they really didn't expect people to go 'ga-ga' for them, but I doubt it. Who knows...I'm sure an Australian would be the best to answer that.
When we were traveling I thought people in Europe were very surprised either that we were American or that we were willing and proud to admit it when asked lol. We ran into a lot fewer fellow Americans than we expected.
I was reading several traveling blogs, trying to come up with ideas for my january trip and I found a lot of blogs with Americans, Canadians, Australians talking about their European tour and how shocking/disappointing it is to be in Europe and come to the realization of the fact that in Europe people don't care if you're australian, canadian or american!
I mean Europeans don't dislike you if you're from those three countries, but they're not gonna fall in love with you just because you come from those places you know?
Like I'll quote and australian guy
"I felt Europeans were not friendly at all, when I'd tell them I am aussie they didnt seem to care much"
what was this australian guy expecting? that europeans were gonna throw a party just because he's australian, or go into a neurotic state because he's an aussie? lol
or Americans too
"I am an American, what will europeans say when I visit and they know I am an American?"
THEY'LL SAY NOTHING, Europe is VERY MULTICULTURAL and full of tourist from EVERYWHERE on this planet!!!! one trip to the supermarket and I'll easily come across people from 50 different nationalities, from chinese tourists, to all kind of arabs, turkish and africans immigrants, to people from all over the americas to people from all over europe to jews to japanese girls with cameras to just about any kind of person u can imagine!!!
No one is gonna care if you're from the US!!! trust me, most people will not even care to ask or even look at you!!
Canadians also with their strange backpacks, and their flags walking around letting the world know they're canadians, as if the rest of the world actually gave a crap!!! you always see them with the backpacks and NO ONE even looks at them and goes, oh canadians!!! it's so comical!
I don't know why but this attitude is very common on these three countries.... for some reason they expect their presence will cause shock on people because they're white-Americans, white-Canadians or white-Australians (I wonder if it's a post-colonial trauma left by the english) but its so bizarre and funny!!!!
once I met this australian girl in the netherlands and she was telling me how lonely she feels because Dutch men are not falling for her, she was thinking they would do so because being australian and all (most dutch guys were absolutely oblivious and didnt even care about the fact she was australian), but for some reason she thought that was going to be a HUGE advantage, "Oh I am australian = 50 dutch guys fall in love"
Is it like a new world anglo thing? or just delusion?
As you said some people do, which of course also means some don't. When travelling through Europe I did find some people who were generally excited to find I was from Australia, I also found others who were not.
It's a personally choice really, I know if I went down to my local Supermarket for a day, and asked everyone who went in what country they were born in, I would easily put together 50 nationalities, I would be excited to see every one of them.
Canadians also with their strange backpacks, and their flags walking around letting the world know they're canadians, as if the rest of the world actually gave a crap!!! you always see them with the backpacks and NO ONE even looks at them and goes, oh canadians!!! it's so comical!
I guess Canadians put their flags on their clothing so people don't mistake them for Americans, not to show to the world they are proud Canadians. I would do the same if I had neighbors like that.
I'm not sure about Canadians but Australians and Americans are like 'how are you?' and then don't bother to listen or start talking about something else when you reply. That would be considered very rude in Europe. I'm not taking them very seriously and I would ignore them too if I would run into them.
I think this is just a tourist "issue" that happens everywhere... i know when i go to touristy places people are always telling me where they are from without me asking, i know its probably just a conversation starter but i would rather people come up to me and say "Hi i'm Bob" instead of "Hi i'm from Iowa".
I assume you see a lot of Australians, Americans and Canadians do this because you were on a English speaking website.
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