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"This post is my rant about America because of all the places I’ve been, the people who always complain the most about the local country are travelling Americans. It has annoyed me so much over the years that I honestly feel like a lot of you need to hear a foreigner complain about YOUR country.'
As much as he said he didn't have a agenda.. he did.
I think the guy simply ran into culture shock. I ran into culture shock in London. No two countries are exactly the same. America has a unique culture in the world that has allowed us to have the success we have had.
He complains about waitresses being overly nice and attentive while the food comes quick and in large portions. This is something that Americans culturally enjoy. In Ireland, they may do it a different way and he has grown up accustomed to something different. I don't think that we should change this part of America. He implies that he criticizes because he wants us to change our ways. I don't go into London and tell them they need to start giving free re-fills on already overpriced soda products and that their built in gratuity in the bill is way too high for the poor service.
Americans smile a lot and try to make connections with people. Some do it through jokes and others through heritage. When an American jokes about him being Irish and not drinking, they aren't being serious. They are just trying to be funny. When an American tells him he is Irish, he is trying to make a personal connection with him. In American culture, each ethnic group is known for certain characteristics. I think Americans in trying to make a connection, don't realize that the other person may not feel the same way.
In America, driving is freedom. Driving is freedom everywhere. The difference is that we have found a way to make it affordable for most people to have a car and drive. With such a massive country, why should we make every city walkable? It works well in Europe because their countries have for centuries been built around the need to be in a densely packed town to survive economically. America is much younger and the pioneer spirit makes this country inherently more spread out. If money, environment and the availability of parking wasn't an issue, I am sure that more Europeans would be just like Americans with cars. Cars give people freedom. In London and through England, I was at the mercy of train schedules, taxi cabs, and busses. When you have a car, you can decide where to go whenever you want at your own pace. You can stop wherever you want whenever you want. A train and bus makes specific stops on a specific timetable.
When in Europe, I found the near complete absence of religion a bit of culture shock. I can see how coming from that environment, it would be a shock for him to hear people being religious. Most Americans aren't crazy religious stereotypes but even the average American will mention praying and God quite often. To a European, it can be just as alien as it is for an American to see the opposite.
Lastly, Americans think we are the best because well, we are the best. He can complain about our nationalism but we probably feel and act similar to the way the Romans did. Does North Korea threaten to nuke Ireland? They would be laughed at if they came out tomorrow and picked a fight with tiny Ireland. They try to pick a fight with the USA. We are the big man on campus. Despite all of our problems, we have a level of power and prosperity that is unrivaled in world history. China tries all it can to copy us because the Chinese know that to be the best, you need to learn and act like the best.
Just to make a point, it is our strong military that allows European nations to maintain their generous welfare. Without our military power and protection, they would need to spend more on their defense. It was our money that re-built Western Europe after WWII through the Marshall Plan. We are the ones that are responsible for their quick recovery from WWII. The difference between East Europe and West Europe is the difference between American money and Soviet money. American money bought a lot more.
Your second paragraph is why Americans are very fat. We are such a wasteful country. Bigger isnt better. Why does anyone need a HUGE portion of ANYTHING?
The tipping thing in the article was a good one. Tipping annoys me to no end. No waitress or cab driver was so incredible that they deserved a tip. They did their job as they have been paid to do so why on earth should I hve to tip for someone doing something in their job description? If they go above and beyond, i will happily tip but for doing what they are supposed to be doing? Annoying. And I too get annoyed by the constant asking if everything is ok. If i need something ill ask for it, i dont need to be bombarded every 3 seconds.
people who are used to some urban living. Urban homesteading program
If media (and CD forum) portrayals of US inner cities are accurate, it'll be just like the olden days, just more dangerous.
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fast track immigration
You betcha. I'd expect immediate citizenship after surviving 12 months in Flint, MI
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No waitress or cab driver was so incredible that they deserved a tip
You're forgetting that in many circumstances, tipping makes up the bulk of especially a waiter's pay, their employer only pays minimum wage. The alternative to tipping in the service industry is powerful unions forcing the wage levels up, in turn causing everything to be significantly more expensive since you now have to pay the bad waiters the same as the good ones, the kitchen staff wants their slice of the pie (ahaha), and the business owner still wants the same profit out of his/her venture. Although they'll recoup some of their cost by slashing portion sizes - now that would make some people happy - the customer will pay for most of this party. Which would you rather have?
Boston is the only American city I like and this is coming from a New Yorker lol!
On the whole, I much prefer European cities to American ones... And Europe in general.
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Originally Posted by KathrynAragon
Cool! I can shop, eat and find the bathroom in about six languages myself! Where did you grow up?
Oh, and my son speaks English, Arabic, and Korean fluently. He'd probably enjoy talking with you - for a little while, anyway/
By the way, why did you call me "darling?" We don't know each other, do we?
The fact remains that this blog is nothing more than personal opinions and a recount of personal experiences. My European friends have had markedly different experiences while traveling throughout the US. They would disagree with many of the blogger's opinions. Which opinions would be more true to "how it is" in the US?
Can you tell me what I said that didn't make sense? What I said was in response to your statement regarding the fact that many Europeans visit neighboring countries more often than many US citizens do. What I stated was simply logistical logic. It would take me three days of driving to get to one of our neighboring countries, and a LONG day of driving just to get to the country which borders my state! That scenario differs greatly from, say, my Belgian friends' scenario - where they can drive through five countries in one day.
Also, round trip tickets to, say, Germany, would set an American back about $1500. That doesn't even begin to include other costs, such as hotels, transportation, meals, etc. It's very expensive and most people have other priorities that override such expensive vacations. Besides that, they can drive a couple of hours in any direction to see all sorts of sights and interesting things within the US.
Even though I am very well traveled, I STILL haven't seen all I want to see in the US. For instance, I've never been to Boston! My husband has, though, and we went back and forth about whether to spend this years' vacation in Boston or in the UK. We chose the UK, but it was a tough choice.
If media (and CD forum) portrayals of US inner cities are accurate, it'll be just like the olden days, just more dangerous.
You betcha. I'd expect immediate citizenship after surviving 12 months in Flint, MI
You're forgetting that in many circumstances, tipping makes up the bulk of especially a waiter's pay, their employer only pays minimum wage. The alternative to tipping in the service industry is powerful unions forcing the wage levels up, in turn causing everything to be significantly more expensive since you now have to pay the bad waiters the same as the good ones, the kitchen staff wants their slice of the pie (ahaha), and the business owner still wants the same profit out of his/her venture. Although they'll recoup some of their cost by slashing portion sizes - now that would make some people happy - the customer will pay for most of this party. Which would you rather have?
I'd rather not tip and have a smaller portion bc im not at fata$$ like most Americans
Your second paragraph is why Americans are very fat. We are such a wasteful country. Bigger isnt better. Why does anyone need a HUGE portion of ANYTHING?
The tipping thing in the article was a good one. Tipping annoys me to no end. No waitress or cab driver was so incredible that they deserved a tip. They did their job as they have been paid to do so why on earth should I hve to tip for someone doing something in their job description? If they go above and beyond, i will happily tip but for doing what they are supposed to be doing? Annoying. And I too get annoyed by the constant asking if everything is ok. If i need something ill ask for it, i dont need to be bombarded every 3 seconds.
Damn, you take things way too seriously.
you should start worrying about yourself instead of stressing out about other peoples weight and how much they tip. lol.
Do you have any corroboration for that statement? Any stats or such?
Kind of hard to have a direct measurement of such a vague thing.
There's stuff like this: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ge...operSurvey.pdf that come out from time to time. That's the first one I found, but I remember coming across others. We're not last on the list, but generally we don't score well absolutely or relative to other developed countries (we're usually not at the bottom though as some people want to make it out to be). In this study, as well as others, it's also shown that Americans generally overestimate how well they do in metrics like these both absolutely and compared to other countries though unfortunately not the actual case in this study.
There's also stats like how percentage of people who own passports (hard to adjust for different parts of the world though; US is bigger so you can travel about with a bit of diversity within, but some places like parts of Europe have things like the Schengen Agreement where you don't need a passport to cross into other countries) with stats like 30% of US in comparison to about 70% to peer countries like the UK and Australia (though the US does really well worldwide with China, for example, having something like 1.5% of the population holding passports) and percentage of people who speak a second or third languages. Adjusted for the US's comparatively large first-generation immigrant numbers, the numbers probably tail off a bit but I haven't taken taken the time to count this out or look up how the numbers change.
There's of course a lot of details that are omitted in doing such broad overviews though--especially since the US is such a larger country. I believe there were stats in-terms of passport holders by state and there was a very strong correlation of (politically) blue states as having much higher percentages than red states. Not direct causation, mind you, but likely a correlation due to similar causes.
Also, the US also has a comparatively (to other developed countries) large percentage and total amount of people living in poverty where being curious about the world is a bit further removed from their thoughts compared to how to get by. Don't know how that's supposed to be factored in.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 05-02-2013 at 01:31 PM..
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