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For those of you who travel abroad (and far enough away from the American bubble and its neighbors: Canada, Mexico, Caribbean), what kind of reaction do people have about your city when you are conversing with them as follows.....
Non-American: So, where in the United States do you live?
Basically I'm trying to get a sense of what knowledge, opinions, stereotypes, thoughts (if any) they may have about your home town without any prompting from you, their preconceived notions. So I guess in that sense, I'm talking about their initial, unsolicited observations. This would include both people who have been to your city and those who have not.
My last job had to support machines located around the world. I had technicians around the globe regularly. We would talk about the questions they heard while abroad. Occasionally we would entertain visitors for training purposes. Most of our installed base was scattered around Europe, but we also had a fair number of clients around the Pacific Rim area.
Internationally, the most common references were to the wild west, most likely due to the 1859 gold rush and Pikes Peak or Bust. It usually centers around question of do we still have cowboys and do people still ride horses. This was especially prominent when we entertained guests for training. We tended to make regular visits to a local Dude Ranch for these inquiries. Nearly all visitors came away with a huge smile from riding on horses, seeing old horse drawn wagons and cow wranglers in cowboy wear. Many would take home a cowboy hat with them as a momento.
We would also get an occasional reference to the Olympic Training Center. We are the headquarters of the USOC and have a large number of governing bodies for individual sports. We often have foreign athletes who come here to train and scrimmage with US teams. This tends to get coverage in their home countries.
The third most common reference was often about the Pikes Peak International Auto Hillclimb. This is the second oldest auto race in the US, behind the Indy 500, and tends to get much, much more international press than it does domestics press. This is most likely due to all the international automakers that come here to test their vehicles in a high altitude competition environment that is diverse enough to include everything from street legal vehicles to highly modified prototypes, sports cars to truck and motor cycles.
I used to meet many Asians and Europeans, and if I stated I was from Buffalo most drew a blank, if I said NY State, most assumed NYC, so my best understood description was: "Buffalo, on the northern border with Canada, by Niagara Falls and close to Toronto."
If they know anything about Buffalo it is almost always about snow.
In Minnesota: known for being the capital, having historic homes, the winter carnival, the state fair, being more quiet than Minneapolis and having confusing streets.
In the US: Known for being cold and not Minneapolis.
Outside the US: Better off just saying I live in Minnesota.
Minnesota actually does have a reputation, at least in my experience, for being very "Canadianish," according to Europeans.
For those of you who travel abroad (and far enough away from the American bubble and its neighbors: Canada, Mexico, Caribbean), what kind of reaction do people have about your city when you are conversing with them as follows.....
Non-American: So, where in the United States do you live?
Basically I'm trying to get a sense of what knowledge, opinions, stereotypes, thoughts (if any) they may have about your home town without any prompting from you, their preconceived notions. So I guess in that sense, I'm talking about their initial, unsolicited observations. This would include both people who have been to your city and those who have not.
What do they say???
I get quite a range of reactions. It's either, "Utah? Um... I think I might have heard of that." Or "Oh, Utah. There are lots of Mormons there, aren't there?" Or, "Oh, Utah! We've been there three times. We love Bryce Canyon, and Zion and Arches! They are SOOOO gorgeous! And we're planning a ski trip to Salt Lake City. I hear the skiing is absolutely phenomenal!"
I never get out "around the world", but if I did, and mentioned the city name, they'd go "Where?" LOL
Even if others elsewhere knew the name, and made comments about the city, I wouldn't care what they had to say. All that matters is how I see it. I guess I'm different from most Americans; not hung up on other's opinions, and needing approval.
American - Oh ! it rains all the time and cloudy every day, I couldn't stand it.
Non-American - Wow ! So you live in paradise ! !
To us and most who actually live here, it rains just enough to keep everything green and the dirt off the roads with no dust. Cools things down real nice. Great sleeping weather. A little too sunny because all that rain listed in the statistics never tells you 90% of the rain comes at night between 10pm and 6am
Non-American: I just name the state. If they know of it or have been there and ask where in the state, I name the nearest city that they might have heard of.
Off topic, but sort of interesting. My brother met an American in a dive bar in Morocco in the 1970s. They did the whole shake down. Turns out he'd grown up about a mile from where we did. We lived in Wilkes-Barre, and his family lived in the Georgetown section of Wilkes-Barre Township. "Of all the gin joints in all the towns..."
Back when I lived in Portland and I was visiting the UK.
Non-American: So, where in the United States do you live?
American: I live in __Portland, Oregon ____________
Non-American: Oh, _I have a nephew living in New York City is that anywhere nearby?__________,...............................
I had to tell most people I met that Portland was in Oregon which was in between Seattle and California both of which they had heard. Some were familiar with just Portland but not the state it was in. They thought California bordered Seattle.
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