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I regularly travel to England, and in the past three years, I have added Ireland, France, and The Netherlands onto my holiday travels. I exclude Canada because it's within crawling distance to me here in Michigan and I kinda think of it as an extension of the states (a whole different topic).
Anyway, I think it's so much fun to bump into other Americans while on travel. They are always so nice and happy to see another American. I usually just talk to them for a moment or two to ask how they are enjoying their visit and where they are from in the states.
I usually can point them out by of course hearing their American accent, but I also see them dressing 'American', and another tale tell sign is them wearing a sweatshirt/t-shirt with an American college emblem design.
When you are traveling overseas, do you make an effort to say hello to fellow Americans?
I recently returned from two weeks in the Middle East (Dubai and Muscat, Oman) and we only saw four Americans the whole time, until we got to the Dubai Airport to come home when we saw a fifth. Ironically, two of the four we saw were from Fort Worth, TX (we were from Austin) and were in the same vehicle as us for our desert safari. It was really an odd sensation, when you thought about it, to realize that there just weren't that many Americans anywhere around. It was nice though and made an exotic vacation really feel like an exotic vacation. Most of the people in the Middle East thought we were British since we were speaking English and didn't understand "USA" or "United States". We had to say "America" before they understood where we were from. (They obviously had never heard a very strong East Texan accent before!)
I always find it fun to talk to tourists from the US when overseas, particularly when in more obscure places (e.g. not London or Paris). I don't "dress American", as in I don't wear sneakers, baseball hat, white athletic socks or team logo shirts everywhere. I don't act like the stereotypical "Ugly American" so I am hard to pick out of a line-up. 7 Signs You're An Ugly American*|*SmarterTravel Most of my conversations with other Americans overseas have been because we overheard each other speaking.
I usually can point them out by of course hearing their American accent, but I also see them dressing 'American', and another tale tell sign is them wearing a sweatshirt/t-shirt with an American college emblem design.
We ended up having a nice talk with a couple in Florida Gators sweatshirts on a street in Garmisch-Partenkirken, Germany. They'd just spent two weeks in the Dresden area (Russian as a second language in East German days) and were glad to hear not just English but American English again.
I try my best to fit the ugly american sterotype when travelling overseas for the lulz. Used to have a bush cheney 2004 shirt. It seems like fellow americans get the most annoyed.
We were sitting at a pub in Dublin this past summer and I happened to be wearing an Easy Street Records t-shirt, a record shop in Seattle. There was a college age guy sitting at the barrel next to us and he asked if we were from Seattle. We are not, but he was. Ended up having a lovely 90 minute conversation about music while drinking our Guinness.
Maybe not fellow American as I am not. Passing through a rural central american village I ran into a volunteer woman who said it was so nice to hear English again in person. She was away from the states for 6 months and spoke the native language to locals.
I don't make it a point, but I don't avoid it, either.
I feel the same unless I overhear people needing help or I need help with something (like directions, etc.) in a place where English isn't spoken by the locals.
Maybe not fellow American as I am not. Passing through a rural central american village I ran into a volunteer woman who said it was so nice to hear English again in person. She was away from the states for 6 months and spoke the native language to locals.
Just remembered also on that same trip had other Canadians and Americans come up to me and start a conversation.
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