How do you identify different nationalities abroad? (vs, shopping mall)
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Having lived in Britain, I must say that they do have their fair share of white trash as well.
Remember my disclaimer? You're not allowed! (Joking, of course)
Yes, I know they have their share of white trash too. What culture doesn't have their share of "trash"? But the overall flavor is NOT one of trashiness.
In the US, by contrast, even many of the middle class individuals can exude a trashy vibe; the US has turned "being trashy" into an art.
However: I was not talking about trash.
I was talking about social disconnect.
I can show you in my culture lots of super-trashy people who are, nevertheless, incredibly astute, socially speaking, and nowhere close to self-absorbed or disconnected.
Americans are a mix of different ethnicities, so there is no one American 'look', or facial or body type. An American of Cuban heritage from Miami will look different from a Wisconsinite with mostly German heritage. So I think it's sort of silly to talk about Americans in terms of physical features.
It's not silly. By the second generation, most Americans acquire an American air and often American bodies as well. Asians, Cubans, you name it.
I can tell an Asian from Asia from an Asian-American right away. Likewise with your Cuban or any other ethnicity.
Americans tend to overestimate the depth of their diversity. Despite the mix of ethnicities (country of origin), America is hardly diverse. What matters is not where you came from, but who you are presently.
Remember my disclaimer? You're not allowed! (Joking, of course)
Yes, I know they have their share of white trash too. What culture doesn't have their share of "trash"? But the overall flavor is NOT one of trashiness.
In the US, by contrast, even many of the middle class individuals can exude a trashy vibe; the US has turned "being trashy" into an art.
However: I was not talking about trash.
I was talking about social disconnect.
I can show you in my culture lots of super-trashy people who are, nevertheless, incredibly astute, socially speaking, and nowhere close to self-absorbed or disconnected.
Ummm...where do you get this "social disconnected" or "self-absorbed" from? Where do you get this "trashy vibe"? Obviously you're "socially disconnected"...
There is no single American "look" as there are 300 million Americans. But still, there is a stereotypical look that a certain class of Americans seem to have (the "masters of the universe", or at least the "masters of America") and that is easily recognizable.
If those who argue that there is no ONE American look are right, how in the world can people from other countries single out an American in seconds flat when they see them overseas? Of course there is ONE American look!
No one in their right mind would mistake the faces of those you showed for any other nationality. Especially the last one.
Ummm...where do you get this "social disconnected" or "self-absorbed" from? Where do you get this "trashy vibe"? Obviously you're "socially disconnected"...
If those who argue that there is no ONE American look are right, how in the world can people from other countries single out an American in seconds flat when they see them overseas? Of course there is ONE American look!
No one in their right mind would mistake the faces of those you showed for any other nationality. Especially the last one.
Americans: Fat or overweight, rounder featured than europeans, usually dress very casual and sporty, use shirts with big printers and baseball type of caps. Usually pale/red skinend, brown haired and medium height as a group(around 5'10 and sometimes a little more) around 178-180 cm average males there in my observation.
Brits : Like americans but with sharper facial features, and not as sporty as americans but less formal than continental europeas. They typically have those atlantic features (quite often blue eyes and quite dark hair), and have more brown haired people than blondes.
Germans: Usually more square faced and square chins, taller than americans and brits and more likely to be fair haired than both previous groups, more individuals with either blond and light brown hair than darker/brown hair. Women can be a little big-boned sometimes. The southern germans have more tendencies to rounder and shorter faces, similar to austrians and not as tall as their northern counterparts who are bigger, more robust and blonder. Northern germans are also more often longer and with sharper noses/profiles.
Dutch: Like germans but even taller and blonder (similar to northern-germans) but less big-boned at the same time more narrow/longer faced, longer and sharp noses with high foreheads and slender builts.
Danes: Usually blond , like dutch and north-german people but they are more robust and aswell quite tall, usually with rounder faces and more often shorter snub-noses althought they are not as frequent as in Norwegian or Swedes, they could be depicted as a physical intermediate between the norwegian/swedes and dutch/northwest germans, being not as infantilized as the former but not as slender as the latter group.
Norwegians and Swedes: They are tall, althought definitely not as tall as a whole as the Dutch, Northern germans or Danish people. The people, and specially women tend to have quite often infantilized/borealized features with high cheekbones and smaller snub noses. The men seem to be longer faced than women althought they seem to have more oval facial shapes and often a bit uralic influences in their eyes. Norwegians seem to have more often than swedish people that atlantic influence thus darker haired people are more common than in sweden.
Finns: they are very infantile(round faces, shorter noses), and sometimes can look a bit asiatic, very round faced and usually quite blond, althought extreme darkhaired people can pop up here and there due to lappish influence. The women are very prone to get overweight, so are the men, they are not as tall as scandinavians, let alone northgermans/dutch people. They are quite bulky at times, no wonder they do well in strenght related sports.
Americans: Definitely their clothing. Not only the running shoes, but also they usually dress a lot more colorful than their European counterparts and have the weirdest t-shirts you can imagine. Girls often wear flip-flops, even in ****ty weather. Many wear shades, even when it is cloudy. Guys usually wear stuff that is not very fitting, European males tend to wear stuff that is a bit tighter. Also, at least where I am from, most adult males don't wear very short shorts, but Americans do so.
Another thing is that Americans have a certain way to smile. Not all of them, but many. They seem to feel more pressured into smiling and have a very broad, sometimes fake-looking smile. But that might just be my impression from the people I know. So no offense intended.
It is very hard for me to tell Europeans apart. French people usually dress pretty nicely. Sometimes you can tell from their complexion, whether they are Mediterranean.
For Brits and Irish, of course, the stereotype is ginger hair. But most of them don't have it and I could mistake them for Germans, Scandinavians, you name it.
Eastern Europeans are usually pretty pale, have somewhat of a square face and a light hair color.
People from the Indian subcontinent are also rather easy to recognize because of their complexion. But I do realize that there are white Indians as well.
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(Joking, of course)
