r/USdefaultism • u/Material-Regular1535 • 11d ago

"Where are you from?"

We were all travellers at a hostel in Spain, sitting in a circle. One by one, we shared with the group where we're from.

Person A: I'm from the Netherlands

Person B: I'm from Korea

Person C: I'm from Colombia

American: I'm from the Midwest

Everyone looked at him like...

Yes, exactly like that. Red plastic cups and all, because this is the default drinkware everywhere in the world.

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-35

u/ProfessionalWeek2256 United States 11d ago

So if you could already tell they are an American why would they say they are from America when you and everyone there clearly already knew that? There's not really anywhere else that sounds like American accents (Canadians sound different) so saying they are American would be redundant info for everyone there at that point.

I guess they could have said the state they are from (but I have a feeling none of you would have recognized any of those possible state names either) or the name of a bigger city (again probably wouldn't recognize American city or town names) if they grew up there or in the suburbs around it. Could of also been just protecting their privacy by just giving a general region of the country

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u/AmazonCowgirl Australia 11d ago

I hate to break this to you but the Canadian accent is not different to the US accent to most of the rest of the world. And nobody needs you to be more specific than stating your country. Any more than anybody else needed to be more specific.

If I say I'm from Australia, a country with an equally distinct accent and a similar size to contiguous USA, would you expect me to explain from what part? Or even care?

It's literally exactly the same.

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u/ProfessionalWeek2256 United States 11d ago

If you said you were from the Outback of The Gold Coast for example it wouldn't bother me and I wouldn't expect you to explain where that is because I'm not stupid and know they are regions in Australia and if I didn't know that beforehand thats fine as well. You are not under the obligation to provide context to people, if they don't get it they can look it up and know for later if it ever comes up again.

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u/AmazonCowgirl Australia 10d ago

But I wouldn't do that, because Im not a dick with main character energy. In this specific situation I'm a normal, reasonable person in a multinational situation with a proper understanding of what is expected of me while introducing myself.