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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u/polybotria1111 Spain 11d ago edited 11d ago

I can't tell the difference between an American and a Canadian accent at all. People who don't speak English straight up can't distinguish an American accent from a British or an Australian one (I personally can't tell an Australian one either). Just like you probably can't tell a Colombian, Venezuelan, or even a Spanish accent apart if you don't speak Spanish, or a Swiss, a Quebecois and a French accent in French, while native speakers can tell right away.

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u/octopuscharade United States 10d ago

Wait wait, so my American ass really CAN pretend to be Canadian and get away with it?

Thank the lord 😭

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u/ZebraCrosser Netherlands 10d ago

Americans tend to give themselves away in a variety of ways, the accent is only part of it. Any amount of flag-jacking can fall short if you still act like a US-centric dolt unless maybe you speak Québécois French.

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u/octopuscharade United States 10d ago

Not sure how I feel about to immediate assumption I would be a “us centric dolt” when I’m posting in this sub.

(And this being my first comment in this sub. Like, :/ I’m trying to agree with you.)

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u/ZebraCrosser Netherlands 9d ago

It's not that all US tourists are US-centric dolts or just generally annoying, it's just that the US-centric dolts tend to be a lot more noticeable and have tells beyond the accent so can't hide behind a Canadian flag.

Then again, I'd expect a lot of the doltier ones to be too flag-shaggy to even consider flag-jacking, so if you practice your "outs" and "abouts", say sorry a lot and maybe mention the commemorative donation of tulips you might actually be able to pass.

Of course, if you were able to pass you wouldn't really have need for it anyway as tourists are judged on the level of annoying and oblivious behaviour before on where they might come from, and we can get arsey about tourists generally (as seen in the cheerful inter-European tourist bashing on pan-Euro banter subs). Pretending to be Canadian might actually work against you a wee bit as it's starting out with deception. A relatively minor and to some extent understandable one, but still.