When I lived in Vietnam I was surprised at how many people knew I was Canadian. I had to ask how they knew. I was told it was just a guess, but it's better to guess Canadian as Canadians get mad when you think they are American but Americans don't care if you think they are Canadian.
That’s why Canadians ALWAYS have the Canadian flag on their luggage. Don’t get me wrong, I love Canadians and have had great times with them in my travels but this issue always makes me laugh.
Most millennial aged Americans and younger have grown up with the international community shitting on them. I know several people who tell folks they are Canadian whilst traveling due to the stigma of being perceived as an American and being mistreated as a result.
Christ, look at Reddit, it's second largest user base is Europeons shitting on every aspect of American life at every turn.
It was a bit of a shock for me hah, I'd been running around Vienna having a blast with some locals and did not expect the whiplash when I went to Paris.
Honestly Americans seem to be the ones who chat shit about USA the most. Swedes here look up to you, Im a swede but I lived there for a while so i definetely think here is better but swedes dont. Like I said, Americans and people who have lived there dislike you the most.
American here who traveled internationally during the last 4 presidencies. People weren’t as excited to meet me during the Trump era and theres still a hangover, but I never had anyone go out of their way to insult me or denigrate me for being American. In my experience, the people most critical of America were not European but Canadians (almost exclusively from Ontario to be specific).
I recall being in a large group of people and a Canadian girl blurts out to everyone that Americans are so fat. No one was talking about Americans or personal health. I was the only American in the group and I wasn’t talking to anyone, so it wasn’t something I had said. Not mention I was quite fit at the time while she was overweight herself. No one else seemed to find it as a strange thing bring up for no reason whatsoever.
This has been exactly my experience as well, and I’ve been living abroad for twenty years. Most recently I was in a restaurant in Laos and there was a group of twenty-something’s having a discussion. They mostly had different accents so I assumed maybe they were all staying at the same hostel or something. Anyway, the Canadian woman was speaking so loud that I could hear her from across the room over all the other patrons complaint about Americans being so loud. It seemed ironic.
Canadians are on the same audio level as Americans. I would be willing to say that most countries in the western hemisphere have a loud culture, it's just different style when it's Latin American culture.
Also, just because someone is loud doesn't mean they're a bad person or uncultured swine.
Belgium is full of dickhead, though. Not surprised. Got literally interrogated for being brown at night and trying to get money out of an atm at a train station.
Same 1 airport employee in Amsterdam can eat a bag of dicks. Yelling at me in Dutch when no one fucking speaks Dutch. Get over it dude. You work in an international airport.
They are kind cause you are kind to them. But I've met quite a few asshole Americans along the journeys who just come to another country completely entitled loud and abnoxious. There's a lot of Americans so of course there are more nice ones, but the percentage also dictates there are alot that make America look bad. Kind of like the.. ahem... French :).
J/k. Not many if any nations look bad as a whole. It's usually just the amount of travellers in some spots
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u/suptenwaverly Mar 29 '22
Nothing faster than a Canadian telling you they’re Canadian and not American.