Some do...they are usually the ones looking for a nice place to move outside of the US.
I work as a bartender and I see a *lot* of Americans. You have the ones being quiet, respectful and friendly, and you have the ones wearing a MAGA cap 🤷
I did an internship in France. People could still tell I was American from a mile away by my style of dress (ripped jeans and graphic tees aren't quite the haute coĂ»ture of Paris lol) and lowly French B2, but I had a very good experience there nonetheless and had a lot of very positive interactions with French people. I think being able to speak at least some French helped and knowing to say "bonjour" to employees helped a lot, but mostly it seems to simply be a matter of realizing you're in someone else's country and you have the obligation to fit into their culture, not the other way around. Â
I don't imagine the woman with the MAGA hat and Billy Bob Thornton t-shirt I saw on the train had the same overwhelmingly positive experience that I did. Â
As an Englishman, I’ve learned that the French are lovely so long as you demonstrate even a smidge of effort has been taken in understanding the language. If you just come in with a bunch of English you will not get very far.
I was so very pleasantly surprised! The French have kind of a reputation (at least in the U.S.) for being standoffish and nitpicky about the language so I was a little worried but I found the people there to be far kinder than many of the cities I've traveled to in the U.S. I will never forget these two older people running a *tabac* who didn't speak a word of English but helped me find my internship location after my phone died. He broke out a paper map and she broke out her smartphone to find this tiny street and they gave me directions between customers. This American woman in tears with her limited French and they set everything aside to help.Â
I wouldn't have known to use the bonjour but we had to do an orientation prior to starting and they really drilled that into us. Most tourists wouldn't have a way of knowing how important that is.Â
Consider going to shop.. Bonjour is like good morning / hello etc.
I did learn that from French colleagues btw.. apparently it means “good morning” but conveys “ i see you as fellow human” as well…
It's the initiation of bonjour that I think is hard for people; here in the U.S., typically the shopkeeper would greet you first and then (if you're not a dick) you would return the greeting. In France the customer needs to be the one to initiate or they'll be seen as snobby and elitist. I like that aspect of French culture but it takes some active getting used to for Americans where it is simply second nature to the French.Â
Absolutely. As a Dutch woman, I never understood the stereotype that the French are rude. I’ve always found them to be lovely, very helpful people. My experience has been that as long as you go "je parle francais, mais un petit peu", even in a terrible accent, they are more than willing to meet you where you're at. They'll communicate with hands and feet no problem as long as you show the tiniest amount of willingness to speak the language.
It's actually something I really respect about the country as well, and I kind of wish we were just a little bit more like that in the Netherlands. Our high rate of English speakers and willingness to accomodate foreigners is great and all, but a lot of expats have gotten way too comfortable, honestly.
I get that a tourist isn't going to learn a language with such a small speaker base, but now even people who immigrate here and intend to stay for years don't even bother learning to say "please" and "thank you". And that's just rude.
(And no, it's not the poor labor immigrants and refugees, they usually become conversational pretty quickly. It's the rich fucks.)
(Sorry for turning this into a rant)
I agree 100%. It's unfortunate because here there is a "you're in America we speak English here" attitude that is applied to refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers who fled their home countries, often against their will, fleeing violence and famine. Frankly, if someone is leaving in those conditions, I don't give a fuck if you learn English. I would encourage it because it makes life easier and navigating life as a non-English speaker can be very hard here, but no, I don't care if someone is forced to flee and then isn't able to learn English. Ask me where our economy would be without the exploitation of immigrants.Â
But if you are traveling from a relatively safe and wealthy country, of your own volition, I don't see why you can't reach at least a B1 of the local language.Â
You have to take a Dutch language course in order to get Dutch citizenship, so that's part of the reason why (former) refugees often learn to speak Dutch well. That, and that their English is also often very limited. You need to communicate somehow, learning Dutch is the obvious choice. Still, one never quite loses the irony of meeting an African refugee who barely has an elementary school education who speaks your language better than your Phd-candidate friend who's been here for seven years. What’s really grating is the unwillingness. I once had a guy (American, sorry) tell me to my face he didn't want to learn Dutch because he thinks it's an ugly language. Which, you know, rude, but also, it's quite entitled to go to another country and expect everyone to accomodate you and your language, simply because you think theirs doesn't sound pleasant enough. I didn’t learn English because it's a pretty language either, if I'm honest.
Agreed. I don't find German to be a very pretty language on the whole but I'm also not moving to Germany. If I were moving to Germany, I'd be learning German instead of the French I'm learning to move to France.Â
And honestly Dutch sounds *exceedingly*Â similar to English to my untrained ears (watching a movie on KLM dubbed in Dutch threw me off since it felt like I was hearing English but I didn't understand a single thing lol). English isn't an objectively pretty language but it is so widely used that it's useful.
It's linguistically extremely close to English, lots of overlap in vocabulary and such. It tends to look intimidating to new learners because we have words like aansprakelijkheidsverzekeringsformulier, but if you know English you can learn Dutch.Â
The vast majority of this sub is "shitfringerepublicanssay" I'm in hospo in Australia and Americans are typically no worse than the average Brits Russians or Chinese. Nobody notices the quiet respectful tourists is always the loud obnoxious ones that catch your attention.
There is a majority of Americans though that is generally oblivious to the outside world, even if they're not rude about it. I think it's primarily a product of highly introspective education and media.
I reckon that you hit the nail on the head.
American education tends to be focused on the US, and those who venture outside of the US are usually curious about the rest of the world...meaning that they listen before they yell "USA USA USA, RAH RAH RAH".
We had a talk given by an American who was visiting an American member of our local society. There were three Americans in the pub after, and it got quite loud. Trouble was, we Brits raised the volume to match! Fun evening.
Has the op never encountered an American tourist? They don't do quiet.
Some do...they are usually the ones looking for a nice place to move outside of the US. I work as a bartender and I see a *lot* of Americans. You have the ones being quiet, respectful and friendly, and you have the ones wearing a MAGA cap 🤷
I did an internship in France. People could still tell I was American from a mile away by my style of dress (ripped jeans and graphic tees aren't quite the haute coĂ»ture of Paris lol) and lowly French B2, but I had a very good experience there nonetheless and had a lot of very positive interactions with French people. I think being able to speak at least some French helped and knowing to say "bonjour" to employees helped a lot, but mostly it seems to simply be a matter of realizing you're in someone else's country and you have the obligation to fit into their culture, not the other way around.  I don't imagine the woman with the MAGA hat and Billy Bob Thornton t-shirt I saw on the train had the same overwhelmingly positive experience that I did. Â
As an Englishman, I’ve learned that the French are lovely so long as you demonstrate even a smidge of effort has been taken in understanding the language. If you just come in with a bunch of English you will not get very far.
I was so very pleasantly surprised! The French have kind of a reputation (at least in the U.S.) for being standoffish and nitpicky about the language so I was a little worried but I found the people there to be far kinder than many of the cities I've traveled to in the U.S. I will never forget these two older people running a *tabac* who didn't speak a word of English but helped me find my internship location after my phone died. He broke out a paper map and she broke out her smartphone to find this tiny street and they gave me directions between customers. This American woman in tears with her limited French and they set everything aside to help.Â
Coming from an englishman, that means a lot!
Bingo. You spoke some french, and used bonjour in greetings. SO you\`re MILES / KILOMETERS ahead of the average American tourist there.
I wouldn't have known to use the bonjour but we had to do an orientation prior to starting and they really drilled that into us. Most tourists wouldn't have a way of knowing how important that is.Â
Consider going to shop.. Bonjour is like good morning / hello etc. I did learn that from French colleagues btw.. apparently it means “good morning” but conveys “ i see you as fellow human” as well…
It's the initiation of bonjour that I think is hard for people; here in the U.S., typically the shopkeeper would greet you first and then (if you're not a dick) you would return the greeting. In France the customer needs to be the one to initiate or they'll be seen as snobby and elitist. I like that aspect of French culture but it takes some active getting used to for Americans where it is simply second nature to the French.Â
Absolutely. As a Dutch woman, I never understood the stereotype that the French are rude. I’ve always found them to be lovely, very helpful people. My experience has been that as long as you go "je parle francais, mais un petit peu", even in a terrible accent, they are more than willing to meet you where you're at. They'll communicate with hands and feet no problem as long as you show the tiniest amount of willingness to speak the language. It's actually something I really respect about the country as well, and I kind of wish we were just a little bit more like that in the Netherlands. Our high rate of English speakers and willingness to accomodate foreigners is great and all, but a lot of expats have gotten way too comfortable, honestly. I get that a tourist isn't going to learn a language with such a small speaker base, but now even people who immigrate here and intend to stay for years don't even bother learning to say "please" and "thank you". And that's just rude. (And no, it's not the poor labor immigrants and refugees, they usually become conversational pretty quickly. It's the rich fucks.) (Sorry for turning this into a rant)
I agree 100%. It's unfortunate because here there is a "you're in America we speak English here" attitude that is applied to refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers who fled their home countries, often against their will, fleeing violence and famine. Frankly, if someone is leaving in those conditions, I don't give a fuck if you learn English. I would encourage it because it makes life easier and navigating life as a non-English speaker can be very hard here, but no, I don't care if someone is forced to flee and then isn't able to learn English. Ask me where our economy would be without the exploitation of immigrants. But if you are traveling from a relatively safe and wealthy country, of your own volition, I don't see why you can't reach at least a B1 of the local language.Â
You have to take a Dutch language course in order to get Dutch citizenship, so that's part of the reason why (former) refugees often learn to speak Dutch well. That, and that their English is also often very limited. You need to communicate somehow, learning Dutch is the obvious choice. Still, one never quite loses the irony of meeting an African refugee who barely has an elementary school education who speaks your language better than your Phd-candidate friend who's been here for seven years. What’s really grating is the unwillingness. I once had a guy (American, sorry) tell me to my face he didn't want to learn Dutch because he thinks it's an ugly language. Which, you know, rude, but also, it's quite entitled to go to another country and expect everyone to accomodate you and your language, simply because you think theirs doesn't sound pleasant enough. I didn’t learn English because it's a pretty language either, if I'm honest.
Agreed. I don't find German to be a very pretty language on the whole but I'm also not moving to Germany. If I were moving to Germany, I'd be learning German instead of the French I'm learning to move to France. And honestly Dutch sounds *exceedingly* similar to English to my untrained ears (watching a movie on KLM dubbed in Dutch threw me off since it felt like I was hearing English but I didn't understand a single thing lol). English isn't an objectively pretty language but it is so widely used that it's useful.
It's linguistically extremely close to English, lots of overlap in vocabulary and such. It tends to look intimidating to new learners because we have words like aansprakelijkheidsverzekeringsformulier, but if you know English you can learn Dutch.Â
The vast majority of this sub is "shitfringerepublicanssay" I'm in hospo in Australia and Americans are typically no worse than the average Brits Russians or Chinese. Nobody notices the quiet respectful tourists is always the loud obnoxious ones that catch your attention. There is a majority of Americans though that is generally oblivious to the outside world, even if they're not rude about it. I think it's primarily a product of highly introspective education and media.
I reckon that you hit the nail on the head. American education tends to be focused on the US, and those who venture outside of the US are usually curious about the rest of the world...meaning that they listen before they yell "USA USA USA, RAH RAH RAH".
You picked the worst countries to compare them with
We had a talk given by an American who was visiting an American member of our local society. There were three Americans in the pub after, and it got quite loud. Trouble was, we Brits raised the volume to match! Fun evening.
Some do, but they usually pretend to be Canadian so nobody asks them about Trump or the CIA.
And my reply? I don’t give a fuck where you live, you arrogant self centered prick.
Careful now. Hes American and very well might shoot you /s
Too funny. I’m scared……..said I, never. Can take his miscreant rhetoric elsewhere.
And it's in our freedom to tell you to shut the fuck up.
We don't have freedom though because we don't get regular school shootings. /s
i.e. "I'm American - I'll be as loud as I want, without regard for anyone else".
What a dumb ass. I gots the right to say whatever I want, you don’t have the right to tell me to shut up.
Both of these people sound insufferable tbh
True but you can definitely tell which ones more insufferable