What Americans think of Europeans

I wrote a hugely popular post on what Europeans think of each other, and we all know what Europeans think of Americans (that we’re fat and stupid – well, it’s a bit more complicated than that; I’ll delve into that in another post). In this post, I’ll write my experiences with my fellow Americans think about Europeans. Keep in mind, though, that the diversity of knowledge and opinion in the US is far greater than just about anywhere else in the world, so I’m not going to capture everyone’s sentiment.

At the outset, it’s important to understand this about Americans:

a lot of Americans live by the “if you can’t say anything nice about (something), then don’t say anything at all” adage. So most Americans, who generally have a vague positive feeling about Europe, will only say vaguely positive things about Europe, if anything at all. (“I hear it’s nice over there.”)
Most Americans are profoundly ignorant of geography and don’t give much thought beyond their immediate frame of reference. Before you think that means Americans are chauvinist, keep in mind they don’t give a shit about the next state over, or even next city, much less another country. Americans may be brilliant when it comes to technology, innovation and business, but they fail when it comes to geography. They are simply not interested. (This is why, I think, America assimilates foreigners better than Europe. They don’t know where other people come from, and soon forget; their foreignness ceases to be a liability, unlike Europeans who always remember that China had the Tiananmen Square massacre, a Serb killed Archduke Ferdinand and Serbia gave the world Slobodan Milosevic, etc.)
the last few years have seen politically-active Americans attuned to world affairs much more than they have traditionally been, because of the wars, antagonism towards US foreign policy, propaganda by the Bush administration, etc. Growing up, I can tell you that no one ever cared what was going on outside our borders, other than to think the Soviet Union was a miserable shithole, and everywhere else was OK (but not as great as the USA).

That said, let me get down to the specifics, country by country. Remember that I’ll only include those that the average American has heard of and actually knows is in Europe (you ask the average American where Albania is, and you might be surprised at the variety of answers; I expect fully a third would say “Antarctica”). I’m being a little harsh on my fellow Americans, but, as an American, this is something we tend to do:

UK – This is the only European country (and, like the Brits, Americans don’t always consider it part of Europe, even though it clearly is) that Americans tend to have largely uncritical views of, regardless of whether they’re at the political right or left (actually, let me add the neighboring Irish to that list). Brits are considered “polite”, “dignified” and “cultured” by virtue of their speech, which Americans, through decades of inculcation through movies and television, have come to ascribe values to. The only negative is of those with posh, elite accents to be thought of as devious or cunning; many Hollywood thrillers aimed at a middle-class audience have some greedy British villain who’s just too smart for his own good (stupidity is equated with a lack of guile, which middle-class Americans admire). I don’t think most Americans, until recently, have known that there is a substantial, vociferously anti-American contingent in the UK; many on the far left think it’s all directed at Bush and his policies (it isn’t nearly that temporal nor partisan), so they tend to think of the Brits as being “on our side”.
There is a perception, poked fun of in popular media, that Brits have bad teeth, but it’s one of those stereotypes that is not really taken all that seriously, like that Poles are stupid or that Italians don’t bathe.
Among younger people, the UK is synonymous with London, where it’s imagined everything is cool, edgy, rock. For many young women, having a English rocker boyfriend has substantial cachet.
Other than that, I think most Americans are completely oblivious to the stereotypes that the English and Scots endure by Europeans (that they’re cheap, two-faced, etc.)
France - Mixed feelings, mixed feelings. Most Americans have known that the French enjoy criticizing the US and Americans; they know that Parisians are rude the minute you say something in English. But they still go there. Except for the minority of hard-core right-wing Americans who choose travel destinations on principle alone (they usually stay home), most Americans want to visit Paris.
But, the average American is going to use the following word when describing the French: “snob.” And by most accounts it’s probably the most offensive word you can use in America, where “he’s a regular guy” is one of the highest compliments you can pay to someone.
On the positive side, “cultured”, “sophisticated” and “thin” betray a certain jealousy that even the most hardened anti-French have towards this country, our oldest ally in the world.
Italy – American perceptions of Italians are shaped by Italian-Americans (who are mostly from Sicily, and are quite different from most contemporary Italians), the food, and, of course, Hollywood. Italians are considered laid-back, stylish, loud (in a good way; remember, we Americans are loud), and know good food. Think about it – if there ever were a universally-liked cuisine, it would be Italian. Italian women are considered very sexy – think Sophia Loren and Monica Bellucci. The men, too, are loved by American women (and gay men). The only negative stereotypes are that they’re mafiosos, and don’t bathe – very old stereotypes that made them the butt of jokes about 100 years ago. No one takes these sorts of jokes seriously anymore.
Germany – Unlike the Brits and other Europeans, Americans don’t have anything against the Germans. This is probably due to the fact that a plurality of white Americans have Deutsch blood coursing through their veins, and because Americans have fantastically short memories. Of course, if an American hates any particular German, he’s going to call him a Nazi, but Americans don’t think of them as the humorless, stiff, nazionalsocialistischer automatons that your average Brit, French or Czech does. Beyond that, the only perception of Germany is beer, sausage, sauerkraut and Oktoberfest. And maybe lederhosen.
Spain – I’m sorry to say this, considering Spaniards’ enormous sensitivity around it, but most Americans are going to conflate the Spanish with Mexicans. They’re going to assume Spain is poor, the people eat tacos and burritos, and they pay with worthless pesos. They’re going to assume Madrid is a suburb of Mexico City, and Barcelona is an island near Cancun. If they have fantastic memory, they might remember the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, those famous Mexican ships sailed by that Mexican explorer, Hernan Cortes.
Scandinavia – I’m throwing the Netherlands in here, too, because for whatever reason, most Americans think “Dutch” applies to Denmark, and that they speak Danish in Holland. (I tell people although they’re all tall blondes that speak Germanic languages, Dutch bikes are routinely stolen while Danish ones aren’t.) Scandinavia is considered advanced technologically and blonde, blonde, blonde, but beyond that, there’s no reason to ever visit any of those countries. And most Americans might think Scandinavia is a country, and they speak a language called Slavic.
Ireland – Considering a happy, beautiful, green country full of shamrock-covered meadows and cheery little leprechauns. Maybe not too far from the truth, actually. The negative stereotype is that they’re drunks, but in America, that’s not really an insult anymore. Most Americans would be floored if they knew the per capita GDP of Ireland was higher than that of the US, and that Ireland has only 4.6 million people. Most Americans think it’s a huge, poor country.
Portugal – Part of Puerto Rico.
Greece – Based on the popularity of the 2002 film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Greece is probably considered a quaint, colorful country full of charmingly nationalistic bumpkins. But the reality is that the country doesn’t cross the minds of most Americans whatsoever.
Countries completely ignored except by some ethnic descendants – Poland, Czechoslovakia (that’s right – it’s still one country), Yugoslavia (v.s.), Hungary (most Americans will think you’re joking if you tell them this is the name of a country; they might even believe you if you tell them it’s near Thirstary), and anything eastward, until you hit Russia.
Russia – Large, poor, cold, angry, gray. Again, not too far from the truth. Russia includes places like Moscow, Ukraine, all the -stans (sometimes even Paki- and Afghani-) and just about any other country with a majority white people that speak a language that’s not English that they’ve never heard of (Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, etc). Like the other former Iron Curtain countries, considered cold, depressing, nothing to see. They wouldn’t believe that St Petersburg is as beautiful as it is, as are Prague, Budapest, Krakow, etc.

These have been my perception of what the average insular white American knows and thinks. Here are some variants for different subgroups based on my conversations:

African-Americans (black) – Love France. Neutral on the rest of western Europe. Have absolutely no interest in, knowledge of, or desire to visit Eastern or Northern Europe.
Latinos – Love Spain. Positive on France and Italy. Have absolutely no interest in, knowledge of or desire to visit any other European country.
Asians – Indians adore Britain. The Vietnamese adore France. Filipinos adore Spain. (Are we beginning to see a pattern here?) Other Asians are not particularly interested in Europe (unless they’re very “Americanized”).
Gays – Europe is London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Ibiza. The Mediterranean is hot. So is Eastern Europe, paradoxically (so much Eastern European gay porn comes Stateside). Very, very confused on which city goes where; a widespread perception that London, Paris, and Prague are an hour-long train ride from each other.
Lesbians – The only lesbians I know have gone to Amsterdam and loved it. Too small a sample size for me to form an impression.
Hipsters – Love London, Paris, and slightly more “edgy” capitals like Copenhagen, Prague, Helsinki and Barcelona. They tend to be relatively well-off and educated, so they might buck a lot of the stereotypes I’ve laid out here.

This will, no doubt, make more than a few Europeans fume in indignation, or nod smugly that Americans really are as ignorant as they’ve thought. Remember that there is a small but not insignificant (maybe 5-10%?) number of Americans who are widely travelled and know a ton about Europe and its geography, national temperaments and culture. They tend to live in the “urban archipelago”, esp in coastal cities like New York or San Francisco.

Update: If you want to see it quantified, here are Americans’ sentiments towards other countries (not just European). Unsurprisingly, the current bugaboos harped on about in the media are at the bottom of the list.

Comments (159)

159 Comments »

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Pingback by holland america — July 29, 2008 @ 9:07 am
I adore Spanish women. I love their diet and the way that they are so conscientious of their physical appearance.

Comment by Amanda Hammond — August 5, 2008 @ 11:39 am
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Pingback by Websites tagged "oktoberfest" on Postsaver — August 12, 2008 @ 8:45 pm
Oh my, how embarrassing for you all.

Comment by Isa — August 31, 2008 @ 9:00 am
Czechoslovakia (that’s right – it’s still one country)

Not since 1992:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia

You might want to fix that so you don’t look like a stupid American.

Comment by Brian — August 31, 2008 @ 9:02 am
Brian – I know it’s 2 countries now. I was writing that entire section from the perspective of your average, geography-ignorant American.

Comment by JM — August 31, 2008 @ 9:04 am
what about luxembourg…..

yeah….even european do not know that it exists…..
sad…but true….

Comment by lionbeast — August 31, 2008 @ 9:08 am
This made me laugh. Sad but often very true. Americans also ask the worst questions.

“Do they wear Peter Pan clothes in the Never-Neverlands?”

“I love France! It’s right next to China, right?”

“How was the bus ride from Germany to America?”

And if you think Luxembourg has a bad situation (they’re all rich from cigarette money anyways), imagine poor Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino, and Monaco.

Comment by Geweldig! — August 31, 2008 @ 9:51 am
Haha Geweldig, but come on, those are probably exaggerations. And let’s be honest, “poor” is the not the word anyone should use when describing Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco…

Comment by JM — August 31, 2008 @ 10:27 am
Speak for yourself, America is too diverse for you to make blanket statements about what we think. You may have attempted to water it down with humour, but your disdain for America and Americans comes through loud and clear. It is unfortunate that many people that read this garbage will actually believe it.

Comment by John Smith — August 31, 2008 @ 2:16 pm
I am ashamed to admit the truth of the stereotypes mentioned above. I am a geographically-educated american. I have a better understanding of the world around me than most of my more ignorant counterparts, so I will add to some of the common American ideas. Please do not attribute the following to my personal views:

first: Americans are not stupid, they are just self-centered. It is not that they (I say “they” because I do not think this way) are rude or stupid, but that they simply do not care about anything that does not directly influence their day-to-day life. even if something does influence them, they will forget about it the minute it is gone.

I live in Maryland, the state that contains the Nation’s Capitol, Washington DC. I find it strange how most Americans could not point to Maryland on a map of the country, and are mystified when they realize that DC is not a separate state. they have no idea what DC stands for, and think that Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, Main, Delaware,New Jersey, and Rhode Island are all just a cluster of states located above New York. Ask americans how many states are in the country, you’ll get answers anywhere from 39-52.

Before 9-11, most Americans were convinced that New York was the capitol.

And thats what they think about their own country…imagine what they think about yours!

We are also widely influenced by the media, the internet, and YouTube. When the media tells us that some random country in the middle east (and we dont even know where the middle east is) is responsible for our oil problems, we believe it, and curse that country until the prices fall again and then we go on forgetting that any other country exists.

oh, and we think Canadians are stupid, Iceland/Greenland (which we think are the same country, or at least interchangeably named) are part of Canada, and that any place in Africa is hot, any place in Asia is hot, and any place in Europe is cold and constantly rainy.

we also have a problem imagining that any places other than America, Paris, Tokyo, and London are civilized and have electricity.

one more thing: iceland/greenland are the same, japan/china are interchangable, any language/accent that is not french/italian/spanish/Chinese/Japanese must be german or russian. all south americans are mexican, and mexicans are the same as spaniards, and all of those people lumped into that category must be dirty and lazy.

and yet we think we are some sort of lovable, cant go wrong, center of the universe country that everyone admires and wants to live in.

Comment by ann — September 1, 2008 @ 6:49 am
I’m not sure what your error was for there, but the District of Columbia, though it is not a separate State with a capital S, is nonetheless separate from Maryland.

It is not one of the 50 States. Instead it is considered to be a District, a status somewhat analogous to being a territory, as with Puerto Rico, or American Samoa. I believe that, unlike territories however, residents of D.C. pay full federal taxes, yet elect no Representatives to Congress. The District is allowed one (rather than two) token “Senator(s)” who has speaking privileges on the Senate floor but does not vote in legislation.

This may in part explain the District’s contemporary motto “No taxation without representation”. It may also explain how the District’s working population is disproportionate to its residing population even when compared to similar urban centers.

From Wikipedia:

“The city is located on the north bank of the Potomac River and is bordered by the states of Virginia to the southwest and Maryland to the other sides.”

Also:

“Article One of the United States Constitution provides for a federal district, distinct from the states, to serve as the permanent national capital.”

It is generally believed that D.C.’s peculiar territorial status was intentional on the part of the Founding Fathers, as Congressmen from less powerful States feared the State in which the seat of government resided (then feared to most likely be Virginia) would have too great an influence on american politics.

This also is thought to explain the siting of Washington on the northern bank of the Potomac. That is, it was a compromise that placed it not too close to, but not too far from, the heart of the Old Dominion of Virginia.

Comment by Paul Gibson — September 3, 2008 @ 1:33 pm
Yup. I agree with this too. I grew up in Kansas and Indiana and except for that handful of friends that backpacked across Europe, there is little understanding of different cultures. As was mentioned here, it is embarrassing, but it is not a sign of stupidity. It is a sign of our self centered nature. People gave up everything to emigrate here. Many didn’t want to remember the place they left behind and in our short 200 years of existence, that attitude dictates the way Americans are raised.

Comment by dnel — September 3, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
To John Smith: It’s not disdain for America/Americans. It’s the truth. Simply ask some questions to people you know and you will see just how geographically ignorant the majority of Americans are.

I think a lot of the problem is that geography is no longer a required course. They’ve lumped it all together under “social studies” and children are studying it for a month or less. Quite a few people have never had a real geography course. It’s very sad, actually.

Comment by Laken — September 3, 2008 @ 2:33 pm
hahaha very tue

Comment by Neil — September 3, 2008 @ 2:54 pm
Wow. To ANN, the ” geographically-educated american,” who has a “better understanding of the world around (her) than most of (her) more ignorant counterparts,” I can only say, your arrogance and condescension are only eclipsed by your superior knowledge of geography and your fellow Americans’ lack thereof.

I have relatives staying with me for the weekend and there are 11 of us in our house, ages 71 to 8. Every one of us knows what “DC” stands for (what the hell?!) and how many states there are (unlike Obama, who seems to think there are 58). We all know where the New England states are and the difference between Spain and Mexico.

I printed this article, took it to work, and, although I cannot repeat what was said about you, they were all as geographically knowledgeable as you claim you are and with exceedingly more class than one who would paint their compatriots with such a broad brush and take it upon themselves to speak for them.

If you actually meant what you posted, you must be friends with the very stupidest Americans in the country. As my British best friend would say, “Get stuffed.’

Comment by Gabrielle — September 14, 2008 @ 1:56 pm
The author needs to talk for himself/herself. The facts are different in reality and many Americans are a lot more educated than what she/he assumes they are, so they have a way different opinion about all the countries mentioned. It is just a pathetic article, better get another job, pal.

Comment by European — September 19, 2008 @ 5:54 pm
I agree that Americans don’t spend much time thinking about about Europe, but I think part of the reason is that the US is such a large country with such distinct regions. We are so rich in culture here in the States that the rest of the world is just off our radar. Look at the difference in culture between Nashville and San Francisco. There’s just so much to explore in our own back yards.

Comment by OpaqueArthur — September 22, 2008 @ 6:48 pm
Personally, I agree with Ann. I think she hit the nail right on the head. Gabrielle didn’t make it clear where she was from. But if I had to make a bet, I’d say one of the “Eastern” or Southern States. (Maybe in a city like Chicago or Alabama.)
My experience while traveling in Europe and the U.S. has been that Americans are incredible ignorant. They take any criticism of America personally, and view the world by their measuring stick. (We’re # 1, We’re # 1 !!!! etc., etc….)
When I moved back to the states after living in Eastern Europe for years, I was shocked by the refusal of Americans to believe anything I told them about Europe that did not conform to their preconceived beliefs. I remember a conversation with my (politically conservative), father regarding the Soviet Union, which at that time, was in the process of breaking up. He insisted, and would not believe that everyone in the Soviet Union was not “Russian”. As for as he was concerned they spoke Russian and thought along the same lines, which was to destroy us Americans. When I tried to tell him about Georgia, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, etc., etc.,…he just would not believe that they saw themselves as individual countries, culturally and historically.
Most of conservative America’s views were formed in the “50′s” and hasn’t really changed. They see America as “The World” and the rest of the planet as only mildly interesting, or important. If it doesn’t affect them directly, (like gas prices), then it’s not really significant. They see their president as “The Leader of the Free World”. (Although I don’t ever recall an election being held for that position, and I’m sure most Europeans would not see him as their “leader”)

In short they feel uneasy when something does not conform to a positive view of their country. Especially when something or someone like a black man has the gall to run for president, and feel obliged to insult him and his education. I’d bet good money that Obama has a higher education, knows more about the United States and the rest of the world then all 11 of the weekend occupants of Gabrielle’s house.
Education is a wonderful thing, and if one seeks out knowledge of other countries, cultures, etc. from sources other than main-stream American press, they’ll be amazed by how it changes your views and attitudes.

Comment by Pat — September 28, 2008 @ 10:59 pm
I agree, Europeans are not in the forfront of the average American mind. Americans tend to think that everything revolves around the USA and that the rest of the world is just a playground to vacation in. Americans rarely have anything negative to say about European countries (except France), but at the same time we tend to think that we have it better here than any other country. I think most Americans feel so good about their country that it doesnt even make us angry when others say terrible things about us. We know we have a great thing here.

The poster is wrong about how Americans feel about the French. I hear terrible jokes about the French all the time. Most of the jokes are about what cowards they are. There are also a lot of jokes about how bad their body odor is and about their lack of personal grooming. The term “French bath” is used to refer to the act of using perfume instead of taking a bath. I have hear people take about how perverted they are and how easy the women are.

Comment by jane — October 15, 2008 @ 6:29 am
Americans ARE self-centered and ignorant. They can be fed any information the media tells them about the world outside and they will believe it. I know this by watching my own family…college educated, middle class adults, all of them. They’re not stupid, they just don’t care, and they’re content in their stereotypes.

But along that line, Americans are ignorant of other Americans, too. don’t think east-coast Americans don’t have certain (wrong) perceptions of life in the west, either. They think everyone is either a cowboy, an Indian, a hippie, or a Hollywood star. And I’ve definitely come across those who think that people in the south (where I live) are all hillbillies, don’t wear shoes, don’t have electricity, and are incapable of forming a proper sentence and speaking coherently. I beg to differ.

Comment by Jen — October 21, 2008 @ 9:47 pm
I don’t know… I’m American and I love geography and other cultures. I’m always embarrassed when I have to admit that most American’s don’t know this stuff. Whenever I hear it, I just want to yell “but I do! I understand!” Hopefully this will someday change and we won’t all be ‘stupid Americans’ anymore.

Comment by Hebber17 — October 31, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
It is normal for Europeans to feel that way. When you are to weak to protect yourself and you rely on someone else to defend your family, you will always be bitter and hold a grudge against your rescuer . I understand so I don’t dislike them for it. Just feel bad for them.

Comment by Ray The Money Man — October 31, 2008 @ 4:51 pm
I always thought that Europe is to Americans what the US is to us Europeans, one big country.

I personall think most Europeans can’t tell one state apart from the other, and only a little grasp on US geography….

Comment by Tia — November 1, 2008 @ 2:24 pm
Everybody needs to chiiillll. It’s obviously a joke and I thought it was pretty funny. Although I wound amp up the negativity on our view of France. There’s still a lot of negative stereotypes (remember freedom fries? I know, I’ve tried to block it out of my memory too…) and jokes, mostly empty and teasing though. And I’ve never heard Spain equated to Mexico, like, ever. I’m pretty sure most americans don’t really have an opinion on Spain. It’s kinda just there.

And honestly, claiming that all americans are ignorant about geography is kinda silly. I mean, unfortunately there are a large percentage that don’t know where friggin Iraq is (which is so DUMB. Read a book damnit), but Europe is across the sea, and America’s a pretty big country. We’ve got quite a lot of stereotypes and almost little nations we’ve got to deal with ourselves. Which is no excuse for ignorance, of course, but perhaps a reason for it.

I would also hazard a guess that Europeans are more knowledgeable about Europe ’cause all the countries are so small and mushed together and affect each other so much due to the proximity. I doubt many Europeans would be able to name the states though, because it’s not relevant, just like Yugoslavia or whatever is not exactly relevant to America (sorry Yugoslavia )

Comment by Colleen — November 5, 2008 @ 6:10 pm
[...] More from the same author: What Americans think of Europeans. [...]

Pingback by What Europeans Think of Each Other | The Blog of Record — November 8, 2008 @ 6:29 pm
Part of the problem is location. Yes, Americans are very self-centered and arrogant which contributes to our lack of geographical knowledge. But even if we weren’t these things, why would anyone expect that we would be as good at European geography as Europeans? Seriously, you live there, we don’t. And we’re not the only ones. I did a 1 year exchange to Japan when I was in highschool and I remember Japanese kids were just as clueless about European geography as American kids. The funny thing is that they weren’t that great at Asian geography either. No doubt because they hate other Asians and hate being classified as Asian. Maybe it’s an island country thing (i.e. British) I want to know how many European kids can point out Lesotho, Bangladesh or Uraguay on a map.

Comment by Hunter — November 10, 2008 @ 6:01 pm
I’m an American (Texan, haha) going to uni in Germany and I’d have to agree with most of what’s said here. But I’d like to re-affirm that America’s self-centered mentality does indeed have it’s good points. Especially when it comes to racism. I would say the average European is by far more racist than the average American. If that fact stems from geographic ignorance, so what? And the whole “everybody wants to live here” mentality isn’t far off, since out of the industrialized nations, America’s the only one with significant population growth (which can be attributed mostly to immigration).

Comment by Megen — December 13, 2008 @ 12:10 pm
“I’m an American (Texan, haha)”
“I would say the average European is by far more racist than the average American.”

Oh really. You’re from Texas, a state where people dragged an african-american with their pick-up truck until he died.
Yes their are some racists in Europe, but Americans also have a large share of racists, some that are even more brutal than anything in Europe.
So don’t be proud of yourself.

Comment by Roland — December 25, 2008 @ 12:52 pm
hello everyone

This is a verry interresting aguement and I think i might add something to it. I find myself a worldly person beacause I am 17 years old now and am born in Iran ( so I went to school in Iran and i know the language)
when I was 9 my familly moved to belgium where I lived for another 7 years where I learned Dutch and French ( and of course the European way and vieuws of life ) I travelled through Europe the last few somers and I might add my best sins the 5th grade is hallf german oh and the past year I have been living in England.
So what it comes down to for me is that I know most of the wester-european vieuws of the US and the Iranian vieuws of Americans and Europeans what and what I do know about the US myself is only from movies series etc. so no observative information…

europeans rescently ( the dutch belgian french and german which I am in contact whit ) tend to hate the Bush administration and basicly think of Americans of ignorant bastards whom think they are all there is in the world while some of the British have similiar feelings because of the credit crunch and rescession most of them are changing their mind about you people because of Obama.

The Iranian comunity is devided by 2 – you know the ones whit death to america death to Israel – and there is a second group, significantly larger but unheared of who pray for an invasion of America to release the from idiots like Bush jr jr ( Ahmedinejad :p lol )

So where it all comes to for me is that you people are hated because you gouvernments political agenda and your own showbizz ( hollywood basically)

where I stand is from my experience 80% of all people in any nation DUMBASSES wether in Iran Belgium or England but you Americans are just in the spot lights right know so you have to deal with more critisism just like Britney Spears lol

Comment by Milad — January 16, 2009 @ 9:09 am
I am from India living in this country for 18 years. Me and My husband are well educated and living a comfortable life.I consider Americans to be rude, mean, loud and ignorant people. They really don’t care about offending foreigners. They think USA is their universe and other countries in the world does not exist for them. Americans have asked me some stupid questions like…
1. Did your husband go to work on a CAMEL? How rude and ignorant and stupid is that question? They hear camel in India on TV and concludes that we all ride camels everyday. The city that I come from does not even have a single camel there.
2. Do you have a phone and swimming pool? What!!! they think we all live in trash cans because thats what this stupid media shows on TV and these ignorant idiots believe it.
3. How did you learn to speak such good english? They don’t know anything about British History in India. All they know is “Sati System and Caste System” because that’s what high school world history books teaches them and so that is Indian history for them. They have no idea that we have so much history to offer than just these 2.
4. Another rudest thing that I have experienced is staring at my food when I eat. I am a vegetarian. They look like they have never seen anything like that before. I find this really offensive because in my culture we are taught that staring at others food is wrong.
5. India!!!! Oh its a hot country!! Not all states are hot. There are some states which have very good tropical weather. NOPE!! they dont want to believe it, even after I said that I stay there. There is no country better than my USA is their mentality.
6. I told an American that I am afriad of snakes and his response was..”Why should you be afraid of snakes?You should be used to it.” What!!!!! Just because India has snakes does not mean that Snakes crawl under my bed and sofa everyday.
The Schools display messages to repect diversity and be sensitive to other cultures, but that is all words. I don’t see any respect , Its just BS.
I have to say that Americans need to be educated more about different cultures since America has immigrants from all parts of the world. I have to say that I get along very well with any immigrant than an American. We immigrants understand each other better than an American.
We work hard and pay taxes just like any AMerican. So, why this racism and hatred?

Comment by Manju — February 4, 2009 @ 5:14 pm
Manju-I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had a tough time here in the States. Americans have mixed feelings about Indian immigrants, but you’re being too negative. In the linked survey above India has the same favorability rating as American allies France, Israel & South Korea. Indians in America are often seen as a “model minorities”. Even Apu of the Simpsons is portrayed as a tireless worker with a PHd in computer science.

To most Americans, “where you come from is not nearly as important as where you’re going”. One should not confuse American ignorance of a culture with hostility towards that culture.

To answer your question-most negative stereotypes about India can be attributed to current American suspicion of Islam. The Mughal influence made India part of the Islamic world. This is more about politics than race. Islamists (not necessarily Muslims) have taken the place of the Soviets (not necessarily Russians) as the bad guys in American pop culture.

But India IS a relatively poor country. That’s not cultural insensitivity, that’s a fact. Get over it. You are not doing India a favor by soft-pedaling that nation’s very real economic problems. I can’t make excuses for some of the sillier stereotypes about India that you have encountered. Camels & snakes? But it was Nehru who created the phrase “Third World” to describe his country.

Comment by Steve-O — February 7, 2009 @ 9:53 pm
\Based on the popularity of the 2002 film… blah blah..\

HUH? JUST SHOWS THE LEVEL OF THIS \ARTICLE\.

\But the reality is that the country doesn’t cross the minds of most Americans whatsoever.\

THANK GOD !!!
BTW.. I’M SURE THOSE SAME AMERICANS CAN’T EVEN POINT GREECE ON THE MAP.. BUT HEY.. I BET THEY CAN’T POINT MONTANA EITHER !

Comment by bob — March 17, 2009 @ 11:49 pm
Well, generalisations and condescension abound in most of this commentary. Didn’t you guys ever learn to see people for who they are as individuals? You can’t cluster people into “cookie-cutter” cutouts. Humans are the most hypocritical species. More people need to get of their superiority high horse and gain a little humility. (To those, that posted logical commentary this is not for you.)

Comment by TL — March 18, 2009 @ 2:36 am
“He insisted, and would not believe that everyone in the Soviet Union was not “Russian”. As for as he was concerned they spoke Russian and thought along the same lines, which was to destroy us Americans. When I tried to tell him about Georgia, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, etc., etc.,…he just would not believe that they saw themselves as individual countries, culturally and historically.”

Speaking as someone whose Ukrainian relatives were forced to relocate elsewhere within the USSR and whose native language was officially suppressed in favor of Russian, it seems to me your father had a valid point, Pat.

This article is twaddle that reinforces the most self-congratulatory prejudices and ignorance of its author and most of the commenters. The small, blue collar town I grew up in had families only one or two generations removed from dozens of other countries, European, Asian and increasingly African as well. Many of those households were and are bilingual in English and whatever was spoken ‘in the Old Country’ and the religious services in our little town were often bilingual as well.

I don’t have to travel to the Ukraine to know a good deal about it (and yes I can find it on the map). I grew up knowing my family’s history and culture, celebrating it here alongside American customs, and I am far from being unusual among Americans in this way.

But if one needs to pull out credentials that matter to the backpacking set, then perhaps it’s also relevant that I speak / read 4 languages, have travelled on 3 continents and done business in Europe, the middle East and Asia.

Comment by molon labe — March 19, 2009 @ 7:41 am
I may be late to the party, but stereotypes between the US and Europe have always fascinated me.

I think the general thread that Americans just aren’t that interested in anything outside their immediate community is generally true. Most Americans do believe that the US is the best place to live, but they may have some reason. If you look over the past 50 years (the living memory of the baby boomers) can you point out a country that has had as much success and as little strife? Many Americans are captive to their media, and what they see of Europe can be summed up as: strikes, WW2 movies where Yanks die for Europeans, demonstrations, burning cars, sordid pedophilia rings, and football riots. Is that fair? Absolutely not. But its what people see.

I’d like to see a survey comparing US geographical knowledge with Canadian. I would expect the Canadians to do a little better, but not a lot. I would also be curious how many Europeans can name and locate the 50 states.

There are 2 reasons that Americans lack geographical curiosity: it is fundamentally and historically an isolationist country, and our education system is very poor. You want a real understanding of American geographic ignorance? read this description of what they are taught:

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/web/97579.asp

Comment by Simon — March 20, 2009 @ 10:54 am
well Simon you have some points there but please tell me is it the same not being able for a european to locate all 50 states and this? :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp4iI59BfpQ

Comment by bob — March 23, 2009 @ 3:15 am
I agree with every person who conveyed the message that you can’t paint all Americans with the same brush stroke. And since we are so diverse in this country alone, I refuse to form any stereotypes of people from other countries. Any pigeon-holing in and of itself is stupidity. Every country is going to have a certain amount of small minded people who harbor prejudices, but it’s also going to have plenty of people who carry a spirit of \Live and let live\. I was chatting on an U.K. site a couple of years ago. When one of the people found out I was an American, he said, \too bad, I liked you up until now\, or words to that effect. A couple of others from the U.K. quickly hopped on him for that comment.

I may be no expert on geography (forgive me), but I won’t condemn you for not understanding the things that I do know about that you may not be as versed in. There is too much to learn in this lifetime to absorb it all. Good enough for me to know right now that no matter where he lives, each man is my brother.

Comment by Charissa — March 24, 2009 @ 12:46 pm
Hey people, i just wanna say stop hating on each other. why does everything have to be so negative? i have nothing against anyone or their opinions, but show some optimism. maybe if you give compliments instead of complaints people from different nations would start liking each other.
Also, i really like Europe, it never cease’s to fascinate me. and i really want to go to india, china and russia…. actually any country would be cool to go to: )

Comment by Ansley — March 28, 2009 @ 6:54 pm
I shared this with a few friends, and here’s a quick list of stereotypes that we came up with. Oh, and we’re all mid-20′s from the US (Kansas City):
UK – Bad food, worse weather, but really cool accent
Ireland – Drunks
Spain – A wealthier, more cultured Mexico
Portugal – Spain’s Canada
France – arrogant and lazy (except when rioting)
Netherlands – Potheads
Scandinavia – Where vikings come from. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and everything there is really, really expensive.
Germany – Really into S&M and live off of Beer, brats, and saurkraut
Italy – Loud and emotional….but great food
Greece – See above
Poland – alcoholics
Russia – depressed and angry alcoholics

Point of contention….I have no idea where the author came up with “Americans think Scandinavia as one country.” I would bet that most know damn well that it is made up of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark…they just can’t tell the difference between any of them.

I don’t think the author is giving Americans enough credit. For example, I agree that a good chunk of Americans wouldn’t be able to pick out Portugal on a map, but saying that Americans think its a part of Puerto Rico is a huge stretch.

Just my 2 cents…..It was a fun read, thanks for writing.

Comment by Chris — April 7, 2009 @ 8:30 pm
ireland population in 1996 was 3 million, now its closer to 5. americans. technologically brilliant. don’t think so and the american friends i know, have little if any knowledge about outside the states but always have an opinion. i’m nigerian. cheers

Comment by johnny — April 14, 2009 @ 7:20 am
I’m Italian.

Yes, we are a little bit mafious, but we bathe!

we also are very surprised that italy is the only country that, in the restroom, has the “ass-cleaner” next to the WC…

and we all say “how the hell the rest of the world clean the ass after…..”

anyway thank you for posting, very nice and true!

cheers

Comment by accio — May 19, 2009 @ 6:01 am
I am appalled by the vision Americans have of certain parts of Europe. I am Spanish but, I’ve lived in Mexico, the US, the UK, France and Germany…
And this article sadly only reassured what i was exposed to with when living in the US.
Spain is NOT in Latin America
Spain is a part of Europe!
Spanish cuisine has been rated the best in the world this last year – better thatn the French!
Spain has 5 official languages: Spanish, Catalan, Euskera, Galician and Valencià.
Spain is the 8th economy of the World!
It snows in Spain in the winter!
Spain (along with Germany and Japan) is a world leader in clean, renewable energies.
Spain’s high speed train technology has been developed in Spain and has been praised by Obama’s administration.
Madrid is at the same latitude as NYC!
Madrid and Mexico City are worlds apart (not to mention an entire ocean apart!) Madrid and Barcelona are both beautiful, cosmopolitan cities (unfortunately they have a constant feud with each other) And contrary to popular belief it is difficult to find Mexican food in Spain. And cities like Madrid and Barcelona are much cleaner than cities like Paris, or Los Angeles – and those comments I’ve heard from foreigners, not Spaniards.
When studying in the US (in a prestigious university, not a corn field) I got comments that ranged from what part of Mexico I was from, after saying i was from Spain, to what language they spoke in Spain, because i spoke English with a British accent. At the supermarket my friends always showed me all these Mexican products so that i could feel more at home, and at the end I took it as a joke but… I’M NOT MEXICAN!
It amuses me how impressed Americans are when they visit Madrid… “wow, this is nothing like Mexico!” – well, ya think? This is Europe!…
And about Portugal, Spaniards unfortunately don’t know much about the Portuguese and just ignore them. On the other hand, Portugal looks up to Spain and all the Portuguese i know speak at least three languages each.
Spain is a bit like Italy in the sense that there is a huge difference between the north and the south.
Spain is a great entrepreneurial power, however many people ignore this, not only the Americans, also the British and Germans that come every summer to get drunk at our beaches. hahaha! That’s a huge stereotype, but truth be told, my German and British friends are lovely people and know Spain for what it really is.
Well, sorry about his huge post… it’s just that i got really worked up when i read about Americans thinking Spain is like Mexico…

Hope you all can visit my lovely home country one day… And see it for what it really is (and not fall in the tourist traps!… lots of them! – that unfortunately don’t give the proper image)

If you’re in Madrid, go to the Prado Museum, the Sorolla Museum, walk through the Retiro, have a night out through Huertas and Plaza Santa Ana,
Go to the Palacio de Oriente, have a cup of coffee at the café in front of the Opera. There are so many cultural activities going on! And if you do come, do it in the spring… it is actually too hot in the summer

¡Besos desde Londres!

Comment by Estefanía — May 31, 2009 @ 4:27 pm
I am a 26 year old ignorant person, I have studied and i speak more just one language but I an unaware of many interesting topics and for example… i didn’t know Holland and The Netherlands were two different territories.
Just one last thing, there are dumb, tacky, brilliant and sophisticated people in
Europe just as anywhere else in the world.
But yes, Europeans can locate Bangladesh, Lesotho and Benin… on a world map, let alone Uruguay!
Yes there are chavs in Britain and gypsies in Spain – but generally the European education system has a much higher level than the US. This applicable to public education – Universities are all more homogenous so to speak. Also, Europeans may not be able to place all 50 states perfectly but they’d do better than most Americans think… and can any American name the provinces/regions in France, Spain, Italy or Finland? Europeans can’t either because that is national geography, not international geography – which should be general culture. Having a big country is no excuse for a lousy education. My best friend is Russian – biggest country in the world – and she knows where Malaysia and Milwaukee are.
My sister attends University in Boston, she’s a second year double major in biology and philosphy… she tells me that the stuff she studied in senior school in Madrid (high school) is what she’s being taught on her second year of University… in subjects like Chemistry and Biology.

Spain is not the best country in the world, nor is Sweden – There is no such thing as the perfect country. Americans tend to think they live in the best country out of ignorance… they don’t know how life is outside their borders.
They think the US is the most liberal country in the world, I BET TO DIFFER!
Europe has been much more progressive, especially since the 70s.
The US is not the best country in the world, at least not for me… Though I shouldn’t make this comment since i don’t know all the US… and would go to live to NYC quite happily. But for the other cities i know like LA, Boston, San Francisco… ( i love San Francisco) I’d rather live in Europe.

I am not anti-American, I am just quite happy on this of the pond, that is all. After living in the US for years, and I realise that Europe is more open minded, more liberal, has less censorship (all countries have censorship to some degree) than America.

This is just my insight, the insight of one person in this world, you may or may not agree with it… but these are the experiences that have shaped my opinions and thoughts. Oh, and by the way… it is cheaper to live in Finland than Madrid… though Paris, London, Venice are much more expensive than Spain. (Well it all has changed a bit since the crisis too)

As a final thought, this time i mean it by being final! hahaha, let’s stop whining about who knows less and let’s educate ourselves! Encourage the young with intellectually stimulating activities, and research on your own… you’ll never know everything… but \EL SABER NO OCUPA LUGAR\.: KNOWLEDGE DOESN’T TAKE UP SPACE. And I include myself this in this category… i should read more.

Comment by Estefanía — May 31, 2009 @ 5:38 pm
Very interesting blog! I do believe that some of the comments regarding Americans lacking knowledge about European nations is somewhat true. Although I do know many fellow Americans who are quite knowledgeable about other nations and continents. So to generalize and say that all Americans are ignorant and self-centered is absurd. It would be more appropriate to say that they simply have no interest in other countries or cultures. That is unfortunate. Personally, I find it intriguing and enjoy learning about this great world that we live in and its diverse population.

We actually have a globe in our home and frequently reach for it when watching television to locate the nation being viewed in the news or movies.

I’m sure that there are numerous Europeans who also lack interest in America. To call them ignorant is misguided. I think it comes down to an individuals interests, and those do change over time.

Comment by Patricia — June 12, 2009 @ 8:01 pm
I am from Italy , and I am sad to say that American got 95% of this right about Europe!

Comment by lori — July 1, 2009 @ 12:18 pm
> Scandinavia is a country, and they speak a language called Slavic.
THIS IS THE BEST JOKE I HAVE EVER HEAR!

Comment by Sclandi — July 10, 2009 @ 11:30 am
[...] continue [...]

Pingback by What Do Americans think of The Europeans ? | Traveling and Tourism Guide at TravelZones.net — July 19, 2009 @ 7:00 am
@Ray The Money Man:

It is normal for Americans to feel that way. When you are to dumb to set up a decent educational system and you rely on someone else to do all your thinking for you, you will always be bitter and hold a grudge against the people doing your job better than you, like Indians replacing all the doctors, and Honda and Toyota beating the car industry. I understand that Americans are dumb, so I don’t dislike them for it. Just feel bad for them.

Comment by Bij Lobith komt de Rijn Ons Land — August 6, 2009 @ 5:26 am
Please, don’t feel bad for us. Americans are not dumb.
We are just not as smart as you think you are.

Comment by bgc — August 12, 2009 @ 3:31 pm
I feel bad for you because I think it is a sign of stupidity if you don´t know so much about other countries that you mix Spain with Mexico and Holland with Scandinavia! (don´t you have pictures of world maps out there?). When we were in Boston (Ma) 2 weeks ago and we´re having a sightseeing tour the guide asked my 12 year old son (who speaks fluent english!, most young people do in Finland) where he was from and my son answered, “Helsinki, Finland” and the guide said “okey”. So I understood that a) he had never even heard where Finland is (Nokia?) and b) he wasn´t even interested to know.

That is so sad. I have been to over 50 countries and learned so much about other cultures and everywhere I´ve been to people always come and ask where we are from etc and start a discussion but that never happens in the USA! People are not interested at all and it´s really difficult to start a conversation when they realize you are not an american.

Don´t get me wrong, I like the states but I guess the americans are a little bit self centered than other people
but I guess you have to be an american to really understand. And I have only been to the big cities, maybe it´´s different in the smaller cities and on the countryside?

Comment by Rita — August 17, 2009 @ 3:48 pm
Rita
Please understand that in my neighborhood alone there are Greeks ,Chinese,Irish,Italian,Hatian,Lebanese,and that is first generation.My father was from italy,my dentist is from Lebanon and my doctor is from Greece and my best friend growing up was Norwegian.
Americans not knowing Spain from Mexico is a little hard to believe but believe me no one I know would mix them up.
I don’t know too much about Finland but I will find out more about it.Thanks.

Comment by bgc — August 29, 2009 @ 12:56 pm
[...] interactions with Europeans, having lived there for 4 years. Here’s a run down: {Via} {More} {More} and {More [...]

Pingback by It isnt “a load of crap” its ‘clever’ and what makes a lot of people ‘laugh’. « Funny Emails — September 24, 2009 @ 11:01 pm
Jeez, I think the lessons from the comments here and in the post about Europeans is that Americans are a lot more sensitive to criticism. Chill, people.

Yes, all of the above is a generalization. And that includes all the indignant comments raging that all the Americans *they* know are hyper-intelligent geography geniuses and this post isn’t true at all. That’s another generalization, based on the handful of people you associate with.

But really, if you want so badly to make your country look good, then learn to smile at posts like these.

Note how little actual *anger* was in the comments on the post about Europeans. If there’s one thing Americans as a whole (woo, another generalization) can learn from Europe, it’s that. Don’t take it so goddamn seriously when people poke fun at you.

Comment by jalf — October 1, 2009 @ 6:37 pm
God damn Americans – you are just too smart.

Sorry but only 1/3 of you are idiots (and most Nobel prize winners are American). Compare this to at least 50% idiots in my country that gave the world nothing but a toxic lake and borscht.

A good bunch of your 15 year olds can’t even point out USA on a map. Our children don’t even know what a map is. (I admit to still being confused by the concept myself)

Thanks to Google Translate for translating this from the original Russian….yet another American invention. (One of Google’s founders is Russian…or rather was. He, like most of the Jews, left our anti-Semitic hellhole when they got the chance)

Comment by Kirov — October 12, 2009 @ 1:58 am
You are not “hyper-intelligent” when you know Mexico and Spain are two different countries. Maybe the author meant the culture of the two are thought to be similar.

Comment by bgc — October 30, 2009 @ 4:50 pm
I’m from Portugal and have live in the US since i was a kid. I have never once heard anyone think Portugal was a part of Puerto Rico. lol. That made me laugh actually.

Comment by Frank Bettencourt — November 21, 2009 @ 7:30 am
haha, i like the part where he said: ask any american where albania is, they’ll say antartica. i am albanian, and have tried that many times with fellow classmates and friends, and they had no idea what i was talking about, let alone that albania is a country. americans are extremely ignorant when it comes to the world’s diverse cultures. as for the people who are getting mad at the guy who wrote this: dont get mad & hate because someone finally exposed the stupidity& selfishness of americans. maybe you should grab a globe and educate yourself.

Comment by sarah — December 10, 2009 @ 6:45 am
Funny article, pretty much what i expected.

Greetings from Spain.

Comment by byteme — December 16, 2009 @ 8:42 pm
Very funny article and unfornately quite true in many regards.

I still get a knee jerk reaction to calling Sweden/Finland/Denmark/Norway and throw in “Netherlands” as Scandinavia.
..one small problem, there is a whole country called Germany between there….but ok. Given the possible answers of many of my countryman, I suppose they would consider the coupling to be true..but you might as well through Switzerland in there as well then..because everyone seems to think Sweden IS Switzerland (sighh..someone get a map please….) The only thing they have in common was being neutral in WWII.

Anyway, great and fun article!!! For the rest of my countryman..I know it is very difficult, but try not to take everything so serious. They have their point of view with one possible exception, yes the french in Paris are jerks….;) Even if you TRY to speak french..still jerks.

Comment by Debbie — December 27, 2009 @ 8:18 pm
Actually most Italian Americans do not originate from Sicily, Large numbers of Italian Americans come from Naples, and communities surronding Naples,and also from Calabria, Southern Italy at the beginning of the last century was a third world country which had more in common with poor Latin American countries then it did with Europe. Because of the lack of jobs, education, and even food the whole south of Italy including Sicily fled to the new world.

Comment by Brian — January 8, 2010 @ 9:52 am
ROTFL at Portugal being part of Puerto Rico! Every semi-educated american I talked to said otherwise. It’s more like another person described it, we’re like Spain’s canada xD

Comment by Pe6r0 — January 14, 2010 @ 9:53 pm
I find it astounding at how stupid you think Americans are. I will agree with you that most of us are not the sharpest knives in the bag but… your perception of your country men is ludicrous. Where did you grow up? From what you’ve said it must have been a really terrible place… LA, Chicago, or what? Even the small town in the south I came from would laugh you out of the room for some of the accusations you’ve made here. Americans have a hard enough time abroad because of their government and the liberalized piss poor public education they receive … They don’t need people like you making them out to be complete retards. I won’t make excuses for stupidity and I call like it is… but then again maybe the people you have lived around were morons but… That’s certainly not the way American life is for all of us….

Comment by Dave — January 19, 2010 @ 2:33 pm
Great and funny article! I dont think most of the Americans (aka. US citizens) are like that, but probably some of them… Plus, I have some American friends, living in Europe, who very well educated and interested in other cultures. Maybe, thats why or because fo they r living in Europe.

Please, do not compare Montana with Greece. As someone said, the first is national geography (that all of u should know) and the second is general culture. Even though I do know some of the States in USA and more or less where they are located!

You should know about Greece (even if now its a small countruy with, apparently, any importance in the world politics) because it was the firts Democracy in the world, 2500 years ago! Plus it is a beutiful country with great people, great food…

Greece just to give an example, not to talk about amazing Spain or any other country in the world. Again, just because knowledge doesnt take up any space.

Comment by José — January 22, 2010 @ 9:39 am
I’m English although I grew up in Andorra (which I can’t imagine many Americans knowing where that is)!

I went to the US once and was flabbergasted when a guy on a train I was chatting to asked me what language we spoke in England.

He couldn’t believe it when I said English!

Seriously, this is no joke!!!

Comment by Chris — February 17, 2010 @ 5:19 am
I have to say I’m a little insulted by the stereotypes that Americans are ignorant of the geography of Europe, but then again I consider myself to be well read and have traveled quite a bit in Europe. I could name every capital and point to every single European country on a map.

Comment by Chris — February 24, 2010 @ 2:18 pm
This is hilarious and mostly true of Americans (I am one but not insular). I am married to a British man and we often discuss how we each view other nationalities. He hates the Germans and I try to say who really cares but that leads to an argument! I think most Americans do not care about geography or other cultures, but I do and I am raising my son to know more as well.

Comment by Di — March 10, 2010 @ 7:36 am
I am a U.S.-born Korean citizen and I’ve spent most of my time in U.S. for 10 years in Boston and New York City and in U.K. for 7 years..My general impression is that there is nothing so special about “special relations between U.S. & U.K.” at all..To me U.S.A.-U.K. relations is just one of those friendship ties that’s all..That’s because I see Asia is growing its economy much stronger and New York Wall Street Crash in October 2008 signalled a shift in the economic center of gravity from NY to Shanghai,China.I am Korean but I have full confidence that China’s economy will match that of U.S. someday..U.S. better pay attention more on Asia than EU because the age of British Empire is dead now and it’s the dawn of the Asian Century even if Japan’s economy is in slump..Fortunately U.S. has military alliance with South Korea so Americans are still welcomed by the vast majority of South Korean people even if minority of Korean youngsters are somewhat biased against U.S.A. And please allow me to add I LOVE U.S.A.!!!

Comment by Michael Jun Sung Shim — March 17, 2010 @ 11:49 am
Seems about right for the average American. I hate when I encounter Americans who are ignorant of other countries and cultures. I am somewhat chauvinistic about our culture, but I still love exploring cultures very different from what I’m accustomed to in the US.

As an American traveling abroad, I had many people assume all Americans eat is pizza and hamburger. It really bothered me whenever someone offered to tell me where I could find these foods in their country. Then I came back and saw most of my fellow Americans stuffing their faces with pizza and hamburgers…

Comment by Vincent Ignatius — April 15, 2010 @ 9:46 am
I find this list kind of insulting. You can’t lump the views of the entire United States into one list. That would be like lumping the views of all of Europe into one list.

American views are diverse and depend on what part of the country you visit. I’ve been in national sales for 20 years and been to multiple cities in every state…including Alaska and Hawaii.

If I were you, I’d really try and break things down regionally as the viewpoints are quite different. France, for example, is viewed much differently by people in the southern region of the US than by the North East region. Most of the south adores the French, especially in Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland (on the other hand) have a neutral view of France. If you go into the Mid West…there’s downright hatred of the French. Then there’s the western states ike California, Oregon, and Washington. They simply could care less about the French what-so-ever. Then there’s Texas…oh God…then there’s Texas. I advise the French to stay far away from there unless it’s Dallas/Ft. Worth or Houston.

The United States is far to culturally diverse to create a definitive list.

Comment by Logan — April 21, 2010 @ 9:58 am
Whenever a European has asked me if i know where (whatever, europe) is I answer with: what is the capital of california? 99.9% tend to think its Los Angeles. Stupid Europeans and their poor educations.

Look, it’s natural to be geographically aware when your country is bordered by 5 other countries. It’s natural to believe america has no culture when your own has become coopted and made into a charicature by your own tourist industry.

I believe Americans get a bad rap because we only get 2 weeks vacation a year. We throw money around and act like assholes who only have 2 weeks to spend a years savings.

Comment by local — April 23, 2010 @ 2:04 am
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article on ‘what Americans think of Europe’. And the comments it entailed were incredible — outlandish and misguided — we’re all biased.

It’s only natural for people to judgement, accuse and use stereotypes to help them understand their World.

I’m from Dublin and I’ve never been to America but I am heavily influenced by American “T.V. Culture” so my views are somewhat based on that.

I enjoy a lot of the entertainment and technology that comes from the USA but from the Americans I’ve met on my travels around Europe (I’ve never left Europe!), I have to say they’re hard to judge. They seem dismissive, ignorant, content and flaunt their American Culture as if it’s the best thing. However, they only do this because of the way they were raised — as we all do.

I’d like to point out that Czechs are widely regarded as “bigger drinkers” than us Irish, based on their GDP. It has also been taken into account that, even though there is a huge population difference [Ireland & Czechia], they still consume more alcohol than the Irish do. It does not mean they’re all Alcoholics; Europeans can control their “drink” intake better because it’s apart of our culture; and there less restrictions in Europe compared to America.

It’s sad to hear that Americans aren’t taught about the World they live in properly. The more knowledge, the less fear!

Thanks for reading and I enjoyed the humour and humilty of the article, once again. XD

Comment by Graham — May 5, 2010 @ 8:09 pm
I NEVER mix up Spain with Mexico. Sorry but I prefer Mexico not only because I’m Mexico but because I’m proud of my ancestors and the culture they left behind. Our political system is relatively new compared to Spain’s which would explain Mexican mentality; however, I will argue that I respect Spanish culture and Spain itself but I prefer mine.

Comment by A Mexican-American — May 8, 2010 @ 9:57 pm
Just little note: Santa Maria, Pinta a Nina were ships of Christopher Columbus not Hernan Cortes

Comment by PHM — June 3, 2010 @ 1:09 pm
“I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”

“I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.”

Comment by Socrates — June 29, 2010 @ 11:13 am
Is anyone else afraid that as a whole, we humans are deteriorating intellectually?

It seems that critical thinking and the ability to objectively examine one’s own ideas are dying virtues.

Someone much smarter than I, once said: “certainty is the sincerest form of ignorance.”

Comment by Todd — June 30, 2010 @ 12:53 pm
This was incredibly amusing and very painful to read. I’m an American (born in Minnesota close to Canada, lived on the west coast for 8 years) and I’ve done my very best to become as educated as possible on global affairs and cultural interactions, since I want to move out of the U.S. someday.

I’ve gotta say, a lot of your opinions cover the basics of most airhead Americans who would be interested in going to Europe just to buy souvenirs. A few of the things you said made me wince because I know better, and I really, really hate the fact that all Americans are viewed like ignorant bastards, but it is true: at least a third of our country are just this plain idiotic.

I’m young and I’ve never been to Europe but I’ve studied up plenty (advanced European history classes and befriending the German and French exchange students) and all I have to say is, I hope I can be part of a generation that will change the perception of Americans around the world.

Comment by Dakota — July 26, 2010 @ 6:27 pm
@ ann- Maryland does not contain DC. It is not part of Virginia either. Washington, DC is a district unto itself.

@graham- It isn’t that we aren’t taught about geography or other cultures, its that it isn’t something that we remember. Think of it this way we have fifty states across a large land mass much in the same way that Europe has a multitude of countries across a somewhat similar sized land mass. Us, memorizing the states is like Europeans memorizing the countries that make up Europe. You have 44, the US has 50. We’ve heard of these countries but can we expect you to know the exact geographic location of Bangor in comparison to Boston. Not really. We have our states and you all have your countries. Its the same deal.

Comment by Kevin — August 13, 2010 @ 11:05 am
Hey, I´ve read the main text and some of the comments, and seen that Finland repeatedly have been mentioned as a part of Scandinavia, it isn´t.
Scandinavia is Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The geographical term is defined but areas where the scandinavian languages are spoken, and Finland belongs to an other branch of languages.
I can say that the “best” thing i´ve heard from people “over ther” is that Norway is the capital of Sweden. My experience is that Norway is the first country to be forgotten when one are talking about Scandinavia. Or people are mixing Scandinavia up with just Sweden.

Comment by Andreas — August 14, 2010 @ 4:34 pm
Yes, most Americans are quite ignorant of other countries and their geographical locations. Shooot I’ve lived in other countries and have a hard time pointing out many as well…quite sad really!! But I do have a big giant map sitting behind me so maybe I can start studying locations

Oh yeah, and don’t forget to mention that you can see Russia from Alaska

Comment by LVnative — August 16, 2010 @ 2:39 pm
It’s very funny actually; I’m an american but from a different perspective. My mother is Ecuadorian (literally not a citizen) and my dad is a true born country guy. We were originally from New York City but are now living in California (growing up I moved around a lot). I’ve got to point out some true and untrue things about this piece.

1) Yes, I’ve met plenty, PLENTY of americans who just don’t know their geography. A student admit at Columbia University, and old friend of mine, who had barely any idea where her homestate Texas was. There have been other accounts too; people thinking Asia was a country (fail), etc. I’ve got to agree with this.

2) Most average Americans don’t know how to travel. And I mean TRAVEL. I spent the summer studying in Malaga, Spain – where I lived with a family, I drank, I laid on the beach, I engaged with the people, I danced all night long at the Discotecas, I took trains to neighboring cities on my own. Most Americans are blindly scared to do this. Why? Because what every person living in Europe doesn’t understand is that America is SAFE – unbelievably SAFE. I mean sure we have bad places like the ghetto. But for the most part, the suburbs? Come on? How many American Citizens would flip if they didn’t have running warm water for a day? or a bathroom invested with ants? Life is different. Very different. And sadly often taken for granted. When most americans travel, they take ‘tours’. pathetic little tours as I like to call them. You see, they’re perfectly happy with their Cannon photography cameras, going on a cruise with all the other english speaking folk and never truly make an attempt to get to know the culture. This is where I bet some people get the idea of the ‘big stuck up american’ and why many have mixed feelings.

3) France is snobby. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve known nice french people -natives to the country. But you talk to any other european country and they will give you their undying opinion about it “Nobody likes France” I’ve heard the same thing from Italians, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and even Germans haha, nobody likes the french! Now don’t get me wrong, I like the french. I think it’s a beautiful language. And most peculiar culture at best. I’ve never been to France. One day I’ll have to make that judgement for myself.

4) Yes, sadly, americans will incorporate any spanish speaking person and classify them as a ‘Mexican’. I can’t tell you how many people think that Ecuador is next to Guatemala. They are so pathetic. And most other hispanics hate this! But it’s not the americans fault actually. Increasing illegals have caused severe problems, especially in California. It really is hard to not have a bais about mexicans. For example; I go for an afternoon jog around my town, like friendly neighbor I smile at all those passing by; the local jews, the local japanese, the local indians. Everybody is friendly enough to smile back. Except for the mexicans. Everytime I pass a hispanic by all the do is give me a death glare, no matter how wide I smile. It’s scary often. Like they want to stick a knife in my throat. So don’t blame an American for having their assumptions. It’s for our own protection. What often others don’t understand is that Americans don’t have a problem admitting immigrants and people who are in need of work, people who want to better their lives. There isn’t a single soul in America who wants to prevent that. However, the immigrants coming over are not coming over seeking better oppurtunities as an American, no. Even kids in highschool, flaunt their ‘mexican pride’ Which is fine, if it didn’t include violent threats towards the white children in spanish. (I’m being serious).

Anyway these are my opinions.
I’m an American, and proud to be one too. I can laugh when foreigners talk about how stupid some Americans can be (trust me, I do it myself) because I have actually lived in Ecuador, traveled the world, and have quite a different lifestyle then most of my average american friends. However, I think your assumptions are slightly off key.

Comment by Mary — August 16, 2010 @ 11:21 pm
Part of this is true depending which type of american you’re asking.
I’m a New Yorker and I can guarantee you that if I asked my friend where greece or Portugal was on a map, they can point it out. New York along with many other cities are culturally diverse, and if we, for example, have friends from another country, we tend to know more about that country.

But yes, we are geographically retarded. I am a geographically-educated person, and the truth is, Americans don’t give a shit about things that don’t interfere with their daily lives. I couldn’t give less of a shit about New Jersey. Seriously, nothing important ever happens there, why should I care? I know the capitol is Trenton, but I couldn’t care less about New Jersey. We (New Yorkers, or at least New Englanders) think of the east coast as the cooler part of America (due to the fact that we have a lot of major cities here), California as the cool place of the west, and pretty much every other state is useless garbage. We think of the south as rascist hillbillies who can’t speak properly (Seriously, they talk like retards), and the mid-west as a place similar to the south, but not full of hillbillies. My friend also told me that people from California hate New Yorkers, and I also read that Chicagoans don’t really like New Yorkers either, because apparently Chicago is a better place than New York, and New Yorkers are loud, rude, and too obsessed with the city. What ever. The point is, people from big cities are geographically knowledgeable to a decent extent. People who are from states that get no tourists are geographically stupid, because no foreigners go to their state, therefore, the thought of other cultures doesn’t cross their minds, and like I stated before, they end up not caring about other cultures.

Also, Latinos love Spain? No. That statement is wrong. I’m Peruvian, and there is no way in hell latinos love spain. All of South America doesn’t like Spain. Mexico should Hate them just as much as us south americans. Spain practically went to Mexico and South America, wiped out the people there, took all of their gold and silver, and left.

But at least I know where Spain is on a map…

Comment by Random Name — September 26, 2010 @ 12:48 pm
Wow. Where did this guy get his information? Americans know geography, and aren’t as stupid as everyone is portraying them as. They may be slightly self-centered, but they aren’t dumb.

Comment by Katherine — September 27, 2010 @ 4:28 pm
I am your average American woman. I will admit my geography is not all that good, but that does not mean that I am stupid, or that I think so poorly on other countries. You cannot place every single American into the same mind frame. Thanks to the Internet I have been trying to learn more about people from other countries, all the way from how they talk, dress, religion, to daily activities. I don’t and have never looked down on them and have found many good people out there. Also I don’t blame other countries for things like our gas….I am not that closed minded. I would just like for you to realize that not everyone in America is as you described. Many of us do have our down falls as is human nature, but many of us are also very smart, nice, and accepting to other people and their cultures. And no it is not that we have small memories but more that most of us are accepting to the other cultures. Just because my ancestors fought in this war or that war does not mean that I have the same veiws as what they had. I hope this makes you realize that not all of this are so bad.

Comment by your normal american — October 7, 2010 @ 6:46 pm
All these comments sound like a bunch of Europeans saying they know the thoughts of the entire American population.

Comment by The American — November 10, 2010 @ 11:37 pm
Shame on you for perpetuating ignorant American stereotypes (and some negative European ones as well). You seem to fit a very strong stereotype within the country – that of a coastal snob that thinks everyone between New York and San Francisco is an idiot. I thought Internations was supposed to be focused on overcoming stereotypes so that people from different cultures could find understanding and conviviality???? You my friend, have failed at this.

Comment by Lori — November 12, 2010 @ 11:21 am
um… The Usians ( i won’t use American cos it refers to Canada) on this site keep going on about how we Europeans don’t know their country geography, but they don’t know our continents basic geography! Sure their countrys big but we’re lots of countrys the average British Year 7 (not sure what grade it is for you guys) can point to almost any country you say in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Austrulasia.

Now i want to ask all the Usians i the audience wwhat happened on the 7th July 2005 in London?
No one in American even knows without looking it up whereas we Europeans are forced to lap up you 9 11 sob stories.

Comment by Brit — November 14, 2010 @ 5:47 am
“Before you think that means Americans are chauvinist, keep in mind they don’t give a shit about the next state over, or even next city, much less another country.”

…What? Since when? Most Americans have similar perceptions [and stereotypes] about the states around them as the Europeans do about the countries around them.

For example, Texas – my home state – we tend to view people from Louisiana as lazy, backwater hicks, Arkansas we mutually ignore, Oklahoma as red neck farmers…and we tend to just snub New Mexico all together.

The views about the states aside – whole regions to have different ways of interacting [though usually some form of picking on each other I've noticed] but regionally tend to move the same direction politically – but the regions [and the states with-in the regions] don’t ignore each other, and they certainly ‘Give a shit’ about each other.

As for the rest…yes, we are a bit self-centered, but we’re not really stupid, and, as a whole, we tend to something along the lines of ‘Where? Oh yeah, I’ve X about that place, but I don’t know if it’s true. -shrugs and moves on to a different topic-’

Comment by An American Southerner — November 15, 2010 @ 1:16 pm
Well, I have to say the comments on your ‘What do Europeans think of Eachother’ post were much funnier.

Your comments have set me thinking…I find Americans to be strangely literal and pompous! Good people – some of them very ignorant of course – but just quite dull. You make all Europeans – even the English who are considered very reserved – seem fiery, quick thinking and passionate.

I would like to like you Americans, but you’re just a bit souless.

[Editor: I find it amusing that you dislike Americans for being literal, pompous, ignorant and dull...and you chose to move to England, of all places. That certainly makes me doubt the sincerity of your post.]

Comment by Eurogal — December 10, 2010 @ 1:13 pm
This post wasn’t nearly as good as the “How Europeans view each other” one.

Comment by Jon — January 11, 2011 @ 12:14 pm
Europe = Pansy’s who lose wars
USAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSA

Comment by 3430204-9 — February 7, 2011 @ 12:32 pm
Interesting piece! My parents are immigrants from South America (Chile & Venezuela), I spent my formative years in Florida, unfortunately not Miami but in northern mainland Florida closer to Orlando – white trash swampland as I like to call it.

Boy is most of what you said sadly true, in all the schools I went to in Florida, everyone thought I was Mexican, my parents lived in a hut & rode llamas to get anywhere. Whenever I invited my Florida school friends over to my house they would refuse to eat the food my mom prepared because they never heard of that type of food & wouldn’t dare try something new (I mean who doesn’t like empanadas & arepas!)

When I graduated I got the hell out of Florida & moved to New York for university, I was relieved to meet people that knew South America wasn’t just part of Mexico & had actually traveled to Chile and Venezuela.

Sadly there are Americans that fit the stereotypes of being ignorant & self-centered and they give a bad name to all other Americans!

Comment by Gabis — February 25, 2011 @ 10:51 pm
Before you judge Americans for not knowing much about European geography in general, think about it this way: How much do you as other countries know about the states within the U.S.?

The one thing I disagreed with the author about is that the states don’t give a shit about each other. We do. More so depending on what state you are from than anything else, but most americans have a vague understanding of what people from different states will be like.

We, unlike Europeans, aren’t shown a map Europe at an early age and asked to memorize it, we are shown a map of the 50 states. We have to take tests in geography class about the 50 states alongside maps about Europe in highschool.

It’s not that we “don’t care”, it’s just that our attentions are divided. Forming our own stereotypes about how egotistical Texans are, or how snobby people from California are, or how much everyone hates New Jersey to focus on other countries all the time.

One last thing. Part of the reason we love Ireland so much and assume it’s larger than it is, is because we have had a lot of irish immigrants in our history and we hear in history class about people escaping the poverty of Ireland to come to New York

Comment by Sean Brunk — March 8, 2011 @ 4:40 pm
I just don’t get it… How can people possibly think of comparing the USA states with WHOLE COUNTRIES in Europe? It’s not a size thing, it’s a politics-world representation-nationality thing.

Because if we’re going to ask an european about the states in the USA, then what about asking a USA national about the Mexican states and their capitols? They’re right there, you know, not even as far away as Europe… and what about, say, the Italian states? Or the German’s own divisions of their country? The UK ones?

That’s what I thought.

Comment by Ann — March 12, 2011 @ 10:15 pm
#Eurogal, on December 10th, 2010 at 1:13 pm Said:

Well, I have to say the comments on your ‘What do Europeans think of Eachother’ post were much funnier.

Your comments have set me thinking…I find Americans to be strangely literal and pompous! Good people – some of them very ignorant of course – but just quite dull. You make all Europeans – even the English who are considered very reserved – seem fiery, quick thinking and passionate.

I would like to like you Americans, but you’re just a bit souless.

——————————————————————————

While I’m not fond of Americans, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I actively dislike them. I DO find Americans somewhat lacking in emotional depth and spontaneity. I suppose this is the product of growing up in such a materialist./aggresively capitalist society, but I’m sure there are other factors.

Another thing that’s always surprised me about Americans…why all the anger? It always seems to be bubbling just below the surface, beneath the 1000 watt fake smiles. Life in America must be pretty harsh.

The English on the other hand are neither ‘literal, pompous, ignorant or dull’. On the whole I find them to be quite original thinkers, self-deprecating, comparatively well-informed, playful and lively. Their great handicap is their emotional distance, but also their almost completely repressed superiority complex, which is quite annoying for the foreigner! On the emotional distance they’re definately improving though, becoming a bit more Continental. Actually they’ve changed a lot in the last 20 years.

[Editor: That's wonderful that moving to the UK has allowed you to interact with the English and dispel a lot of the stereotypes you have about them. Maybe one day you'll spend considerable time in the US and similarly be forced to debunk the ridiculous stereotypes you have about Americans that you're so confident in.]

Comment by Acinom — March 19, 2011 @ 8:33 pm
Ukraine is not a part of Russia. It is one of the biggest country in Europe. Our native language is Ukrainian, and our culture is different from Russian culture. It’s big assault what you wrote about Ukraine.

Comment by Lana — March 20, 2011 @ 3:20 pm
I know I found this post super-late, but I’m an American traveling to Europe soon and another post of yours came up on a google search. I agree with you whole-heartedly.

I’m visiting friends in Dublin and Rotterdam next month and my folks didn’t even know that the Netherlands was in Europe. My mom didn’t know Ireland was just west of the UK (she was VERY relieved to know that the two countries are so close, for some reason) and my grandmother said, “Why do you keep saying ‘the Dutch’ if you’re talking about going to the Netherlands?” I have no idea where she thought the Dutch lived.

I also think you are correct about the American ability to forget…or inability to remember. It doesn’t really matter what nationality someone is. If you’re friendly and honest, you’re “good people” regardless of where you come from.

That being said, I still want my parents to take a geography class.

Comment by tee — March 26, 2011 @ 9:38 pm
Cool post, loving the honesty. In my view, ask Europeans what they know about the US and I bet there will be some pretty funny replies as well! greets from Amsterdam (Yes, it’s a country)

Comment by Andrew — April 6, 2011 @ 2:27 pm
In America we have the sayings “book smarts and street smarts”.

Americans are exposed to the modern European according to what region of this enormous country they happen to live in. A New Yorker might live and work along side someone from Europe everyday while a person living in rural Mississippi might have never met someone who even speaks another language (except Mexican perhaps).

Few Americans are of old families that colonized from England, at least where I live in New York. For example my family came on boats from Sicily and Ireland after the war. I migrants were not received well by that time period and they separated into their own neighborhoods, trying to assimilate but holding onto bits and pieces of their culture.

This is why an Italian-American and an Italian hardly resemble each other. The result of blending 100 year old ethnic traditions with American culture is something completely different than modern Europe. This happened in many east coast cities and spread across the country.

If an Italian were to walk through an Italian neighborhood in America, or an Irishman walk through west Manhattan or south Boston, they would most likely understand why Americans have such strange ideas about Europe.

Our stereotypes come from each other here in the US rather than modern Europe.

Comment by Luke — April 30, 2011 @ 4:24 pm
I feel that many Europeans unfairly judge us on the actions of of government/military. Perhaps it is because we are a democracy. But our vote doesn’t mean very much we have little control over what our military does.

Also I would love to speak another language and learn about the rest of the world. I try to teach myself but I only know so much.

There is a big gap between rich and poor in the US. Most of us can’t afford an education (I can’t afford to go to school) and we spend most of our day working to pay our bills.

Comment by Luke — April 30, 2011 @ 4:46 pm
Europeans generally think they are more educated than Americans. Most point out with a smirk that most Americans know little about Europe. The funny thing is, it is the same the other way round. Most Europeans have not clue about America, beyond Hollywood movies. Ask them where Indiana is located and the likelihood is about the same to get a correct answer as an American locating Austria. Same for history. Ask any European what the Alamo is. Unless by chance they saw the 2004 movie, they will have no clue. When I lived in DC I had several European visitors who wanted to take a WEEKEND drive to Florida to the Beach or the Grand Canyon. Boy did everybody think they were ‘cute’ (in a stupid way). It’s all about focus on important things to yourself. When you live in the UK or France you know more about America than Americans know about you because, America has more impact on the UK and France than the other way round. Ask folks from the UK and France who the current head of state is in Bulgaria (or even what the head of state is called in Bulgaria…President, Prime Minister, Chancellor…?) and you will get no response. So Americans are not more stupid or less educated, it’s just that America is big and important, so that’s where the focus is. On the other hand, Bulgaria does not pull any weight, so why would anybody care, except Bulgarians?! There you have it, self-hating Americans and snobby Europeans, you can throw your believes over board, were are all the same: knowledgeable about what is important to us, and ignorant about the rest.

Comment by Martin Burkard — May 6, 2011 @ 11:17 am
I think everyone is a little too sensitive to what other countries or regions think about our little plots of the planet. I would like to say that other countries are not the only targets of sterotypical inaccurate points of view… If you are bothered by what you think the US thinks of your country take solace in the knowledge that the different regions of the US undergo the same blanket judgements from each other. I’m Southern… Where did your mind just go? Stupid, backwoods, inbred hick? Don’t worry about it, we’re used to it but that is a stereotype that doesn’t have much truth to it either. Instead of an argument, I have a question… Why do we all care so much? We are individuals and we know what we are or are not. Do I get angry too sometimes? Sure, of course. Have I changed even one persons perception? Not that I’m aware of. My point is that this is nothing but hurtful & pointless! I wish we would all just get over this and say “you know what? I don’t have a problem with you”… and if you have the opportunity to share something about your culture with someone who is “ignorant” of it- do it! Stop pointing our fingers and saying “look at them, they’re so (stupid, geographically challenged, snobby, poor, dirty- Whatever!)

Comment by Dana — May 14, 2011 @ 7:01 pm
I cant stand self hating Americans but it seems like that is whats cool right now, Good article.

Comment by cooper — May 22, 2011 @ 12:52 am
I could really care less about this article, but I did find it a little disrespectful toward america.

Comment by A K — May 25, 2011 @ 7:22 pm
No, Europeans. You do not understand America, we can agree on that.

This argument that we should know your nations because they are sovereign, but you belie no ignorance when you don’t know our state geography is a ridiculous proposal. California is the 5th biggest economy in the world and if it went completely underr -vs just overbudget as usual- we will take people down with us, not so much for us if Belgium bottoms out.

We have medium sized counties bigger than Iceland. More people live in New York City than all of Sweden. And don’t talk to me about Russia- our country is populated top to bottom side to side, full of life and people, much of Russia is empty.

You can’t even get your head around the drama and size of our country, never could. A Dutch exchange student went to the Hopi reservation in Arizona with me on a legal project. She kept asking what were the dark shapes moving across the desert plain below the mesa; we realized she was talking about the shadows of clouds. There is no such space in Northern Europe was her explanation, she had never had the perspective before.

We are a place of vast spaces and vast diversity, you are simply not central for us. We are sorry. Kind of.

Also, unlike N European countries, we have no guarentee of housing, medical care or education and are in constant competition with foreigners for work (also unlike the xenophobic and anti-immigrant N European countries who take amazing care of their people to the point that they don’t have any empathy for working class Americans, but would let foreigners even refugees starve and die before tolerating them illegally entering the country).

Finally, this is a place of unsurpassed wealth historically. As such it attracted the most heinous, unethical, fascist neo-liberals (mostly from Europe) in history. And forces to destroy the commons, undermine the education of the populace and destory healthy media and free speech have been waging war on us for decades. So were under a little pressure; sort of like we’ve got a shotgun blast to the heart and your bitching because we didn’t notice your new dress.

Yes, guilty as charged,we tend to be occupied by these basics and our own extremely large, diverse and dynamic culturally warring society to pay a terrible lot of attention to Europe.

Honestly, I find a lot of your comments are little stalker-ish; if we never notice you, pay no attention to you and treat you poorly when we see each other, then stop using our products, listening to our music, watching our movies, coming here in fucking droves and fixating on us as the source of all negative world events. England colonized half the world, we are all paying for the fallout. Fuck off. It’s like we got out of an abusive relationship by getting the Hell out of Europe (most Americans are descended of those fleeing horrible conditions in Europe) and your that wife-beater guy that can’t stand that we moved on with our life. Get over it. We Dont’ Think You Much (except when threads like this come up)- agreed & justified I’d say.

Comment by EC — May 28, 2011 @ 1:08 pm
As an American I can truthfully say that this paper is disrespectful and completely false in every possible way. As far as Americans not caring or respecting other countries, Americans are very sensitive to other countries. Example: Japan with the earthquake. We have thousands of missionaries in poor countries helping and making a difference. This entire paper is just stereotyping, maybe some of those low class rednecks think like that, but most civilized americans don’t. Get your head out of your ass.

Comment by Carleine Franst — June 6, 2011 @ 5:58 pm
My name is Andrei, I am Romanian and live in Romania in southeastern Europe and I’m 22 years old. I think it’s completely useless to say Americans are this, Italians are that etc., there is no country on this planet that “has exclusive rights” to any quality or defect. What I can say is that it’s a shame when people of any nationality do not pay attention to the world around them. It gives you a great deal of perspective. The only people I dislike, cannot be categorised by country, age, sex etc. that’s right, I’m talking about ignorant people.
P.S. I know most of the American states and where those states are. I’m good at geography and that’s because geography is a compulsory and independent subject in school, from 5th grade to 12th grade approximately. Learn before you hate!

Comment by Andrei — June 10, 2011 @ 6:35 am
I am Richard who was stationed in the 76th Army Band in Orleans, France. During my year and a half there, I learned French well enough to carry on basic conversations with them. While there will always be those of all countries who are not pleasant to be around, my being a man that always like to have pleasant conversations wherever I may be, led me to finding a vast number of Europeans I enjoyed being with very much. Realizing I had become a European in my thinking, I did not want to return to the states. I currently have a couple of things in the fire now that I hope will result in my being able to spend a couple of months in Europe, returning to many of the places I enjoyed so much, as well as seeing everything I can that I did not see while there. I find Europeans far more like the people we are not, in not being as arrogant and obnoxious as some Americans can be and I’ll definitely be dressing far better, as opposed to the sloppy way many Americans now choose to dress.

Comment by Richard Keenam — July 25, 2011 @ 10:07 pm
Gee I guess most foreigners would consider me a very atypical American. I love geography and other cultures.And yes, I know that Spain is not part of Central or South America geographiclly or culturally. LOL Sorry to bust your strereotypes but if I met someone who thought that Madrid was a suburb of San Juan Puerto Rico I and all my friends who are American would consider that person an wicked moron or wicked retahhdid ( please excuse my Bostonian expressions.) deserving to be labeled a simpleton.

Yes it is true that many Americans lack basic geographic knowlege however some of the remarks the author made are very inaccurate according to my experience.
First of all ,most Americans are of European heritage and they identify with their European roots. Irish Americans are usually well read in Irish history were very much into the struggles of the IRA and know that Ireland is no longer a poor nation and alot have traveled to Ireland. Most Italian Americans are proud of their Italian heritage have feasts days for their patron Saints, travel to Italy and even have jovial arguments with other fellow Americano Pisans which is better Naples, Sicily or Milano.German Americans have there private clubs and have their annual Octoberfests. Greek Americans have their festivals ,usually go to Greece regularly and very up on issues such as Macedonia ect

America is a large country though with a national culture has alot of distinct subcultures.It is fair to say that parts of America are smarter or more intellectually developed then others. I am not trying to be a provencial supremist but I would put my home city of Boston MA right up there as one of the top 2 or 3 cities in the world if not the top when it comes to Intellect. Anyone who is familiar with Boston would know that we at or near the very top globally when it comes Universities, Hospitals and Medical Facilities.

There certainly is some truth to the dumb American perceptions that our media loves to portray with trash shows such Jerry Springer that our seen all over the world. Those shows are popular partly because human beings have always desire to laugh at village idiots.So our Village Idiots are shown all over the world. I am sure that if there were TV shows that showed Eurotrash idiots and Dumb Aussies and Brits globally your perception as being Intellectual Superior to the Yanks would change. I saw a TV show that interviewed Americans and asked them basic questions such as where is Russia on the map and they could not answer. Of course this sample was taken from the urban poor and hillbillies not Harvard Yard or Wall St.

I would strongly suggest that you folks with a distorted view of America come for a vist. Hurry cause the dollar is still cheap relitive to the Euro

Comment by Bostonian — July 28, 2011 @ 7:39 pm
I particularly enjoyed the previous article by this author, which concerned European’s attitudes toward one one another.

As Americans, we to realize the following…

–All countries have historical events which should cause them shame. Only Americans obsess over it.

– If we visited another country, and spouted off complaints, it would be considered extremely rude. However, it’s considered fair game to bloviate about America’s perceived shortcomings. Would you travel in France and berate your hosts for collaborating with the Germans?

– Americans are criticized for “patriotism”, but no one would dare criticize other country’s sense of pride. I.e., would you make fun of Spaniard’s or the Irish for loving their country?

– An American who is disdainful toward his own country, and unappreciative about what it has given him, is often thought of as “edgy.” However, residents of other countries who bad-mouth their own nation would not be so highly regarded. Can you imagine a German bad-mouthing his own country, and being thought of admiringly? Lol, I’ve been to Japan many times, and don’t recall a single time that someone I chatted with brought up any of their war crimes!

– The bottom line is that the media likes to play up our own feelings of inadequacy, and enjoys making us feel that we are the object of ridicule In other countries. For work, I traveled to 34 countries (sometimes 10 or 20 times). I never had a single incident of disrespect toward me. Only once did I overhear a disparaging remark about our president at the time, and it was in response to a smug fellow American who was trying to show-off by dissing his own country. Then, of course, he had some polite agreement by the German he was speaking to.

–Europeans travel to other nations because they may live a few hours from several borders. We do not enjoy the same geographic proximity. Most Americans can’t afford to travel to Europe, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t like to. I took my family of five to Europe for three weeks, and it cost $22,000.

– Bottom line, We have a proud history which is certainly no WORSE than any other country’s. We should stop bad-mouthing ourselves, because no one else does. it’s OKAY for us to be patriotic–everyone else in the world is, And do we REALLY need to care so much about everyone thinks of us, especially since they evidently don’t like most of their own neighbors any way.

Comment by Laura johnson — July 28, 2011 @ 11:19 pm
Clearly, you are too damn stupid to know anything about real Americans!

Comment by Jesse — July 29, 2011 @ 11:32 am
Oh my god, Russia for American people this is ????????, ??????? ? ?????????…I knew…

Comment by Vlad — August 6, 2011 @ 7:48 am
I think you are the same author of the article: 10 things about the Netherlands, where I just left a lovely and supportive comment (I thought it was hilarious c; ), but I want to take back what I left there.
I said that I thought that we, the Dutch people, were more rude than Americans, but i take it back!
I’ve only read about 10 comments here, and I see people bashing eachothers heads in about something the other one has said. I mean: Wow! Talk about being rude!!

i just wanted to let you lovely people know, we (or I, let’s keep this personal instaed of general) understand that this is a VERY GENERAL view. Everybody is different with different interests and different knowledges etc etc.

(but it’s always fun seeing people being passionate about something isn’t it?) c;

Comment by GirlfromBrabantNL — August 7, 2011 @ 7:08 am
Dont forget that its us Europeans who have sort of ‘made’ America what it is

Comment by Robert — August 9, 2011 @ 4:06 am
I find some truth in what you’re saying (as far as the stereotypes go), but I refuse to believe that the majority of Americans are so ignorant when it comes to geography. Please. My 8 year old son would not make most of the mistakes you and other commenting people say the majority of Americans make.

Comment by Elizabeth — August 25, 2011 @ 6:08 am
Ime an english man whos very well travelled including several visits to the U.S & Mexico. First I would like to say that I have always found the average american to be friendly and helpful, and good fun. In the U.K. we have something called the national curiculum, which changes from one generation to the other but basically sets out what the children will learn in school, when I was young geography was one of the core subjects along with maths, english etc. It was an interesting subject though not one which would particularly help your career, I suspect the American education system may be geared to more practicle ends. However it was a subject I excelled in and I can help de bunk a few myths about Europe.

The UK.
Is not full full of warm beer, bad teeth and cold weather, most men (and women) prefer a cold beer, (larger) to the traditional real ale, the tooth problem of wartime brits on bad rations is a thing of the past as we all jumped on the cosmetic dentistry bandwagon years ago. The difference between the climate in northern scotland & southern england is quite marked, we are a long thin Isle.

France
though only 25 miles from southern England is culturally further removed from us than the United States.
Nothing in France bears any resemblance to the U.K. including architecture, lansdcape or language, this is probably at the root of the age old phsycological warfare between the two old powers.

South West Europe,
Another two old world powers Portugal & Spain. I have a house in Portugal and have visited Spain many times, if anyone that thinks Europe ( is a cold place that rains all the time) they would be astounded by these two, both have blistering summers with high temperatures for months on end and near permanent blue sky. The temperatures in the short winters in the Portuguese Algarve rarely dip below 60 degrees. In geographic terms North Africa is a stones throw from the south of these countries. Both Spain and Portugal were major players in the discovery and colonization of the new world as well as much of the old. I found the earlier post from the indignant Spanish lady that said that Portugal looks up to Spain to be delusional, its a known fact that just like the English and French, the Portuguese & Spanish dont get on at all well.

Germany
A central European economic powerhouse, often the butt of jokes for their automaton ways, and lack of humour, there is little trust in other countries for them, and especially amongst the English conservatives who think that Germany along with their French pals are trying to be the top dogs again via the back door.

Italy
No one hates the Italians too much, they are too much fun for that, and every European country has its Italian resteraunts with its cheerful waiters. Economically & politically its a mess, and seen as a prime holiday destination for rich sun starved northern europeans wanting a couple of weeks in the Med.

Greece
Another holiday in the Med spot and in a bigger crisis than the other southern european eurozone countries. Affectionately seen as the birthplace of civilisation and art, as is Italy.

Eastern Europe including Russia.
The general public in are sceptical as to whether the eastern block countries are truly democratic yet, especially Russia, there are huge improvements and Rome wasnt built in a day. As a previouse post pointed out there are beautiful destinations, its not all grey concrete appartment blocks.

Scandinavia
Generally admired for their independence and calmness, along with their classic viking looks, very self contained, they seem to have no enemies.

These are all massive generalisations and I hope they give someone an insight into how Europe is placed no matter how small. In a nutshell more Europeans should visit the U.S. and vice versa its the best way for us to understand each other, finally most U.S. T.V programmes received in Europe are things like CSI and Criminal Intent etc. These programmes portray America as a violent gun culture which is not too condusive to promoting tourism. I think as a friend, I would advise the media and citizens to be mindfull about this. I know as a traveler that there is much more to America.

Comment by alan — August 30, 2011 @ 8:15 am
no matter how many times you’ll protest or find excuses for your stupidity and ignorance, you, Americans, can’t change the fact that most of you are still the dumbest, ignorant people on this planet.

Also, someone said ‘America is safe’?

Don’t make me laugh. America is frequently exposed to violence (especially due to black people), so don’t give me this crap about America being a safe place.

And , yes, I’m racist to mexicans, black people, gypsies, indians and a bunch of other southwestern Asian and Middle East shit, so don’t give me crap about world peace or equality between races, cause there isn’t such a thing. Not after all those stupid wars between Arabs and Americans.
Talking about close minded huh?

Thank goodness I live in Europe.

DC: Man, thanks for doing the work for me. Europeans, I feel sorry for you.

Comment by XR — September 21, 2011 @ 6:35 am
Spain IS poor you idiot. Obviously written by some brown nosing American who thinks Europe is the greatest place on Earth.

Spain is not only poor it is one of the poorest countries in Europe, part of the PIGS countries, which includes GREECE ffs!

Comment by Jacques — October 11, 2011 @ 1:17 pm
The only good country in Europe right now is Switzerland and that’s because they are not in the EU, and should thank their lucky stars some clown in Brussels isn’t dictating their laws.

Comment by Jacques — October 11, 2011 @ 1:18 pm
I’m a london girl born and bred and have never been to American but I can name all of your states thank you very much. I don’t think Americans are at all stupid but I think the whole war on terror thing has lost you a lot of sympathy in the UK, especially london. As someone mentioned before do you guys even know about what happened in london? The 7/7 bombings? And to those that are being so rude about Europe, grow up please. We’re a lot more open-minded and liberal then you are and maybe you should take a leaf from our book and not be so quick to anger and going on about how we’re ‘cowards’. We’re all just people trying to get along and I would never call americans stupid because that in itself is blatently stupid! And lastly to that guy being racist, you’re a fucking insect and if you came down to london with that attitude you’d be in shit mate.

Comment by Elena — November 8, 2011 @ 9:49 pm
To who ever is still reading, or who may revise their opinions…. let me give you my opinion on this subject .

Firstly… we are all english! Im sorry, we all hate each other (a remarkably English trait) So lets just forget the geographic nonsense. You come from us… we gave you liberty and democracy and we sacrificed a thousands years to gain it…..so spare me the home of democracy *******s if you please!

Coca cola, dr pepper and bill gates all come from english heritage… not to mention the computer was invented by the british so lets forget your industry and believe me… it is english oriented.

People (Americans) go on about the revolution …. but why>? They defeated less than 1/4 of the british expeditionary force … listen i do not care for who has the biggest balls nonsense … but seriously, the British forces were in china, africa and india, the smallest contingent were in america…. the land we thought was the least trouble.

The fact is the british royal family have their hands in every pie…. look at all the magnates and oil barons… some where along the lines it’s been british backing …. simply put the english own it all and the Americans are simply extensions of European banking clans likes the rothchilds***(spelling) … every war has been planned and america has been needed

As for Americans being secluded … well, they are ignorant, sure. Why fight it? Ive been to new york and florida… they are lovely people… compared to the people of london they are as happy as could be, but simply put this a nation you would not trust looking after itself too!

The people of europe, especially England, are about at least 4 hundred years more socialised then northern america! And i means that … England is now 40+ atheist …. thats the biggest group when you take into consideration muslims, agnostics, jews and the rest.

That is the social progress of hundreds f years worth of science, social and political reform… america can only begin to scratch the surface of this history. Its people do not know the meaning of struggle – england has been conquered numerous of times … but we developed into the strongest nation in the history of the world… never again would we be conquered! But science developed and truth prevailed…. religion was a tool to control the fools of Europe… America is simply too young to understand it yet, but soon you will join the civilised and on that day we will all be doomed….. because then the west will probably attack the east. Good bye east, as an american special marine once said to me , ‘”don’t go to war the English”

Comment by Anon — December 13, 2011 @ 11:23 pm
I’m English (British, whatever) and think all countries have their positives and negatives. There are things about my own country I don’t like but there are things I do. Even though I was born in the UK, I don’t identify narrowly by calling myself only “English” or “British”, I prefer to identify with Europe as I think all of Europe shares a lot in common even though there are often distinct differences between one country, one region and another. I also happen to like the US, Canada etc but equally I am critical of aspects (especially of the US).

Comment by Richard Lewis Williams — December 20, 2011 @ 12:52 pm
Fucking bullshit and Barcelona is the real capital of Spain …

Comment by Karlito — January 11, 2012 @ 9:46 am
Read both the European view & american view of europe to my husband tonight…very funny.

Comment by theresa — January 22, 2012 @ 5:44 pm
Im from Slovakia…there is a mention about us (unfortunatelly not in positive sence), but I dont see any mention about Switzerland or our neighbouring Austria… What is the opinion on those countries? Did you forget to mention them because they fits into the group of “Countries compeletely ignored” too?

DailyCandor: Yes, maybe. Depends on the person. If they’re ignorant of all but the biggest countries in Europe, then CH, AT and SK will not register. Otherwise, the associations can be:
Switzerland: Heidi, Alps, cuckoo clocks
Austria: Germany
Slovakia: Czech Republic’s little brother

Comment by Peter — January 26, 2012 @ 1:51 pm
Nice. But there are 4.6m people in Ireland (6m on the island).

DailyCandor: Oops, dating myself. Didn’t factor in the explosive growth over the last couple of decades. Duly amended.

Comment by Fionn — January 27, 2012 @ 8:34 am
Czechisch little brother… :-/ I hope, that once we will be more known and connected with the “Tatra Tiger” symonym …
Thanks for response

Comment by Peter — January 29, 2012 @ 11:41 am
For all who knows nothing about us too, there is a short video made by our National Tourism portal (it means it is not objective view of whole reality, so you can also take it as a little advertising on my country
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6doVaI8N9c

Comment by Peter — January 29, 2012 @ 11:56 am
Wow, this article is so true. Most of the teenagers (read: 98%) think most of this at my school. They think the U.K. is a floating kingdom in the Atlantic somewhere, French people hate us, Russians are drunk commies, Finland is Nokia, Germans are white supremacists, Italy is full of good food and the mafia, and have no clue what Portugal is – one girl even asked if it was the capital of Canada. (!?) They also seem to think South America is basically the South (“It’s, like, Texas, right?”) and the Caribbean is made up of Cuban smokers, broke Haitians with “big bootys”, and Jamacian druggies.

None of them can even tell you when we celebrate our independence, which is just sad. Sure, they know that D.C. isn’t in the state of Washington and on the east coast, but some genuinely think that Hawaiians still live in grass huts (I didn’t; I lived in apartments). Truth is, a lot of them are ignorant of their own country and can probably list just California, Nevada, Texas, Utah, and Alaska on a map. They think the land mass beneath “Mexico” (because Central America? “Totally Mexico, yeah?”) is Africa and the Middle East is somewhere in the middle of Asia. If you ask them, they’d have no clue what Scandinavia is (“It’s like, by the boot thing, I think.”) or where we’ve been sending our troops for the last few years.

And they’re supposed to be part of America’s smartest generation? They all too obsessed with how skinny you are, how good you looks, and having Jansport backpacks to match all of their fifty pairs of Converse sneakers. I’m sorry if this offends you, but this is my honest opinion, and the kids at my school? They haven’t been proving me wrong yet.

Comment by Jess — February 1, 2012 @ 12:17 am
As an American, I have a few remarks of my own to make. Warning: I am NOT one of those obsequious American ex-pats who feel obliged to apologize to all Europeans because we are the superpower AKA World Policeman. Indeed, I highly resent the way this dubious honor got foisted on us thanks to Europeans’ endless grudge matches that dragged us not into one but two World Wars. To paraphrase and elaborate on Michelle Obama’s remarks; I am neither proud of nor ashamed of my country; I love my country. It’s my country. Kindly respect that.

IMO, the European Motto should be “Never Forgive, Never Forget, Never Learn.” An insult offered to you eight hundred years ago pisses you off more than the one offered eight minutes ago, because you’ve had centuries to stew over it. For people who take such great pride in your knowledge about geography and history, you never learn a damned thing from it, except to contrive to fin new ways to kill each other and as many Americans that you can drag into your squabbles as you can (see WWI and WWII). Resent us all you want, but if we weren’t stuck over there babysitting your silly behinds, you would have wiped each other out by now … over the most miniscule, ridiculous differences imaginable.

To understand why we Americans seem so self-centered, GOOGLE Ron Paul and LISTEN to the thunderous applause and cheers every time he rants against American interventionism, saying “we wouldn’t have these ridiculous deficits, endless wars, destructive blowback ad nauseum ad infinitum if we just mind our own business.” Americans are not interested in empire; we got stuck with it. Americans are isolationist at heart, starting from when George Washington advised the country NOT to embroil themselves in the internal affairs of other countries or any entangling alliances.

READ our Bill of Rights. Familiarize yourselves with our Constitution. Never mind that our corrupt, power-hungry, globalist politicians have wiped their asses with it. Just remember any real, law-abiding American wants to do is live his life with a minimum of outside intrusion and, guess what? He has no problem whatsoever if you want to do the same! The American motto is best defined as “Live and let live.” Our “ignorance” about your history, geography, etc. ad nauseum ad infinitum is NOT based in stupidity, but on a deliberate strategy of hoping against hope that you will fix your own problems and stop looking to US to bail you out of the messes you make.

I do not see why I have to concern myself over what happens in every country of Europe anymore than I see why you have to concern yourself over what happen in every state of these United States. And in my opinion, anyone in Europe who gets their panties in a twist because I do not know nor do I care what happens in their back yard is an attention whore who desperately needs to get a life.

That said, my biggest wish is that the EU turned out to be something more than some ingenious new way Europeans contrived to make everybody’s life over there as miserable as possible. As an American of European descent, I was hoping that Europeans could unite as continental Europeans and all bring their diverse talents to the table to do every European proper. I was hoping they could retain pride in their national heritage while setting aside their national chauvinism and celebrate each other as non-Irish Americans can celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and non-Italian Americans can celebrate Columbus Day. In America, we all liked to be annoyed by New Yorkers, but when New York was attacked on 9-11, there wasn’t a state that didn’t pull with the New Yorkers in their time of need. Europe could be such a great place if the French, the British, the Germans, etc could take pride in and celebrate each other’s accomplishments and comfort each other in their tragedies.

In conclusion, all I have to say is that thanks to your treacherous politicians any Pole who can remain pissed at the Germans who remain pissed at the French, etc., are going to find out that they are feuding in a burning house with your ridiculous policy on immigration causing all of North Africa, Pakistan, and the Middle East to invade your continent. Kindly peel your fingers off of each other’s throats, smell the smoke, and clean up your acts before it’s too late!

Comment by Michelle — February 13, 2012 @ 1:13 pm
[...] to the Dailycandor, Americans have something of a limited but friendly view of Germans that I would have to agree with. Unfortunately, we don’t really know a lot about Germany or [...]

Pingback by My Friends and Neighbors… « living the american dream in europe — February 23, 2012 @ 9:51 am
As an American who has lived in various European countries for close to four years now, I’m amused by both this and your European stereotypes post. And because three of those four years have been spent in Austria, I have some input on what Americans think of Austria: their first reaction is generally “Oh, Australia!”
Then when I inform them that no, Austria is in Europe and they speak German, everyone thinks it’s a part of Germany (several of my relatives remain convinced that I live in Germany).
The best way to get the average American to recognize that Austria is, in fact, a country, is to mention The Sound of Music, a film that most Austrians have never even heard of. Unfortunately, this just makes Americans think of Nazis (although there is some truth to that, because Austrians are astoundingly racist).

And an addition to the European stereotypes: Austrians hate Germans. They think they’re stiff and stupid and really annoying, and they especially hate that the rest of the world thinks they’re German. They do, however, love German tourist money. Oh, and Bavarians are okay. They’re most Austrian than German anyway.

As for knowledge of geography, I’ll admit that many Americans are woefully ignorant (see: my relatives who think I live in Germany). I tell everyone I know to address letters to me with AUSTRIA, EUROPE to prevent it being sent to Australia, which happens fairly often. But I definitely learned geography in school. I had to learn the locations and capitals of all 50 states in elementary school, and then the locations and capitals of every country in the world in middle school. I don’t remember them all exactly, but I do have a general idea where most things are. And my Austrian students are fairly lacking in geographical skills. The most common answer I get when I ask where Minnesota (my home state) is: “In Texas!” Most of them can’t name the capital of Canada (not that Americans can either), a shocking number seem to think that Africa is a country, and a friend of mine had a class tell her that Japan was next to Australia. I’ve had students tell me outright that they don’t care about anything that happens outside of Austria.

On another geographical note, I find that Europeans generally have no concept of just how large the US is. I had some of my classes plan road trips last year, and limited them to 8 hours of driving a day. At first, most of them laughed at the limit, but then they realized that they couldn’t just drive from New York to Miami to LA in a couple of hours. It was amusing to watch them try and figure out how to get everywhere they wanted to go!

And I disagree with some posters that it’s unfair to compare Americans’ knowledge of states with Europeans’ knowledge of countries. Our country is bigger than their continent, and more directly affects our everyday lives. American states are much more independent and diverse than a lot of people realize. In many ways, the US and the EU are comparable, with the states then being comparable to European countries. My state might have 2 million fewer people than Austria, but it’s three times bigger and far more autonomous than, for example, Vorarlberg. I’d say that in general (with a few notable exceptions), provinces within European countries are more like a cross between a county and a political district in the US. People naturally pay more attention to things that are close to them, because that’s what affects them. For Americans, what’s close just tends to be our own country.

Comment by Leah — February 26, 2012 @ 3:29 pm
Hello, I’m Ace.
I know that the section on my countrymen (Filipinos) is really small but I’d like to dispute that stereotype.
I think that the Filipinos you think of are the ones with Spanish blood (Mestizos). Some of the old, rich families here prefer Spain. But the average Filipino doesn’t care about Spain. We neither love them nor hate them. The average Filipino does not care much to beyond “they colonized us for 333 years”.
But most of the lower and middle class really like the US. To them going abroad means going to America, and you are considered privileged/lucky to go there.

Comment by Amihan — February 28, 2012 @ 7:05 am
Where are these mythical Americans who think New York is the nation’s capital, that the Netherlands are the home of Tinkerbell, and that Portugal is part of Puerto Rico? I hear about these people, but I can safely say I’ve never met one. Going by these sorts of statistics, we’re all too dumb to live. It’s a wonder these “average Americans” don’t sometimes forget how to breathe and pass out.

Comment by Jim S. — April 5, 2012 @ 11:08 pm
There is some truth to this article but stating that most Americans associate Spaniards with Mexicans and assume the country is poor, etc. has got to be one the most ridiculous and ignorant statements I’ve ever read.

Comment by Michelle — April 8, 2012 @ 6:07 pm
Thank you eversomuch for perpetuating a stereotype. Please note my sarcasm. When I went to Europe to study in the mid ’70s Italians, French, Germans, always seemed to think that ” America” consisted of New York, and Chicago. Give me a break . . .

Comment by Marianne Head — April 12, 2012 @ 8:59 pm
“Europeans who always remember that China had the Tiananmen Square massacre, a Serb killed Archduke Ferdinand and Serbia gave the world Slobodan Milosevic, etc.”
Well Europeans can remember that Serb killed Archduke Ferdinand who was archduke of Empire that wanted to conquer Europe and Serbia with that murder of archudke started WW1 and win first battle on ally side, same side where were England, France, Russia and USA…..
You still have to learn about history of Europe and i have to learn English because i am well aware that i made too much grammar mistakes in this post…

Comment by Konstantin — April 13, 2012 @ 3:42 pm
Here is another Fact most Irish do not like Americans we find them really annoying full of Bullshit and loud. We laugh at Irish Americans and the way they go on and on about Ireland and how they percieve us and their heritage… most Americans also love to believe we dont like the British but in fact most of us Irish do like the Brits and would prefer British people any day over Americans…My Brother lives in American and when we visit i think most Americans would be surprised as to what we say about them behind their backs….

DailyCandor: Not an Irish-American myself, but we do tend to know how two-faced some of the residents of the British Isles can be, so no worries.

Comment by JAMES SMITH — April 13, 2012 @ 5:10 pm
LOL. I think contemporary Filipinos are more of to idolize Americans more than any other nationality. Aside from that, they tend to be branded (cuz many of them really are) as Caucasianophiles or Westernophiles. Many Filipinos LIKE mostly everything White or Western which makes them very alienated from the rest of the Asians

Comment by pansitkanton — April 15, 2012 @ 10:49 am
… “Beyond that, the only perception of Germany is beer, sausage, sauerkraut and Oktoberfest. And maybe lederhosen.” D: It seems that the whole world thinks Bavaria is Germany…. it’s somehow sad really, but on the other side it’s amusing!

Comment by Nut — April 27, 2012 @ 5:33 am
Agreed on Germany XD but they’ve been complaining about that forever. America has the same problem, everyone thinks Texas is America….Texas certainly thinks it is!

..Dunno about that Spain entry, I always thought Spain looked like Old California from Zorro movies except with nicer buildings and modern dress. And their old Dons had castles.

I tend to think geography is useless for most Americans…What is the point, when you only have enough money to go out to dinner twice a month? And why SHOULD a foreigner know where Milwaukee is? Only someone rabidly self-centered would consider that necessary.

There’s no excuse for not researching your destination if you do go, but most countries are so old…There’s ridiculous amounts of things to trip you up that only people who visit regularly would know.

And that’s another thing to blame on the financial crisis! The fact that I KNOW about the French election and am now worried about the abysmal field of candidates! Seriously, France? Never in my life did I want to even think about French politics! GIVE ME BACK MY IGNORANCE! XP

Comment by Whygod — May 1, 2012 @ 8:35 pm
[...] I think it is important to get a few things out of the way. The following partial list is thanks to DailyCandor, because what they say is somewhat true, generally speaking of [...]

Pingback by What we say, what we mean and what you hear… « living the american dream in europe — May 19, 2012 @ 10:43 am
Americans view Western Europeans as fake and snooty. Fake peace-talking negative whiny neo-imperialists who are envious of US power. Americans think Western Europeans view themselves as the first imperialists and therefore the center of the universe, but actually Americans think their countries are tiny and insignificant today. And its true. Americans see Western Europeans as preying on the developing world, aware of those countries, but feel superior and entitled. We think Western Europeans go to developing countries as backpackers or whatever to seek out the poor to be fanned by them and look down on them, to reinforce their own views of themselves as “still able to colonize”. Of course, there are a few good hearted Europeans and Americans who are genuinely there to help and view them as equals. This contrasts with everyday Americans, for the most part, are unaware or purposely not wanting to know of the developing countries and dont want to have to suffer what they go through, our concept is to “not ever go there”. As far as the US military though, unlike most American people, it has very imperialistic and colonial outlook and behavior, very Western European in character.

Comment by Jack — June 10, 2012 @ 9:20 pm
James Smith. Agree that a lot of us Irish don’t like Irish-Americans, and like to take the piss out of them, but think that has a lot to do with their funding the IRA (along with Colonel Ghadaffi) for decades. If that makes the editor think we’re “two-faced” so be it, but I wonder what their attitude would be if we held regular fundraisers for terrorists groups in their country?

Comment by Sinead — June 14, 2012 @ 6:30 pm
Well, I am a French lady who moved to the United States twenty years ago. I am married with an American, I have great American friends (all well-traveled and educated) a beautiful home, a good life, except…..that everybody around me speaks only English, and assume that because I have been here 20 years I am now American. Nobody cares or is curious about the “other me” who existed in France and other countries for forty years before to come here. And this other me that returns to Europe every year, for them it is vacation, as they do, when I say I go home, their face goes blank.

I love the convenience of the American lifestyle, the beautiful nature, the vast spaces and Americans in general are generous people. Other qualities? hard working, sometimes too hard, most often honest, more than the French, open and direct, sometimes too direct right in your face without any preamble.

Things that I am not too excited about or miss? American traits seen from an insider European perspective? Generalities are unfair, but here is what i have to say:

- Lack of humor. I lived in Great Britain, and I love British humor. Americans do not have a great sense of humor, they don’t play with words, and they confuse humorous and crude.

- People considered as “upper-class” and living in multi-million dollars houses being so ill-cultured, ignorant, ill-mannered and so low class. And if you have all these millions to built a custom home, can you please make it esthetic? No, bigger is NOT automatically better… and do you really need a six car garage? Oh, and the Japanese bridge does not really fit withe the faux plastic French statues and the wannabe Spanish courtyard….

- The U.S. suffers from a fundamental deficiency: E-D-U-C-A-T-I-O-N. Including how to think, to analyze, to synthesize, to criticize, all exercises of the mind that I was taught in public high school growing up in France. I am thankful for it today.

- What really bugs me are Americans who have never left their country and are emitting opinions and comments about Europeans. And the one that bugs me the most is “the French are coward because they could not defend themselves during WWII and we had to go to rescue them”. These people have absolutely no clue of what is it is to be relentlessly bombed until nothing is left standing, to be occupied, to be denounced, deported, to live without food, water, electricity and a roof, to have all industries taken over by enemy, and above all, to be rendered powerless and humiliated.

- When I am returning to France, and in Europe in general, I find myself defending Americans against the French critics. During the Bush area, it was really difficult. I had to admit that half of the country was grossly ignorant and uneducated. The proof was in the pudding. Just by listening to Bush speaking his native language on TV, Europeans knew that if the guy at the White House had such a low level of English, that may be the rest of the country was not going to be too brilliant.

- America, the biggest, the strongest, the best…tarattatta!!! Have you ever lived in another country so you can compare?

- I was asked, after returning from vacation in a Southern France small village, if we had electricity….

- Because I am fit and thin, and at a normal weight, I am told I am skinny. It gets old. Now if I was telling you you are fat, would you like it? Better not starting, I would say it all day long….

- American customer service! you don’t’ think it’s the best? Try the French’s!

All together, it is a good country, a good people. Give them better education, turn off the TV, give them real medical care, better food, and 5 weeks vacations so they have time to read, travel and have a life, and may be, God forbid (still don’t’ understand why He is everywhere that One) they will start to think, deeper and deeper…but that would be too dangerous…

Comment by Marianne D> — July 3, 2012 @ 8:56 pm
I’m thirteen years old, and I live in United States.
I’m only THIRTEEN, and I know a lot more about European culture than this author seems to think an American can possibly know! I have traveled twice to Europe for a church mission trip, and I’m proud to say that I never had any of these biased ideals about Europe. Most Americans are not really that self centered!

Comment by Samantha — July 4, 2012 @ 1:49 am
I am a naturalized American. I was born in France and I love Americans and America even if they seem to not be educated in some areas.
Let’s be fair. Americans are not the only ones who do not know where things are. I have to admit as a Frenchman, that most of my life in France, I did not care about geography about France. I did not know that Marseille was in the South of France and I was surprised that someone from France thought that New Zealand was somewhere in Africa.

I think that Americans admit more their ignorance but I do not think that they are more ignorant. Because of the philosophy of Jean Jacques Rousseau the French philosopher, America during the 1960s adopted the education approach to teach their students the subjects they like. So when Americans know a subject they are good at it.

In Europe, by tradition, we were asked to learn all things. Not everybody remembers it but they were exposed to it. Even though Americans were less exposed to all learnings in recent times as Europeans, they are now catching up.

I do not feel like an island unto myself when I am around Americans and listen to what they have to say. I do not remember my head falling everytime an American-born citizen talks to me. They are actually more knowledgeable than people think.

I would not go back to arrogant France where they think they do everything better. First they do not do everything better, they just think they do and that is it. Long Live America for all its strengths and weaknesses because America is still a city on a hill
Bertrand Feuvray

Comment by Bertrand Feuvray — July 9, 2012 @ 2:36 pm
Have to add another good word for the Americans (of which I am one): it’s usually the ignorant fringe who get the most air-time, at least with our media. I think most Americans like to watch other people make idiots of themselves on TV. The writer of this article seems to think the Miss American pageant girl who didn’t know where the Middle East was is the best representative of her country, which (no duh) she’s not. It’s silly to lump 311,000,000 people together like that. Most people I know are very smart, and very not-on-TV. Some of the smartest people I know are not even on the internet. Shocker.

Comment by Bon Ann — August 10, 2012 @ 6:48 am
Americans are brilliant with tech. And at least they know how to bathe; canadians (esp the quebecois) smell like rotten cheese.

Comment by Dutchy of Netherlands — August 14, 2012 @ 3:34 pm
I like what Dutchy of Netherlands said about Quebeccois smelling like rotten cheese. That is a good one. In France we laugh at their French. It sounds so ridiculous. They do not like English Canadians because of a power struggle but I think they like the French from France even less because we question their very existence–their French, etc.–and we say they are not French like us. I was not well received when I went there. I preferred to be in English Canada. Even my aunt felt the same. She preferred Ontario to Quebec. She was ignored all the way from France to Quebec while she was sitting next to a French Quebeccois during the flight. I am against them becoming independent. That would be like promoting ignorance.
Too bad that America did not make Canada American, Quebeccois would have been swallowed up so fast just like Louisiana. It does not make sense to have two countries as neighbors who speak the same language. That is why I think that Germany and Austria should be one country. It used to be one until Germany broke apart during the Middle Ages. After that they had a hard time to unite again.
Bertrand Feuvray

Comment by Bertrand Feuvray — September 15, 2012 @ 12:56 am
I’m a bitch. I sound like someone who’s never travelled and who’s getting her DL off of Hollywood.

Comment by Marlowe — October 5, 2012 @ 3:45 am
” Indians adore Britain”…..thats …new
Yes there was a point of common history and cultural exchange but definitely not to the point of adoration.
It is treated like any other country albeit with more familiarity.

Comment by dev — October 9, 2012 @ 2:17 pm
I’m Chinese but I’ve been to America for several times and living there for a few months. I must say in general I think that Americans are very friendly people with a great sense of freedom and openness, they’re also quite a creative people with brilliant ideas, nationalistic and proud of being Americans. Some Americans are also tolerant and understanding, they are quite open and accepting “others” with joy and smile. They are also very individualistic, they like to appreciate other people’s uniqueness and quality which make them better in judging other people. Most Americans are also very optimistic about everything, they like to think for the better and simply never give up if they are failing.

But on the bad side, Americans can be greedy and wasteful as they like to waste everything and never satisfied with everything they have, always want more. I also think that some Americans can be arrogant and self-centered because they like to think that they’re better than the others, and considered everything “un-American” is not good. The uneducated Americans are also tend to be racist and ignorant, they have heavy prejudice about others outside America and ignorant about other cultures. Some Americans can be hypocritical, they’re not very sincere/honest about admitting something they have in their minds. Though I actually have no thing against them, maybe a bit of mixed feelings or impression about them in general.

The thing that I like about America is their pop-culture, I like their movies and musics they’re cool and always refreshing. I also like their technologies like weaponry, cyber, and IT which I simply envy because I wish that China one day can catch up too. American amusement parks like Disneyland, Universals, Warner Bros, etc. amuse me a lot, I like to visit them again if I have time to visit America again. Some American cities are nice too such as: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, New York, and Miami which offer all the great things. Those things simply left in my memories when I went back home to China, wish if I could go back and enjoy for once more.

There are certain things that I don’t really like about America is their government policies. American government policies never think about other countries’ interest and always meddling with other countries business. They also like to commit wars everywhere which is simply wasting a lot of budgets and costing a lot lives. I just don’t really like how American government treat China and constantly pressuring China just to fulfill their interest. I also don’t like American medias like CNN, ABC news, Fox news, and CNBC that constantly make false report and prejudiced news about China. I just simply pissed of with that, can’t stand their media biases every time I read. And I don’t really like some Americans lifestyles like dependency on cars or SUVs, junk food consumption, and their consumerism. That’s why, a lot Americans have problems with obesity and money deficit.

That’s all what I can say, if there’s something offending I’m sorry

Comment by Zheng Youshan — November 4, 2012 @ 3:47 am
Arrrrghhh!

Well, I am american from the united snakes of america. I am not white though, I am brown man ya digg. I am a mixture of BlackAneese ( Black/Irish/Pinoy/Japanese).

My views about europeans:
Europeans are too serious. Relax, the Mayan calendar only ends in a few days, don’t worry now. Most europeans are very hatred against their neighboring countries (ie. dutch v.s. deutch & the french v.s. all european countires! lol) Most europeans are very nationalistic and hate their neighbors. I notice that many light-skinned european countries like france, germany, nords, swissmen, generally are very critical about things. They all talk about WWII flashbacks and about the Nazi and Stalin regimes, but you never hear young Americans talking about the Japanese (aka “Japs” during WWII). We don’t look at mexicans from mexico and say “look at that wetback!” Many western europeans hate eastern europeans and I think most all europeans are snobby and think they are king james ( with the exception of spanish and italian people, they are the nicest europeans in my opinion). Many countries around the black and adriatic seas are excluded from being part of “europe” such as romania, bulgaria, turkey, greece and so forth. To the french, dutch and german eyes, they are seen as alien beings and not true european people. Pretty much the drawing line of “europe” ends at the borders of poland, czech, and austria. Everything else east of them doesn’t exist. I think european people tend to build stereotypes about american people as being lazy, ignorant, dumb, and wasteful, and yes we may be all of these, but that’s what makes a nation #1 haven’t you learned yet in your complicated, big, football-sized head? If I ever catch a european trying to be snobby-greedy and racist in my hood rest assured you will get yo head stomped on and it just won’t be me doing the stomping, everyone gets their foot in yo face son.

I feel like most northern europeans all look the same and all smell the same, like dog’s saliva. Europeans are very complicated people. They make everything very complicated, they are like a terrible taxi driver instead of taking the straight route, they make all these u-turns and circles to waste your money. lol. I heard french people don’t even bathe-Everything they do is complex, they think too complex, even the things they make such as vehicles and electronics are way to complicating for no apparent reason. Europeans overcharge on too many items which is why China is striving to soon take the #1 spotlight. Remember yo history only dates as far back as the nomads and ceasar, asian history such as ancient china dates back to more than 10,000 bce and theorist say the cradle of life began in Africa, not europe you fools. Europeans love to take advantage of people and this goes on and on historically from the times of the first roman ships. At least the arabs and muslims and jews fight and try to conquer amongst themselves, but france wants to take over nations like senegal and dakar in which my black folks there don’t even look a bit of shade of white color! The Spaniards and the Germans were the most greediest europeans at one point along with the french, trying to claim every nation abroad as theirs, much like how the koreans and china are trying to do in asia today. I guess this is why most americans and canadians look alike too, because the europeans came and conquered these land masses historically as well. In fact, they are all descents of european blood which is why they are all tall, slow, and stink like rotton cheese and elmer’s glue! At least we as americans try to use the excuse of providing “foreign aid” when really we’re after your oil and resources. I think europeans like to stick amongst themselves, they don’t like to inter-marry with other races especially with asians, but they love to travel.

What I like about europeans:

I like their food, they make one of the best cuisines globally besides the indians and the japanese. The only two european nations who knows how to cook good food are the french, and the italians, but really mostly italians. Europeans do make high quality things but it doesn’t mean I should have to give you half my paycheck for it you greedy european. I think greek people are the laziest europeans of all (what do they make that the world uses today?). I love european artwork, very artistic, very fashionable, everything has to be very complicating and detailed, remember, you are very complex people. I think many european women look way better than some american women, but they all seem too stuck up and very racially segregated amongst blacks, mexicans and asians. I like the creativity of the european mind. I love european music, classical music, french wine, german and swiss precision.

No matter what european country you are from, we americans will call you a stinkin’ european, ok.

Comment by NergoPinoy — December 18, 2012 @ 10:18 pm
True, and funny! I really like the article…
As an Italian thank you for pointing out that there is a difference between contemporary Italian and 50-years-ago-mostly-Sicilian-immigrant. Most of the people do not understand that there is a difference here ))))))))))

Comment by Elena — December 24, 2012 @ 5:41 am
I had to agree with a lot of what was said. You just couldn’t stick to the topic without the “Bush bashing”????

Comment by Jerri — January 6, 2013 @ 5:44 pm
Actually,I know a lot of Americans that know where all of these places are. I’ve known where all of them were since I was at least 9. Before you make Americans seem that stupid get the facts.

Comment by Attiy — January 20, 2013 @ 5:19 am
Ok,so I live in the Netherlands and I’ve watched American movies and TV shows.Movies like ‘the terminator’ said (at the end):”we create our own destiny.” And I actually believed it. My family members said I shouldn’t believe ANY of those quotes in American movies.Also,I think that American people are just descendants from European people who immigrated to America between (I think) 1700-1800,but they look more perfect then we Europeans do and have a lot more interest in things such as dancing,singing or acting.I believe that ANYTHING is possible when you come to the U.S. and your dreams will come true.Just like what they say about New York; a country where dreams are made of.They also said on the TV that the U.S. was a free country (thus you can do anything you like without getting in trouble). I know an Asian person who thinks people from the U.S. are arrogant and stuff and they take everything seriously when it’s about a town in their own country like (an another example from an American movie) ‘Chicago the most favorite city in the world’. But it confuses me that a comment on YouTube from lights her cover of ‘we found love’ said the U.S.A. isn’t a good country anymore and that you shouldn’t come to the U.S. Otherwise I think that there are also much gangsters around in the U.S. Sorry if my grammar isn’t that good,I’m still in high school and under 16-20 years old . I can tell that not all Americans are completely ignorant about Europe.For example Adam Young,the lead singer of owl city.He likes the U.S. but also thinks he could live in the Netherlands and wants to explore Europe. (he hasn’t seen the Anne Frank house yet) He even posted pictures of places in Europe on Instagram ! One more thing about him: he truly LOVED the whole Europe and U.K. Tour. I’ve been wondering about how Americans thought about Europeans and I’m very interested too. I would like to say that I feel quite miserable that the Netherlands doesn’t have many specialties as much as America does. By the way,the Dutch people do NOT only wear clogs,plant tulips,do drugs or ride a bike. Here are my stereotypes for some of the Europeans: Italians:All driving a boat,eating pasta,pizza,mozzarella and they are like very spontaneous. The French: They’re wearing a hat,some of them are mimes and they eat things like croissants,snails and crêpes. Germans. : They love schnitzel and are very jolly plus some of them are on Hitler’s side. Spanish. : They’ll pay any girl with blonde hair to cut a huge lock off so they can wear it themselves or sell it.They. Fight with bulls,ride on horses and beat mafias.I think they also dance the flamenco a lot. Scandinavia: They’re very tall people who speak in a funny accent with mostly the letter ø in it. It’s very cold there and if you’re driving near a forest,you might hit a deer xD (anyway,that’s what my cousin said about when they were on vacation in Denmark). Russia: Country full of communists. The British : People who are drinking tea every afternoon with cookies or scones. They have a very royal accent and they’re very neat.They have candystores with a huge variety of jellybean flavors and the entire U.K. is a magical place (because of books like Harry Potter,king Arthur and Molly Moon). The Irish: They eat potatoes and if you see a clover four a leprechaun will show up and gives you a rainbow including a pot of gold at the end. They love playing music and going to the pub. According to their history there was a conflict between the North and the south. One of these two parts was catholic and the other part was Protestant. People in Switzerland: They yodel,drink beer,eat bratwurst and are farmers with goats and cows. Yugoslavia: A classmate of mine came from this part of Europe and she had a funny accent.She was Muslim but had to move out of the country. I now know that several countries had people who had different beliefs/religions and that’s how this country/nation fell apart. That were all the stereotypes that I know,I do know that there is a country named Luxembourg though! Can anybody reply me and tell the TRUTH about Americans please? I find it very interesting that some people don’t know Europe,they should really visit sometime,Europe is great. (this is not meant arrogantly or proudly I love all countries) Should I believe all the media about what they say about America?

Comment by Henriette — February 26, 2013 @ 3:19 pm
Even though I am a French national naturalized American (citizen), I cannot understand the lefttist views of my own people the French. I cannot understand the hatred for President Bush. Have all these people who hate him so much ever go online and see the great impact he Had in Africa???? Over there he is adored because he did so much to fight AiDS. But he did nothing to let the media know or maybe the media did not want to know because they had a different agenda. I feel if anyone should be hated it should be the media.

Right now in America Rush Limbaugh and other are constantly attacking the media because of their fabrications or lies. They support obama when he is trying to destroy them. Do tthe mass media know that they are losing money and what obama is doing will make them lose even more money. Maybe one day they will wake up and realize that instead of defending the left, they should defend the political party that is in favor of business.

Comment by Bertrand Feuvray — March 19, 2013 @ 11:33 pm

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