Comments on: What Americans think of Europeans

By: Whygod

Whygod — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:35:00 +0000

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

By: Nut

Nut — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:33:54 +0000

… “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!

By: pansitkanton

pansitkanton — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 17:49:29 +0000

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

By: JAMES SMITH

JAMES SMITH — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:10:08 +0000

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.

By: Konstantin

Konstantin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:42:03 +0000

“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…

By: Marianne Head

Marianne Head — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:59:36 +0000

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 . . .

By: Michelle

Michelle — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 01:07:20 +0000

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.

By: Jim S.

Jim S. — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 06:08:54 +0000

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.

By: Amihan

Amihan — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:05:52 +0000

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.

By: Leah

Leah — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:29:22 +0000

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.