Misperceptions foreigners have about the US

[NW-Bound]

I am not a fan of soccer, actually not of any spectator sport, so do not know about Euro 2012 as I do not follow it. I even stopped watching the Olympic games quite a few games ago.

When writing the above post, I was thinking of an incidence I read quite some years back, when British fans battled Italian fans in a game hosted in another country yet, Holland perhaps.

Yes, like you said, it could be more about racism and thuggery than national hubris, but a bystander might not make the difference.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R My, you are the skeptic, aren't you.

Well, first of all I am not implying a one night stand, but a relationship. Hook-up is very ambiguous term; I should have come up with some other way to exress my thoughts. Obviously a one-night stand is not likely to get you invited to your partners family occasions, or introduced to his-her friends.

Secondly, I am not talking about you or about me, but only about what I have observed over and over, and been told my many people.

Just take an extended trip alone, vs. with a spouse or SO. Many people have obseved that their singleness often makes getting to know others easier. There might be many reasons for this, including that people who travel alone may be more naturally outgoing, otherwise it's very easy to get lonely fast.

Ha

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha Just take an extended trip alone, vs. with a spouse or SO. Many people have obseved that their singleness often makes getting to know others easier...

Uh... I'd better not take that Alaskan RV trip alone. Could be danger.

My wife probably would not let me do it either. Female perception, ya know?

[marko]

A friend who worked at our German office came back from EAST Germany right after the wall came down.

Forgetting that I was standing there, she said: "oh, its just like the States: dirty and the roads are all full of potholes and there are telephone poles with wires all over them."

Most of my foreign friends note the telephone poles and all the wires. Not what they see on American TV!

[tmm99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever Maybe we should all promise not to believe what movies and tv tell us--I won't believe everyone in Russia is in the Russian mob and everyone in India dances frenetically in dirty streets and everyone in England has a polished accent, and "foreigners" can stop believing the Kardashians are the epitome of American culture.

I give my co-workers/friends (software engineers) from India a hard time about the dancing. (Why don't you guys just sprint out of the cubes and start dancing or something? I will do the singing!) Interesting thing is though, they all do like to dance.

[Sarah in SC]

Although I'm the native where I live, most of my friends are from elsewhere and moved here, but Ha, I think you might be wrong about how much time people spend at work, or at least in this part of the world. I do know that I "lose" people when they have kids, but for the most part, the people who share my interests are people who aren't slaves to their jobs.

One of the very best things we ever did to enlarge our circle of friends was get a boat. We have not only found interesting and like-minded people associated with boating, but have made some incredibly strong friendships with people we might never have met otherwise.

Another strong friendship builder for me was the dog rescue work I do--even though many of my friends are folks that live a good distance from me, we still manage to get together and talk dogs when we meet for events and transports.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha Well, first of all I am not implying a one night stand, but a relationship. Hook-up is very ambiguous term; I should have come up with some other way to exress my thoughts. Obviously a one-night stand is not likely to get you invited to your partners family occasions, or introduced to his-her friends.

I find it mildly amusing that you would assume this is an acceptable way to gain friends. There are MUCH easier ways to do that. Like, being considerate, outgoing, and generally someone that would be a good friend, etc etc etc.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmm99 ... they all do like to dance...

There you go! People always complain about stereotypes, but the truth is that they are rarely baseless, and most often very apt to describe a certain trait of a group of people. The problem is stereotypes have a tendency to become racist or demeaning.

[nun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marko Most of my foreign friends note the telephone poles and all the wires. Not what they see on American TV!

Yes I noticed that when I first came to the states. The streets all looked so cluttered and untidy. In the UK power, phones cables etc are all under ground. Then the winter came and we had a couple of power outages because of ice.....

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiliPepr Dont forget, the size of Azerbaijanis about the same as Maine, and Peru is about the size of Texas+New Mexico+Arizona... How much would someone in those countries know about one of those four states? Never mind be able to place them on a map.

You would actually be surprised how many people in other countries know about Texas... it shocked me....


I would say that the states that people know about are California, New York and Texas... with New York they only think it is the city....

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Uh... I'd better not take that Alaskan RV trip alone. Could be danger. My wife probably would not let me do it either. Female perception, ya know? PS. FIFY.

I'd rather that if you are going to quote my post, you'd quote my post rather than your changed version of it. I understand that you are joking, but I'd prefer not under my handle.

Ha

[mod edit--original material in quote restored]

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I find it mildly amusing that you would assume this is an acceptable way to gain friends. There are MUCH easier ways to do that. Like, being considerate, outgoing, and generally someone that would be a good friend, etc etc etc.

please don't misunderstand me, then put me down based on your misunderstanding. You are implying/assuming things that are no part of my post or my meaning. As I said, that someone forms a relationship that turns out to be socially helpful does not imply that they are using anyone. Why do you insist on trying to make this personal? I have eyes to see, and ears to hear. I will stop posting other than on purely concrete forums if this is what I can expect.

Sorry if I stepped on your toes in my origanal post; I meant no disrespect. I still say, it doesn't hurt to have a ready made family. Umpteen western men living in third world countries are testimony to this. They are the ones who aren't semi-drunk midday.

This kind of annoys me.

[BigNick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Yet, many international soccer games in Europe ended up in violence, resulting in death of many spectators.

The past tense is apposite there. I'm trying to remember the last time anyone was killed at a European soccer match. The 1970s (in the UK) and 1980s (in Europe) were quite bad, although it's all relative -- soccer violence tends to get a lot more publicity than other violence.

My favourite "violence" stat is that at no point during the "Troubles" period, from 1969-1997, did the homicide rate per 100,000 population in Northern Ireland exceed the homicide rate in the United States.

[kombat]

I have nothing to base this on, but I often wonder if large portions of the world population would be dumbfounded that North Americans urinate in water clean enough to drink. It seems to me that surely that would blow the minds of people in drought-ridden regions of the world. Am I right, or is it pretty much common knowledge that the Western world has vast amounts of clean water?

[tmm99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Letj My formative years were spend in another culture where friends are family and acquaintenances/strangers are friends (the country is just one big mass of friendly and kind people). In this culture I could spend hours talking to a friend about the most mundane details of my life, my innermost feelings, politics or whatever and feel very connected heart to heart as if I am talking to a member of my own family.

I think I understand where you are coming from. I am originally from Japan, and many Asian cultures can be that way especially in rural areas. It's nice that people are very close. But there is a price to pay for that in my opinion. People tend to make your business their business. They expect you to act a certain way.

American people (if I could generalize) are much more individualistic and they respect who you are and your privacy (as long as it doesn't directly affect them.) Some people will share more personal experiences than others, but they do not expect you to do the same. To me, that is the beauty of this country. It's OK to be different here - OK to be any way you want to be. Maybe people cannot get many very close friends here the way they do in some close knit cultures outside of this country , and maybe that's the price we pay to keep our individuality. I certainly find more non-conformists in this country than a country like Japan.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigNick My favourite "violence" stat is that at no point during the "Troubles" period, from 1969-1997, did the homicide rate per 100,000 population in Northern Ireland exceed the homicide rate in the United States.

The homicide rate in the US is nothing anyone can be proud of. However, if my memory serves, many of the murders were committed against people that the perpetrators knew, i.e. friends or family members, meaning they were not of a racist origin, if we were still talking about national hubris.

[FIREd]

This thread has gone far enough. Thanks to all those who participated.

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