May 12, 2006
Self-hating Americans
Mary Katharine Ham, who I had the pleasure of meeting at the poker event I attended in DC last month, quotes Jim Geraghty on what is worse: the ugly American abroad or the ugly American travel snob abroad.
I have to admit that I've been both and now definitely prefer to be the former. I've told this story before but my younger brother snapped me out of my snobbery. We were traveling through Britain, he was 14 and I was a snotty 19, and he was acting so...I dunno, American. He wasn't trying to curb his slang so people could understand him better, something I always did, and seemed to be going out of his way to throw 'yo' into sentences. He would ask random stores if they would accept dollars so he wouldn't have to go get pounds (I'd yell at him for it but the truth is they always said they would) and just generally making sure that no one was confused as to his nationality. I said to him exasperated "you act so American!" He shot back "I am American!" When he said it, I saw that I was using 'American' as a synonym for bad and, c'mon, even then I knew we were the best.
Posted by Karol at May 12, 2006 04:40 PM | TrackBackTechnorati Tags: Americans+Abroad
Traitor!
Posted by: JD at May 12, 2006 06:11 PMYour brother is a bit dim if he thinks the convenience of using dollars here outweighs the amount he will be further ripped off (I'm making the assumption you were in one of the capitols where the prices are already jacked up, right?
Posted by: bryan at May 13, 2006 01:54 PMHe was 14 at the time. Pretty sure he could care less about the exchange rate.
Posted by: Karol at May 14, 2006 04:13 PMNot sniping at him, more about London prices.
Posted by: bryan at May 14, 2006 08:27 PMAs someone who recently completed the full set of continents, I can honestly say the only place I've been where anyone cared about my American-ness was French Geneva. But I give the French a break, because the French don't even like the French...
Posted by: Mark Poling at May 14, 2006 09:47 PMThat's cool to act American and all but I disagree with not curbing your slang or speaking slower if people can't understand you.
Not doing so is just plain stupid and rude. If you aren't going to try to communicate in a way so people can understand you then why bother talking at all. Keep yo mouth shut!
