[Idyllchat] In Defense of Americans

[Russell Crum]

On Jul 9, 2008, at 18:20 , Michele Spann wrote:

> I am finally going to enter this conversation because someone has  
> to.  Beginning in Europe in the 1960's, we have traveled virtually  
> all over the world; many third world countries, Asia,Southeast Asia,  
> Africa as well as the states freed from the domination, first of  
> Russia then the Soviet Union etc.  Our experience has been that  
> Americans, for the most part, dress better, behave as well or  
> better, are just as polite if not more so and most assuredly tip  
> better as a sign of appreciation for good service than any other  
> tourists.  As tourists we have been invited into homes, invited to  
> weddings, made many close friends who have invited us to their  
> country and visited us in ours, as well as Americans who do the  
> same.  We have always been well received wherever we have gone and  
> have seen and experienced as much rudeness on the part of Europeans  
> as people from any other country, most especially our own.
>
> While hiking in Glacier National Park recently we met a couple from  
> England who come to the American West on every vacation because,  
> "You have all this beautiful space and Americans are so receptive to  
> and polite to us."  I might add that Jerry Clancy's daughters were  
> marvelous sources of information when we went to the same villa  
> where they stayed in Tuscany - and I am pretty sure they are  
> Americans.
>
> In Arizona

Michele,

It seems to me that the tone of your note implies that you feel the  
recent chain of emails here has been disparaging to Americans. I think  
it is invalid to make sweeping generalizations about the behavior of  
any nationality group such as: Americans are ...., The French  
are ...., The Brits are ......

My experience has been that none of these peoples have a corner on  
best or worst behavior.  Where I think many Americans run into  
problems abroad is when we go there with attitudes like: "we do this  
or that the best in the world", "you owe us Americans because of the  
war", "you owe me service because I am a big tipper", etc., etc.  Our  
daughter was an au pair for a family in Paris after she graduated from  
college. One day she was upset because of the treatment she received  
from some store and was sure it was because she was an American and  
her French wasn't totally fluent. The family assured her that was not  
the case when they said "that store treats everyone that way, even  
us". Unfortunately, many Americans receiving bad treatment from a  
business like that will come home and tell their friends "the French  
don't like us Americans", or "the French are very rude to Americans".   
That makes as much sense as me saying "the XYZ store sure doesn't like  
people with grey hair" based on my one unfortunate encounter with that  
store.

As you mentioned, our experience also has been that locals in various  
countries have usually been very gracious and welcoming to us. Sad to  
admit, on more than one occasion I have been embarrassed by how much  
more a European knew about our country than I knew about his/hers. I  
frequently think that our provincial attitudes in this country hinder  
our understanding of cultural differences between us and others. I  
believe that contributes to many of the misunderstandings that we hear  
about.

OK. Soapbox ends.

Russ

Russ Crum
rrcrum1 at gmail.com




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