le veritable wrote:
Having spent time in the USA recently, the level of ethnic tension and segregation is quite shocking when compared to Europe. Yes, France and Italy are particularly bad, but I was shocked by the extent that blacks, latinos and whites in the US seem to inhabit different worlds.
Nowhere in the USA is as racist as France and Italy are.
During the World Cup, on the french news sites and social networks people wouldn't shut up that benzema "wasn't really french." "Oh benzema a marqué?? Vive l'algerie!"
That's only one example. Then of course there are the bananas people throw on the field during soccer games, and the hatred of Muslims in Britain, and the hatred of Africans in the Nordic countries...it goes on and on. The USA is actually one of the more tolerant nations when it comes to race. Our past isn't pretty, but it's much better now. The media blows certain events (ferguson, Zimmerman) way out of proportion of course.
Anyways, one of the most untrue stereotypes is that Americans who travel abroad are loud. It simply isn't true. I've travelled a lot in Western Europe, and lived in Spain, France, and Germany, and the best reason I can come up with is that a lot of Europeans speak English and other Europeans mistake them for Americans. For example, when Germans go to France, do they speak french? No, they speak English. And 99% of french people can't tell it's a foreign accent, so they assume they are American, since the USA is home to the most native/first language English speakers. Maybe the Nordic countries (who speak English really well) would be able to tell it's a foreign accent, but 99% of people from France, Italy, Germany, Spain, etc, won't know the difference.
As an American and native English speaker, I would be the very first to recognize my home accent when I hear it, especially when it's loud, and that rarely happens.
There are some American stereotypes that are true--like when you see a fat, badly dressed person in Europe, it's probably an American--but the one about them being loud is 100% false.