What do foreigners think of Americans?

Question

What do foreigners think of Americans?

Answer 1

I have read the articulate and eloquent responses to this oft posted question and have found,to my consternation,that the word "obnoxious" is sadly missing from them.

The american reply to these observations will,of course,be the usual one or two syllable replies

They all want to be like us.

They are all jelouse [sic]

They envy the way we live.

They all want to come here.

We invented everything and we invented the internet (titter)

and one of the most amusing replies was "We beat the n***s for them in two world wars"I had a good chuckle over that one.I shouldn't I know,because,when you think about it,it is truly frightening,that a people wielding so much power,are so ignorant about the rest of the world or R.O.W as they like to say.

Answer 2

Having the worst president now, please make a better choice for later so the world won't suffer your fooliness.

Answer 3

Obviously, there are lots of you and generalizations might not be overly accurate, but here they are in any case.  I must mention that although Americans are pretty much universally hated, (I was actually SPAT at in Europe when I was mistaken for one), the individuals I have come to know are likeable and respectable people.

1)  Americans think that America is the only civilized nation in the world and are completely ignorant about anything outside the US (I ran into some ladies from Michigan who had never heard of Ontario, honest to God!  We are made to learn all 50 of your states while most of you can't even name 3 provinces!)

2)  You don't know any history besides your own

3)  Your president is an idiot, and you still voted him in

4)  In a nation that is supposedly so wonderful, you have a huge percentage of your population below the poverty line and treated like second-rate citizens-Look at the time it is taking to rebuild after Katrina while billions of dollars are being spent in Iraq

5)  You have a TERRIBLE health care system and anybody who needs care but isn't rich is practically left for dead

6)  Your youth is composed of kids who are in gangs or kids who look like they're straight off The O.C

7)  Americans from the south are racist and homophobic hicks

8)  You kill each other a lot more than we do because of your "right to bear arms."

9)  Many Americans are loud, crude and arrogant with a large sense of entitlement, talking down to people they encounter while travelling to other countries

10)  Fast food capital of the world!  The news coverage of your hotdog eating contests and the like don't do much for this image either.

11)  You believe in human rights, unless the human in question isn't American, in which case it is perfectly acceptable to lock up a person for years even before charging them with a crime.  It is also okay to torture non-Americans because human rights don't have to apply when it isn't convenient.

Answer 4

I like Americans i have/had American friends they are good people. It's just the government and the arrogance and 'we are the world and f*ck everybody else' way of thinking that people really dislike about America.

I mean just look at y/a it's everywhere. I know not all are like that.

Answer 5

I'm from England, and I think the media often presents Americans as very stupid. I'm not saying I agree with this view. America is obviously a huge place, so there will be idiots, but I think the rest of their population isn't publicised to other countries. Bush is made out to be a joke, women are made out to be ditzy tarts, teenage boys are made out to be s*x addicts, their nation is made out to be fat and stupid. And things like Jerry Springer and the majority of people starring on America's Got Talent present the view to a lot of people that the nation is made up of freaks, when compared to the seriousness of our Britain's Got Talent and Jeremy Kyle show.

I, however, don't agree that people in America are like that, but a lot of people do, purely because of the media.

Answer 6

If I didn't like Americans I wouldn't bother writing, but there are things that only your best friend would tell you...

We REALLY don't like your President. The last fellow was both competent and likable, but considering the strong financial condition and generally high esteem the US was held in 2000, this latest chap has really messed things up. You are also prone to political instability, suffering Coups d'Etat on 11/22/1963, 7/11/2000 and 2/11/2004. Your date format is illogical (day then month then year grows from left to right) and you don't know how to spell correctly.

We think you are unnecessarily loud, semi-literate if at all, unrealistic, credulous, and lacking in finesse. Where you feel the stereotype American couple is John Wayne and Maralyn Monroe, everyone else sees Slim Pickens and Rosanne Barr. Few Americans travel, so of course you are going to lack an international frame of reference. When one of you does travel, you assume that all foreigners envy Americans and want to be like them. It's probably just as well you don't travel much, because almost everyone outside the USA prefers Canadians to Americans anyway, because they are; polite; self-depricating; and... well... not American.

Your cars are grotesquely oversized and inefficient, and you still pay a ludicrously small amount for Petroleum relative to the rest of the World. You create 25% of Worldwide polution for 2% of Worldwide Population. We think you are dirty and wasteful.

The Penal and School Systems are a car wreak. You have spent rather than invested the little tax you have paid for the last 35 years. Your foreign trade policy is set by a South American fruit conglommerate. Rolled up newspapers don't kill people. Guns don't kill people. People with rolled up newspapers don't kill people. People with guns kill people. "People" + "Guns" = "a very bad combination".

Jazz music; the confusion that occurs when people who were too dumb to learn to read music or even join an amateur orchestra, get together to multiply their lack of talent. They rehearse without a conductor or sheet music, they disagree about exactly which piece they are attempting to butcher, and nobody knows how to finnish.

You may or may not have put a man on the Moon, but you dropped the ball, and have lost moral leadership and authority. We smile at the Hubris of Corporations categorising RoW (Rest of World) Sales as secondary. Now that your Financial Services Industry has caused a worldwide depression, it has become an even bigger, scarrier, and more grotesque joke than your Healthcare Industry or your Currency.

Only Americans of European Ancestry from your South Eastern corner seem to believe that the 1861-1865 War was about Succession. To everyone else in the World it was about Slavery. Confederates were never "romantic", and re-enacting Civil War battles dressed in Confederate uniforms is in very poor taste. Two words; "Moral" "Gradient".

The Media has brainwashed Americans to look at "Poor White"; "Poor Black"; "Rich White"; "Rich Black", and see the most significant categories as "Black" and "White".

Americans are never quite as stupid as you'd like or expect them to be, but they're often come tantelisingly close.

Answer 7

The Americans I have known have been nice people, but a little bit loud and pushy.

But I'd love to come to America one day and see it all for myself :o)

Answer 8

who really cares what they think of us. to h**l with 'em.

Answer 9

Well, for one thing, I expect they don't consider themselves foreigners.

Answer 10

Being an Aussie, and having a (very) fat American man and his (very) fat wife waddle up and down the platform at my cities train station yelling "Does anybody here speak English?" sort of skewed my perception of Americans...

Most of what I see in the media is that a large percentage of the population tend to just believe whatever the media and the government tell them without thinking for themselves. I'm pretty sure that Americans are just like everyone else, just trying to live their lives and have a good time, but a little less of that leftover arrogance from the eighties would be nice!

For instance "Who cares what they think of us", or "We're the greatest!", or "We're the most powerful nation in the world, you have to do what we want!" isn't a good way to make friends overseas. Obviously, the last two are completely and totally wrong! A little humility goes a very long way in this world...

Answer 11

they should get with the program and learn from  them, so we can all go with the flow.

Answer 12

Heh :) I love my American friends (who tend to have the same view of Americans I do), but I wouldn't visit the US if it were free.

I think the people above have pretty much covered everything I feel about the States, though I do want to add that on a personal note, I'm also frightened by the giant glow in the dark teeth many Americans seem to have and that they should stop destroying our planet with their insane levels of polution and war-mongering tactics.

To finish, here are the answers to some questions I have unfortunately been asked more than once in my life by Americans:

1) Yes, we do have TV in New Zealand. Colour ones even.

2) No, New Zealand is not part of Australia.

3) No, I'm not a May - Ori.

4) Yes, I speak English.

5) No, you talking even louder than normal, will not help me understand you better.

6) No, your kiwi accent is terrible, please stop trying.