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23 Awful Stories That Will Remind Americans To Be Respectful When They Visit Other Countries
There’s a common joke in Europe about how to know that tourists are Americans: you’ll hear them before you see them. And while people from the United States are generally known for being friendly, accommodating, and open-minded, they don’t exactly have the best reputation as travelers.
Redditors from all over the world have been discussing the most obnoxious and disrespectful things they’ve seen Americans do while visiting their countries, so we’ve gathered a list of their replies below. Now, we hope it goes without saying that not all American tourists are like this. But perhaps this list will remind travelers to be a bit more conscious of their behavior while abroad!
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#1
Last year I heard some Americans mocking an Icelandic tour guide because she pronounced "biscuits" as "beesqueets".
Not "oh that's so cute" type gentle mocking, but like "Oh my god, she can't say biscuits, what an idiot". They were openly laughing at her a little while later when she slightly mispronounced another word.
Completely ignorant of the fact that this lady spoke fluent Icelandic, English, French, German and Danish.
Colleen Glim 18 minutes ago
Biscuit is pronounced beesquee in French. The tour guide did nothing wrong and the tourists need to learn that American English is not a universal language
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#2
Disrespecting the royal guards.
oh my god that annoys me. they are trained specialists with ~10 years in the Army. They could destroy anybody in a heartbeat.
Colleen Glim 17 minutes ago
So disrespecting an American army guard is bad but disrespecting a British army guard is perfectly allowable. That’s quite the double standard
#3
Trying to do the accent of the country you are in. No, you can't do it right.
Traveling abroad for the first time is extremely exciting. But along with being tons of fun, it can be intimidating if you don’t know much about the country you’re heading to or the culture that you’ll be stepping into. That’s why it’s so important to do your research before flying out. Otherwise, you might make a huge fool of yourself and represent your entire nation in a terrible way.
According to the Pew Research Center, 76% of Americans have visited at least one other country. Meanwhile, over a quarter of the nation has traveled to at least five other countries. So the stories on this list probably aren’t about the people who are used to jetsetting every year. It’s likely that these tales target those who had never stepped foot outside of their state until they bought a flight to Paris, Rome, or Mexico City.
#4
It's not something that keeps me up at night or anything, but it is slightly annoying when they try to claim some level of European heritage by saying "I'm German!" or whatever, when it turns out the last antecedent to even be born in Germany was 200 years ago.
You aren't German. You're American. Sure, you've got German ancestry, but that doesn't make you German. You're American. Own it.
If you just said "my family are originally from Germany, that's why we're here" or whatever, brilliant. Let's help you find where they lived, if you've got any relatives here etc.
Colleen Glim 15 minutes ago
I’m Canadian but I know my ancestry is very Scottish and would love to see the places in my great grandfathers stories one day
#5
Once heard an american tourist ask "Why would you build a castle under a flight path?".
#6
Scotland.
Littering the shite out if everything.
Driving on country lanes in big camper vans with zero rural experience, causing mayhem.
Calling it England.
I've been asked about the ferry to Canada once.
Elladine DesIsles 1 minute ago
Please, don't send those tourists here (by some means other than a ferry)! The Americans looking for ski hills in July are bad enough.
Regardless of where you’re from, it’s important to make sure that you respect the local culture and traditions when traveling abroad. You can’t expect people to behave the same way that they do back home, and you have to be willing to adjust your own behavior. After all, you’re the tourist stepping into someone else’s home.
It might be frowned upon to speak loudly in public, wear sandals or shorts in religious monuments, and to smile at strangers. It’s also always a good idea to learn at least a few words in the local language to show that you respect their culture. Saying “hello” and “thank you” in a shopkeeper’s native tongue can go a long way. Plus, you can’t expect everyone to speak English if you’re in a country that speaks something else. Be patient, and be kind.
#7
Said that he is afraid to walk around our capital because he thinks he will get attacked by rats.
#8
Thinking everything is super-amazing, super-beautiful, super-great, and not being afraid to say it repeatedly. It's way too much and it sounds fake.
Or, the exact opposite, but the effect is the same : it sounds fake.
#9
I overheard an American woman exclaiming really loudly; "Oh my Gawd! This is delicious!! You gotta try it we don't have ANYTHING like this back at home!" - the lady was with her friends in a very quiet pub talking about pork scratchings and trying to catch the eye of everyone else in the pub. - Dont get me wrong im realy pleased she enjoyed them, but the americans tend to be louder and more exuberant then us Brits.
Colleen Glim 12 minutes ago
I gotta admit pork scratching are crunchy crack, but pork rinds are also pretty dàmn good
We would love to hear your thoughts on these stories in the comments below, pandas. Are you an American who tries to be as respectful as possible while abroad? Or have you seen Americans behaving poorly in your own country? Feel free to weigh in, and then, you can find another article from Bored Panda discussing similar stories about tourists right here!
#10
Can you do the Riverdance? Can you speak Gaelic? Do you know the way to "Cob H"or how about the way to "you gawl"? Are you are from Cork so do you know O'Sullivan's,?you see my great great great great great great grandfather is Michael O Sullivan.I'm actually 1/10th Irish, 2/10ths polish, 3/10ths French etc, "I'm from Florida United States of America!!"
Ahhh but ye are a nice bunch of people to be fair.
#11
Getting way to overexcited. I live in Ireland and I'm ginger with a short temper, literally a walking stereotype, so its not uncommon for tourists, particularly American or Asian, to just randomly take pictures of me, without my consent. This has been happening since I was 5.
#13
I'm mexican, so while visiting family down in Mexico, note not a heavily tourist area, they asked some servers in a restaurant if they can get someone who speaks "american" to take their order.
#14
Mexican, I saw some Americans complaining about how bad mexico was, I got curious and heard the rest of the conversation, basically they said they didn't like any of the things in the hotel, they said that the food was bad and they only played bad music and started attacking the whole country, now the fun thing is that the only Mexican stuff in that place were the employees, it was all American food, American music, American people, the menu wasn't in pesos it was in dollars.
I seriously couldn't believe they didn't realized they didn't experience Mexico at all, they were basically in a mini USA, especially designed for tourists, these people didn't realized that they were talking s**t about their own country and culture, but replicated in another country, by their own people.
#15
My mom and I were downtown when an American tourist came up to me and asked where a certain restaurant was. I didn't know, so I asked my mom in French if she knew where the restaurant was. The American got mad and told me to speak English, he couldn't understand what I had asked. I said I had asked my mother where the restaurant is because I didn't know. He then says, "Why didn't you ask her in English? I thought Canadians spoke English." then my mom saw him yelling at me and said in French, "Is something wrong here?" The American just threw his hands up and walked off saying something about I thought they spoke English here. For reference, we were in Quebec City. Don't know if he ever found the restaurant.
#16
Not really disrespectful, just dumb.
At the Eden Project, two American women were angrily complaining to staff that the tropical biome wasn't air conditioned.
Colleen Glim 6 minutes ago
These are the same people who would whinge that the sun was too hot or there was sand everywhere on a tropical vacation. There’s no pleasing some people
#17
Asked if i liked Abba in an accent, and made fun of me for being one of few average looking swedes. I mean, i’d say compared to how above average weight people look in other countries, i’m not bad, but i’m in a country of gods and godesses, i mean why do you think Chris Hemsworth was cast to play a norse god? He looks like a what a stereotypical swede is described as in fiction.
#18
American here who went with a small group through Russia, Siberia, Mongolia and China. One lady with us complained about absolutely *everything*.
She complained about the food, the weather, the hotels, the trains, the airport, the places of interest, etc. Especially the food. Look lady, you are a guest in these countries, act like one. And she claimed to be an experienced world traveler.
Colleen Glim 4 minutes ago
Why do you even book a vacation like this if you aren’t prepared for conditions in other countries? Multiple resort vacations do not make you an “experienced world traveler”
#19
THEY TALK SO LOUD. And act all friendly with strangers. "How are you?" What do you care?
(Denmark).
#20
I live in Sweden and my family invited a group of American students to stay with us to observe our culture over the summer. One of them returned our hospitality by drunkenly peeing all over our sacred ancestral tree. That's a big no-no and we had to punish him for it.
Another student was invited to look at our holy book since he seemed very interested in it but we very clearly told him not to record it in any way as we consider that sacrilege. Well, he had the audacity to sneak out at night to take pictures of our holy book much to our dismay. Fortunately we caught him in the act and we punished him accordingly.
Safe to say that they are no longer welcome here.
#21
This happened about 10 years ago. A white American guy got into an argument with a black guy at a bar in Bosnia. White guy proceeds to call him the n-word. A group of locals picked him up by his arms and legs and threw him outside on the street. It was great.
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