As an American citizen living overseas, it is with great interest that I read articles addressing things like American arrogance. I have been recently asked by some here in my host nation of Germany about things like the Burger King fiasco. (Burger King is documenting — for want of a better word — their search for “Whopper virgins” around the world - those who have never tasted their burgers.)
It is sometimes difficult — as someone who represents all things American, whether I actually do or not — to remind a citizen of another country that not all Americans think like this or act that way. When pushed for some kind of explanation, what other answer is there for the Burger King-esque behavior than greed, arrogance, and blatant insensitivity? Again I assert that most Americans are not like this. Sometimes, though, Americans are the ones who challenge that assertion.
Much of my community is made up of Americans who live here, not American tourists. When those of us who live here do come across American tourists, it's sometimes nothing less than embarrassing - the pedestal upon which so many arrive. I honestly don't think most of them even realize what they're doing or how utterly offensive it can be to others - to include their fellow Americans.
We have several friends with children who were born overseas and have lived overseas their entire lives. They visit relatives in America more or less as tourists, not citizens. As these parents retire from American government work overseas and take their children "home," they are hit with culture shock and taken aback by how much it impacts their kids.
You’d think a life spent overseas would add a little glamour to the resume, as it were, of a child (usually a teenager) in a new school in America, but it often ends (quickly) with that child being thought of as snotty and aloof because they're well-mannered compared to their American soil-born-and-raised peers, they often speak another language(s), and they don't actively participate in conversations where foreigners and the bilingual are disparaged. They don’t quite understand the allure of binge drinking, and they can be seen staring — in that special way teens do — at those who would whisper about someone speaking a foreign language or wearing foreign dress.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Teri Centner
Okay, but what does all this have to do with Whopper Virgins? ;-)
2 - Teri Centner
OK, just read the article on Whopper Virgins and your opening paragraph makes more sense. I thought you were calling Americans insensitive for coming up with the phrase. I didn't realize the ad campaign literally involves going to impoverished areas around the world and recruiting people to try a Big Mac vs. a Whopper.
3 - Ruvy
I thought you had gone back to the States to live, Diana. Apparently not....
Whopper virgins? Would those be the virgins who attend the terrorists who kill themselves blowing people up? A translation of "houri"??
4 - STM
Diana, I went to school in the middle-east with Americans, some of whom were our neighbours, and I'm still in touch with them 40-plus years later.
As friends of our family, they were unfailingly polite, kind, generous and welcoming, which is how I've found Americans even in their own country.
My father is a British Army veteran who spent some years working with his American counterparts in Germany with the BAOR, and who had high regard for Americans both as a nation and on a personal level (mostly). The US was one of his favourite places to visit.
My parents passed their affinity for Americans to me, although I think I would have had it anyway just based on my personal observations.
I have had some unbelievable experiences in the US, too many to document here but two cab rides stand out: one in Miami, where an old driver recognised my accent because he'd been in Australia during WWII. He not only refused my $40 fare for an across-town trip, but stopped at his favourite deli and bought me the best pastrami sandwich I've ever eaten.
In New York, I missed the bus to the JFK after a big night and had to hail a cab. The driver said: "Hey, what part of Australia you from?"
I said "Sydney" ... he said: "Me too, kind of. My wife's Australian, and I lived in Cronulla (a beachside suburb) for 15 years. She wanted to move over here, but I want to go back. I'm homesick!"
Again, he refused my fare and got me to the airport with time to spare. He would only take a tip, and then with much persuading.
One of my best friends in Australia is from Los Angeles. He's lived here for 25 years, and when he went back to spend a couple of his years with his ageing mum in the the early 90s, I went over to visit and stayed with them. I might as well have been in my own home.
I seem to have found a rapport on BC with a number of your countrymen, and one in particular whose thinking I admire, despite his politics being the exact opposite of mine.
Whopper virgins? So what. Why not? Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW are flogging their cars off around the world. What's the diff?
If there's any perceived insensitivity among Americans, it has its basis in your countymen and women who've never been outside the US and who lack an understanding of how the world is outside the borders, about history, and geography, and who are arguing from a position of total ignorance. I suppose that could easily be perceived as arrogance but it's more tha fault of an insular society and its education system than anything else.
Americans can be dickheads like anyone, but IMO anyone who doesn't like Americans probably hasn't met enough of them to make a qualified decision.
That's arrogant too, and one swallow doesn't make a summer.
Interesting to read it, though, from an American perspective. My tip to Americans who worry about this stuff: try harder to be more sensitive by all means, but by the same token, don't be so hard on yourselves.
5 - STM
Diana: I will add, though, the one thing I find (slightly) annoying about Americans is that they believe they are the only country with any opportunities, rights and freedoms, and most who've never travelled don't understand that their rights and freedoms and the entire basis of their constitution and their lifestyle owes more to English laws and thought (which form the basis of the Australian constitution and actually IS the constitution of Britain) than anything else - which is why we enjoy the same rights and freedoms in other countries in the English-speaking world that also inherited their rule of law - the key factor - from the "mother country".
For instance, a Bill of Rights was never included in our constitution, but those rights are taken to exist - especially free speech, which the High Court here has ruled on once and for all by finding that they were always implied in our constitution by the framers at the time of writing. Which is true, that WAS their thinking.
There are different roads that can lead to the same place.
On other European countries, though, I'm not so sure ... most are latecomers to the concept of democracy, even in "revoluitionary" France which took away more rights than it gave, whereas Britain has been a stable, largely peaceful democracy - continously - since 1688.
Most Americans who come to Oz to visit or live are surprised at first at the similarity with the US.
6 - bliffle
Most Americans are a little insular. Even in the use of 'American' to mean US citizen.
But, for the most part we aren't too bad, except for a couple distressing tendencies: we tend to be a little loud, and we eat terrible food. In fact, we tend to celebrate bad food and sometimes try to beat others into succumbing to the joys of, say, the Whopper. Oh well, at least it isn't Haggis.
7 - Dr Dreadful
On other European countries, though, I'm not so sure ... most are latecomers to the concept of democracy
Well, Germany seems to have seized hold of the concept with more success than most - surprisingly, perhaps, since up until about 150 years ago they were a motley collection of squabbling city states, most of which resembled democracies in much the same way that a shark attack resembles a paso doble.
I think Hitler showed them in no uncertain terms what a unified Germany could be, and once they'd come to their collective senses the concept so scared the Wilhelms out of them that they resolved to get as far away from that sort of potential as they could.
8 - STM
But that's ma real point, good doctor.
They are latecomers.
I was in Portugal a bit over a year ago, and as you know, they only became a democracy in the 1970s. Same for Spain.
I knew it, but learning the details of it gobsmacked me, Doc ... I found the history of that heavy-handedness absolutely amazing, particularly coming from a country with a British background that inherited and embraced a long history of democracy and the willingness of a people to stand up to governments trying to lord it over them. I guess, in truth, most of us don't really realise how lucky we are.
Perhaps none of us should take it for granted.
France is a genuine democracy, of course, but in relative terms, it's been a latecomer too.
Let's not forget Napoleon's attempts to get the whole of Europe under his size 5 riding boot.
Thank God for that nation of shopkeepers on the other side of the Channel, or we'd possibly all be currently discussing in flowery terms the relative merits of baguettes vs crusty white vienna loaves as the correct accompaniment to onion soup.
9 - STM
On topic though, Doc, as a Pom transplanted from Fair Albion to, ah, Fairly nice Fresno, you'd agree wouldn't you ... despite the fact they all have a wire loose between brain and mouth, Americans are pretty good people in my experience :)
As for Bliff's terrible food - well, I like it. It's one of the US cultural exports I can easily live with.
I was in the Philippines last year Bliff and it was a relief eventually to get to a resort catering mainly to Americans.
Bigger portions, decent steaks like here, nice burgers.
Hooray for the five food groups:
1) Coke/Pepsi/soda
2) Pizza
3) Steaks/Burgers and Chips (Fries)
4) Fried Chicken
5) Bacon and eggs
Did I forget donuts?
Seriously, what's not to like??
10 - Bliffle
What's not to like? How about the fake chocolate croissant I got yesterday at Starbucks! That's what!
On the other hand, I had a very good steakburger from In 'n Out last week.
And the best pizza is the Round Table thin crust which is so good I can still remember the taste of the last one I had 2 months ago. In fact, maybe the cholestrol level in my blood stream has dropped enough so I can have one this week, maybe even tonight!
11 - Ruvy
What's not to like? How about the fake chocolate croissant I got yesterday at Starbucks! That's what!
Hmm.... A croissant is a "French" pastry - and Starbuck's is a fake coffee shop copying the café couture rather unsuccessfully. Masaryk's on Emek Refayim in Jerusalem does a far better job - so does Caribou Coffee in St. Paul.
What you want, Bliffle, is the real thing, not the fake shit at Starbuck's! Go to a French café in the town you live in - in the morning - you'll get a fresh croissant with a good café au lait. Stay away from Starbuck's! It's trash!
12 - Dr Dreadful
nice burgers
But with no beetroot on 'em, eh, Stan?
Stay away from Starbuck's! It's trash!
Starbucks is useful and amusing for the same reason: ubiquity.
Useful because if you're on a road trip (or any kind of trip) in America and you fancy a cup of coffee, you can be sure of finding a Starbucks after not much more than a few minutes of searching.
Amusing because from the Starbucks inside the Target at my local mall, you can gaze out of the window and see two other Starbucks just across the parking lot.
Like Bliffle, I'm keenly anticipating the first opening of a Starbucks inside a Starbucks.
But you're right, though, Ruvy: just about any other coffee place makes a better cup than Starbucks. Here in Fresno my favorite is a local chain, a New York-style bagelry called Uncle Harry's.
For home consumption, we order beans online from a company in - where else?! - Seattle.
13 - Joanne Huspek
Good article. I've lived overseas and I know what you're talking about.
14 - diana hartman
#3
ruvy, you remember correctly...we moved back to the states in 2007, and then we moved back to germany in 2008...
15 - bliffle
I confess. I lied. It wasn't Starbucks. It could hardly be Starbucks because I never go there. It was at Peets, a locally owned chain that makes good coffee and tea, but subcontracts poor pastry. Even the one good thing they had, "Florentine cookie", which was fine, has disappeared, despite my protests.
Peets has good coffee and some overstuffed chairs and free WiFi.
My only excuse for my venality is that I was trying to protect Peets, in spite of their pastry deficiencies.
We have several excellent French Cafes around here that have real espresso and delicious pastries, but they don't have free WiFi and overstuffed chairs. I suspect that they don't really approve of those American loiterers who sit around all afternoon clattering on their computers while chatting with friends as they come and go.
16 - Der Auslander
I think you're being too harsh on your own countrymen, Diana. While it is true that as tourists, all Americans tend to forget their better manners; but almost as a rule, all tourists tend to be obnoxious.
One particular trait appears to stand out - almost head and shoulders above the rest - and that's a certain sense of egalitarianism: no class or income distinctions, no social barriers by and large, just a sense of comradery and equality. The Europeans, even the Brits, tend to be too stuck-up and stuffed with themselves. Not the Americans. And it's a most refreshing trait indeed.
17 - Dr Dreadful
Unfortunately we don't have Peet's in Fresno, Bliff. Well, there is one at the airport, but (a) it's never open and (b) it's really just a concession serving what they claim to be Peet's coffee.
The one I like is the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which is based mainly in the Bay Area and Southern California. They excel in iced coffees and also sell little kits which you can take home to make your own.
18 - STM
Doc: "But with no beetroot on 'em, eh, Stan?"
Doc, I hate beetroot. How that came about: when people started making American-style burgers here way back, they stuck salad on 'em, and since beetroot was an integral part of the classic Aussie salad sandwich, they whacked it on too.
When I get a burger from the corner shop or cafe, which as you know are the ones that tend to add beetroot, I always ask 'em to stick to lettuce, tomato, barbecue sauce and maybe some bacon if I'm feeling adventurous.
On Diana in Germany, I've had some bizarre experiences there (including regularly being shouted at by people in uniform ... any uniform).
Last year at Frankfurt airport, I'm ordering brekkie at the cafe in the departure terminal, speaking schoolboy German to a man who looked like he wasn't German. Eventually, he says in German: "Are you English".
No, I say, "Australian".
"Oh," he says, smiling, in English, "I'm from India ... have you been watching the cricket?"
Germans seem pretty friendly overall though.
19 - Cindy
Stan,
You don't like beets? I didn't know they put beets on hamburgers?
I make a great beet salad with chilled beets, mayo and onion. Delicious.
20 - STM
Nah, I hate beets Cindy. I don't mind beetroot soup with a splash of chilled cucumber yoghurt, but that's my limit.
I can't for the life of me understand why they get whacked on hamburgers in Australia.
McDonald's even had a burger here for many years called the McOz ... you guessed it, it has a quarter-punder pattie, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, ketchup - and the crowning glory, a slice of beetroot.
The only time I had one was when someone bought me one ... and I took the beetroot out and turned it into something marginally edible.
21 - STM
Lol. Punder - only speak the Queen's English down here ... make that "pounder".
22 - Der Auslander
"Germans seem pretty friendly overall though."
It's a face, mate. Don't trust one as far as you can throw it.
23 - STM
Ah, so I can assume the Auslander is actually an Oz-lander??
If so, good stuff. Ain't many around here.
24 - Dr Dreadful
No, Stan, not an Aussie. But I don't think he wants to be outed, so I won't.
25 - Dr Dreadful
And I'll have your beetroots if you don't want them. Yum!