What behavior do you dislike the most in Americans?

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Nicely put, pax

[ladybutterfly 0]

Its like saying "Brits love drinking tea" and for the most part, that is true but im a Brit and I dont drink tea! Talking about the majority.

It's a big difference. There's nothing wrong with drinking tea, and nothing offensive about suggesting that someone does (perhaps slightly offensive to assume that one does only because one is British, but otherwise, no harm done). On the other hand, the OP's poll does not mention rather harmless personal predilections, but deep, negative character flaws that are assumed to be shared by all, or at least a great many, Americans.

And this is not, as others have suggested, an appropriate place for such a poll. By virtue of having met and become engaged with persons from countries outside of the United States, the vast majority of VJers are NOT the provincial, ignorant, untraveled Americans at which your dislike (or, perhaps more accurately, your snobbery) should be directed. Many Americans cannot afford to travel abroad, for example. The United States is a large country and is thus rather far from Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa (as you must know by virtue of your vast, sophisticated experience); my mother, a woman well into her forties, has never been outside the States because she was too busy raising four children and putting herself through nursing school. But then again, my infinitely wise, savvy British fiance (with whom I have obviously been blessed to lead me out of my cursed American ignorance) also has a mother who has never been abroad. Hmmmmm. Does that make her a stupid, provincial, closed-minded moron too?

How many American VJers hold passports? I would imagine nearly all of them. Many have traveled abroad frequently for business, education, or in the service of their country. If you look at the poll on the old forums, a clear majority of VJers have a university education, and some have gone further--and even those who do not clearly have at least a modicum of common sense and courage to have forged relationships with persons from other countries and made it through the immigration process.

I love my Scottish fiance to pieces. I deeply enjoyed my time in the UK and look forward to going abroad more in the future. I've said in the past that one of my favorite things about VJ is the vast collection of experience and wisdom from such a diverse group of people. But I am American, am not ashamed to be such, and am not at all comfortable with my country of birth and nationality being disparaged so shallowly and casually.

Lovin it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[keltic 1]

it is offensive... i am quite aware of how the rest of the world perceives americans... the ppl who frequent this board usually are... we are involved directly with other countries and their governments...

these are a list of offensive personality traits... any nationality could have these listed in a given group... what is most offensive to me about it, is that it is being justified to make ethnic stereotypes because it is americans that are being referred to... and just to bring up a couple of examples, if you changed the word american with:

'mexican', pedroh and missliss (among others) would be all over you

'muslim', shon, cindi and almaty (among others) would be all over you

it wouldnt be tolerated... it would be racist... terrible... horrible... how could you dare... (forgive me if i am wrong, pedroh, missliss, shon, cindi, almaty)

but because its americans, hey... open season... nail every miserable horrible personality trait on them as you can

personally, im sick of it... do i think all americans are wonderful and perfect? heck no... but do i think they all bear the above personality traits? heck no... and i would think that at least half this board's members dont either or they wouldnt be marrying one

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

It pisses me off because I dealt with this kind of ####### for 10 years living in the UK -- people say stuff like "oh you're smart/quiet/all right for an american" really starts to grate especially when you are confronted with non-American stupidity/loudmouths/idiots on a regular basis.

I'm sure people who are immigrants to this country deal with ignorant ####### all the time, but I guarantee it happens to outsiders in your own country as well.

[ceriserose 1]

Generalizations do a disservice to everyone.

I think for the people that keep explaining that it's "okay" to categorize Americans like this, the argument you're using like "drinking tea" or the one I saw in the other thread about Canadians "living in igloos" is not the same thing by any means. Those are habits and misconceptions, not fundamental personal traits. Now if you had said that all Brits are snobs or all Canadians are inept then you might have put the argument on a par. Who cares if a person drinks tea or not? No wonder that example didn't offend you. !

I also think that if you wanted a poll where people would actually participate with a eye to learning something, how about re-wording the question to include "in your experience of the Americans you've met" which has been the most overwhelming trait and then list positive and negative. Let the poll speak for itself...see if the overwhelming majority have had good or bad experiences with Americans and let that stand on its own merit.

Personally of the Americans I've met the only rude situations I've encountered have been on this message board, not in "real life." (There wasn't a button for that, btw.)

[Satisfaction 1]

I thought that was interesting.

Friday 18 November 2005, 07:02

American bad manners : And this surprises them?

STAFF AT Indian call centres dealing with Americans are getting more angry at some callers' rude, backward, stupid and bigoted comments.

A collective for Indian workers, formed by Vinod Shetty, a Bombay lawyer, said that most of the Americans seemed to have chip on their shoulder about outsourcing and vented their insecurities on call centre staff.

Shetty, who was interviewed by the San Francisco Gate newspaper, said that a lot of trauma is caused by rude Americans.

The Indians have recently made a sitcom about working in a call centre which unleashed a storm in the ancient country. Mostly because it was based on true cases and depict Westerners as arrogant, immoral and comically rude.

One of the episodes recreates a real-life exchange that occurred in January between an American and an Indian agent. The Philadelphia radio show "Star and Buc Wild," host Troi Terrain phoned an Indian call centre pretending to order hair beads for his daughter.

"Listen to me, you dirty rat eater," Terrain growled. "I'll come out there and choke the ####### out of you. You're a filthy rat eater. I'm calling about my American six year old white girl. How dare you outsource my call?"

Now Americans thought that a huge joke, because they liked Friends, but when the Indians are dealing with this sort of stuff every day it starts to be too close to reality to be funny.

For example, the Gate tells of a call from a woman in Texas recently to a bloke in an Indian call centre. She started by saying that thanks to outsourcing: "You are getting money, food, shelter. You should be starving."

She berated him for 12 minutes before she finally allowed him to offer advice that promptly fixed her problem – turn her computer off and reboot.

More here. µ

[pedroh 21]

Oh.. so this is about the Indian call centres??

well let me tell you, I am not american.. but THEY SUCK!! THEY SUCK BIG TIME!!! why?? cuz they get a 2 week training, they don't need to have a decent level of english, and when you've cornered them, they hang up on ya!!!

yes.. I can tell ya, because Sprint and Dish Network have indian call centres.. try to call them, and when they're asking for numbers u say 3 they say 4? u repeat and repeat and they can't understand a freakin word... once I had to call the hispanic center.. because I just couldn't understand them.. even my wife who is very accent-tolerant (well, she tolerated me lolol) got desperated when she tried to activate her account with dish network and got a guy who could barely speak english..

yes, they suck.. big time.. I dont have a perfect english, but when an immigrant is telling u another guy has a sucky english level, is true..

[keltic 1]

i hardly think comparing a radio shock jock to the average american is a fair comparison

ppl calling for help with a problem, by the time they are outsourced, are already frustrated... very unfair comparisons

[meauxna 15]

I hope this works

tsk.

Drunk posting is a tragedy.

[Carol&Marc 0]

UTTERLY SPEECHLESS!!!!!!!

Edited January 31, 2006 by Carol&Marc

[Captain Ewok 1,891]

While I do not think this is all so bad, lets close this so as to foster a better sense of community .