Some Americans give the rest of us a bad name. “The Ugly American” has become a name for us when we travel overseas. Here are some of the reasons we are considered ugly. And dumb.
“The best one I’ve heard was the American tourist complaining that they built Edinburgh castle so far from the train station.”
“Iceland. We get a lot of tourism when there isn’t a pandemic and about half are American. There’s a ton of them who seem to think we can just flick a switch and have the Northern Lights appear.”
“I was in Rome and a lady was confused why the confectionery stand man wouldn’t take her dollars.”
“‘Mommy’s busy baby, why don’t you go climb on the big rocks?’ That was at Stonehenge.”
“I once got told by an American tourist that I spoke English quite well...I’m English and this was in England.”
“An American talked to me in slow, shouting English as if I don’t understand. He was in western Canada, where everybody speaks English, and I’d already even said something in English to him.”
“I was in the American War Museum in Vietnam, a really incredible place which shows the history of the American Vietnam War. There’s victims of Agent Orange on the top floor, which was so upsetting to see. There was an American chap going around the museum with a T-shirt with an American flag and loads of guns on it and right in the middle with big bold writing, ‘Freedom, the American Way.’” “They did the Nazi greeting in the middle of Berlin (Germany), not far from the Jewish memorial.”
“I’m French, I was chatting with an American woman who was visiting (friend of a friend of a family member). At one point, we start talking about the differences between our countries. She said, ‘The USA is the only country in the world with true freedom.’ I thought she was joking, but she was not. I told her, ‘What do you mean? We are also free in France.’ She looked at me with a condescending smirk and said, ‘Really?’ like to make me admit something. I just nodded and left.”
“I literally witnessed an American college or gap year student complain about the lack of kangaroos. In Austria. I thought they were joking.”
“Claiming that Ireland isn’t ‘properly’ Irish, and that the only way to experience ‘true, traditional’ Irish culture is to visit Boston.”
“I met an American tourist that seemed very confused, so I walked up to her and asked her if I could help. She told me yes and asked me how to get to the famous alps and cuckoo clock workshops... I had to explain to her that she was in Sweden, not Switzerland.”
“South African here: Americans tend to have this habit where they will climb out of their vehicle in the middle of a game reserve, get attacked by a wild animal because they wanted to get closer or try to pet it, and then cry about it. I thought people that come from the country that has grizzly bears and mountain lions would be a bit more cautious around wild animals. Also, the shock they experience when they realize there are cities here and not everyone is living in mud huts.”
“ Whi le work ing at McDonald’s I overheard an American tourist tell his family that they were going to eat some good food, not foreign garbage, while they were waiting in line to order.”
“Not inappropriate, just moronic and facepalm worthy. Saw an American Karen scream at people in London (UK) for stealing America’s place names.”
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