by Robert Heston

Created on: February 10, 2010

"The Ugly American" is a stereotype that is widely accepted and has been around for a long time.  There's even a novel with that name from the 1950's!  The book describes several Americans involved in foreign policy in a fictitious country in Southeast Asia.  A couple of the Americans are down to earth, well meaning, and competent.  Most however, are incompetent, and obnoxious.  Unfortunately, it's the latter types who are higher up in the diplomatic hierarchy.

 Times are certainly changing and I hope that some of the nonsense Americans of my generation, the baby boomers, grew up with and accepted as the truth will change too.  While growing up, I remember hearing that it really wasn't all that important for Americans to learn a foreign language, because anywhere you travel you can always find someone who speaks English.  The result is that we Americans travel the world and expect people from other cultures and other countries to have gone to the trouble to learn our language, while we are a guest in their country!  I can't help but think of the joke where a person who speaks two languages is called bilingual, a person who speaks three languages is called trilingual, and a person who speaks one language is called an American.  Even in tour groups with local guides to act as interpreters, not being able to speak the local language prevents us from soaking up the local culture and experiencing as much as we could otherwise.

 Americans have a reputation for sticking out in other countries.  Part of this is physical.  In China, being six feet tall, brown haired and round eyed, it's hard to blend in.  As crowded as their cities are, at times it's impossible to respect other people's space even.  These are physical traits that we can't change, but we can be respectful and refrain from using our size to be intimidating.  One other physical trait that we're known for is a well deserved reputation for being overweight.  We hear about it on the news and we see it when we're in public.  But being in a country like China really highlights just how overweight and out of shape we are as a nation.  This is just a personal observation.

 I've been told by people from other countries that Americans have a reputation for being friendly, sometimes too friendly with our bonhomie.  Most of us do prefer to conduct ourselves in a rather casual manner, including casual dress. 

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>