Patricia Grisafi
When you’re traveling, you might think you’re blending in. But you’re not. Everyone knows if you’re American or not because Americans have a ton of giveaways. Like being loud and friendly, apparently. Like practicing small talk with strangers. Like being impatient and “aggressively cheerful” and eating cake for breakfast.
On Reddit, folks are sharing these and other giveaways that a person is from America.
And you know what? Embrace it. There are worse things than being loud.
1. HELLOOOOO
“In Salzburg I went to grab something from the drug store. As I was checking out I said hello to the cashier (thinking there was very little difference between how I said it and how Austrians say it). She immediately started speaking to me in English and I asked her how she knew I spoke English. She deadpan stared me in the eye and goes ‘hellloooo.’ I just about died laughing since I’m a very stereotypical friendly American that says hello exactly like that. One of my favorite memories from that trip.” —
2. Howdy Y’all
“I’m from Texas, and my junior year in high school we had a foreign exchange student from Spain at our school. At lunch she was sitting with some friends on our second day of the new school year, and I walked up to the table and gave my usual (still to do this day decades later) greeting, ‘Howdy y’all.’ She lost her sh*t (not in a bad way, she was just really surprised). She thought I’d just done that as a joke cause, ‘Ha, ha let the European girl know she’s really in Texas now.’ When she figured out I was just genuinely greeting the group with, ‘Howdy y’all,’ she lost her sh*t again in disbelieving laughter.” —
3. Walk Confidently
“An Italian told me that Americans walk confidently in the wrong direction.” —
4. Greetings
“‘Hey, how are ya?'” — vorifo2709
5. Doctors
“It’s really funny at a doctors office. Doctor comes out ‘how ya doing?’ ‘Oh can’t complain.’ Walks back to the exam room ‘So how are you feeling?’ Proceeds to spend the next 30 min complaining. Unironically one of my favorite parts of America.” —
6. Ice, Please
“They want ice in their water.” —
7. LOUD
“Incredibly loud but incredibly friendly.” —
8. Friendly
“I worked as a cashier in a touristic place in Paris, I always recognised Americans because they were kinda friendly to me and they always left tips.” —
9. Polite
“My host dad in Japan noticed I was getting overheated at the kotatsu while we were having lunch and I didn’t say anything and he said to me ‘Americans are so polite’ I was shook after getting sh*t on constantly by all the other foreign students haha.” —
10. Smiles
“The gentle grins you give to strangers if you make eye contact with them as you pass by, at least in the Midwest. Was not well received in Germany.”
11. Personal Space
“How much personal space they give themselves. Americans like at LEAST an arm length.”
12. Leaning
“I am American and if there’s something to lean on, I’m leanin! And if there’s nothing to lean on, I’ll lean into one side of my body if that makes sense.” —
13. Aggressive Cheerfulness
“One American I’ve met was a bit stereotypical in some regards. He was on a biking tour from Sweden to Palestine, had an unusual beard, huge white teeth, was extremely friendly and a bit loud, and he literally carried a bucket of peanut butter with him because he said that was the most efficient way to carry energy for his travel. I was an intern at a software company that just got bought by a huge American company (Warner I think) and one time some executives were visiting, walked through our office complimenting all the developers loudly and then disappeared again. My general impression of Americans I’ve met in person is that it’s difficult to see what you guys really think and feel, because you seem to hide it behind a layer of aggressive cheerfulness. So when I see someone radiating that, I expect them to be from the US.” —
14. Sweets For Breakfast
“In my homestay in London, I was told that I was ‘so American’ for enjoying a piece of cake for breakfast (not frosted cake, but like a nuts and dried fruit spiced coffeecake kind of thing). Apparently that’s exclusively for like a 4pm snack, and breakfast is more of a savory meal.” —
15. Impatience
“Was in Geyser in Iceland, loads of people sitting in silence patiently waiting for it to go off. The anticipatory silence of waiting for a natural phenomenon to occur was broken by a loud American shouting ‘blow, dammit!'” —
