I know men wear the baseball caps because of hair loss, but what ever happened to the no men’s hats inside rule? I have seen men wear those darn things in restaurants (nice ones) , churches, offices, etc.I wear sunglasses outside unless it is dark or raining due to light sensitivity and some genetic tendencies toward cataracts, but they are taken off inside…
Baseball caps, sneakers, shorts on women, capris on women (European women tend to wear skirts or dresses instead in summer), colorful clothing. Too much jewelry, not enough scarves, :).
And mainly - the shoes. ALL tourists tend to wear comfortable shoes and for good reason. The locals always wear nicer shoes.
eta: Also, Americans speak very loudly to each other in public. I always hear other Americans before I see them. I don’t know why we do this, and of course, I never notice it here at home, :).
When D1 did her study abroad, her RA told her he can spot young Americans a mile away because they tend to have perfectly straight, white teeth. Now, logic tells me that can’t always be true, but she did hear that a lot.
IME, many people nowadays regard the “no hats inside rule” to be an outmoded relic of the early '60s and before. I’ve noticed this mentality increase greatly since the late '90s onward among folks of all age groups. Then again, this is mostly in the urban NE.
Personally, with the exception of playing softball in elementary school and watching the '86 world series with some elementary school classmates at one of their homes, I’ve never worn a baseball cap…or a hat of any kind.
Not really a hat person despite the best efforts of mom, some aunts, and some ex-es and female friends.
I always think of Mike Love of the Beach Boys who started wearing baseball caps at around age 22 and never stopped!
I think it sounds depressing that people don’t wear color.
I wear a hat in the sun and golfing, gotta protect the money maker. Anyone remember Land of the Lost? I’m like the sleestack who cant be in the sun.
I’m way too smiley, chatty and friendly with straight teeth and so American looking you probably want a piece of apple pie just looking at me. Or to slap me. Lol. And with hubby being a little hard of hearing so he tends to be a little loud I’m sure no one will mistake us for anything else.
Americans are often obvious in small shops. They fail to greet the sales people or say good bye on the way out (a custom in much of Europe) and perhaps because of our largely self-serve shopping, will begin to remove items from the store window display, unzipping handbags for example, without an associate’s assistance (they will gladly help you without destroying the display if you ask). I’ve seen tourists be irate or befuddled by being interrupted in their pursuits, labeling the sales person as rude. They miss how professional sales people usually are and how they are perceived as customers.
With a Eurocentric viewpoint, I’d say that you recognize Americans abroad by their tendency:
- To eat breakfast earlier than most
- To be extremely accepting, patient, and friendly
- To not know that the tips are already included in the bill
- To rely on their US cellular providers and pay through the nose
- To be way too attached to their US travel guides and luminaries a la Rick Steves
- To be too hesitant to try local delicacies like rabbit or other strange food
- To be mostly unaware of local practices
- To forget all the above when traveling in a pack!
I have never been in a small shop in the US (and that is where I do most of my shopping) and seen anyone going into a window display and taking something.
And people also usually greet the salesperson(s) when they go into a small shop and say goodbye when they leave.
It is not customary to tip in Australia. One time we traveled on an organized tour in Europe when we tip the tour conductor and the driver at the end. The Aussies’ had their tips already built in on their tour fares because they are not familiar with tipping.
For me recognizing people are Americans
-obesity
-loud voices, because English, when spoken loud enough is understood everywhere
-men and women wearing t-shirts and jeans
-white athletic shoes
-baseball caps
-nylon windbreakers with logos
-couples holding hands blocking the whole sidewalk
"With a Eurocentric viewpoint, I’d say that you recognize Americans abroad by their tendency:
- To eat breakfast earlier than most"
I would add: To eat dinner earlier than most.
“Maybe that’s why we have the famous HI “Aloha spirit”? We get a TON of sunlight and warm weather”
In Hawaii I can tell Japanese tourists apart from Japanese-Americans (particularly Japanese-Americans from Hawaii) at a glance, well before they open their mouths to speak. The Japanese tourists will be nicely and stylishly dressed and will have comparatively pale complexions. Japanese-Americans will be tanned and very casually dressed - T-shirts and jeans or even cut-offs.
I once saw a young man wearing a UCLA T-shirt, but despite his very casual shirt with an American college on the front I knew right away he was Japanese and not a Japanese-American - because the shirt was in USC colors! Such a shirt would almost certainly never be sold in the US. He was clearly the victim of a foreign counterfeiter.
“I always think of Mike Love of the Beach Boys who started wearing baseball caps at around age 22 and never stopped!”
His hair started thinning at an early age.
We are in NYC celebrating our anniversary, and were just approached by someone trying to sell tickets to a show. So I guess we look like tourists. LOL
You know, I wouldn’t worry too much about this. Being overly friendly or loud-voiced, on the hierarchy of tourist sins, is not that bad. Tourists everywhere, from everywhere, are always a bit ridiculous because they are out of their element. That is what it means to be a tourist. I never worry about being perceived as an American. I am not ashamed of it. I try to be polite and goodnatured. I try to go with the flow. If people are going to dislike me because of my nationality, it’s their problem, not mine.
In my experience and having been to Paris within the past year, I would say that Americans are recognizable because they can be loud, they can be poorly and sloppily dressed, they might be wearing white sneakers, fanny packs etc. Even if a French woman is wearing jeans she does it with style with a proper scarf, minimal jewelry but tasteful, and shoes/boots that are in-style.
I’ll agree with shoes. We had a little game when we lived in Germany: spot the American tourist. But it worked on Brits, too. Not just sneakers or running shoes but comfort over style. Anyway, when we visited Turkey, DH had German shoes and all the street merchants would immediately start speaking to him in German.
I like to fit in, do take scarves. Last trip, every site was saying the natives wore lots of black and I looked for it, wouldn’t say it held. And I think that, for every American tourist you think is loud or poorly dressed, you may be missing the plenty who aren’t. And as for friendly, I think someone else mentioned the European custom of greeting shopkeepers when you walk in.
There are also a lot of prole Europeans with badly dyed hair, cheap logo clothing, and polyester track suits. I went to an IKEA in the Lichtenberg district of Berlin recently and was amused by the panoply of lowbrow fashion (big hair, heavy makeup, that weird red henna dye on middle-aged women, synthetic leather, blond-tipped hair on men). The idea that all Europeans are svelte sophisticates is just not true. The expensive central Paris arrondissements are like Manhattan; that is to say, not at all representative of the whole of the nation.
I can say that in Asia, the fanny pack never went out of style. On men in particular.
Actually yes I was specifically speaking about Paris. Here in NYC, I am frequently stopped to help with directions. It must be because I wear a lot of black and I walk very fast.
In a way I have to chuckle at this thread because there have been COUNTLESS threads on CC of people going to travel abroad looking for shoe recommendations and over and over the message is “wear something comfortable!” and often sneakers or running shoes are mentioned!!!
Tourists are tourists. Abroad…or here. If you are a native of a big city here, can you pick out the tourists? And does it matter if those tourists in say NYC are from Milwaukee or Germany???
I was in Paris this summer. It was 100+ degrees. What was EVERYONE (overall) wearing??! As little as possible!!! 