I’ve heard of Germans and English people go to the US and generally say they felt treated very kindly, while one of my best friends (an Afro-Brazilian) went to Louisiana and thought the people came off as cold. And he’s one of the most jovial people I know.
That’s just an anecdote but it got me thinking: would the average American be nicer towards, say, a Norwegian tourist than an Iraqi tourist?
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This may have less to do with the nationality of the traveler and more to do with their own culture.
Brazil is a very friendly and outgoing country. While the US may be more friendly in general than the UK or Germany, a Brazilian may think they’re less friendly than their own compatriots.
To Brazilians, most Americans will come off as cold. It’s not so much Americans acting differently, it’s the foreigners having different expectations.
That said, some people will care where you’re from and treat you better or worse because of it, but not most of us.
We generally treat people as individuals no matter where they are from.
Sorry to hear about your Brazilian friend. Some of the most fun and jovial people I have ever met are Brazilians. I would not be cold towards them just for being Brazilian.
It’s all about how people present themselves, not their nationality. A polite Jamaican will get a much nicer response than a criticizing German. Sometimes cultural stuff like body language or speaking manner doesn’t translate well. And anyway, you have a sample size of one person. Who knows what situation he was in?
Here in Florida we don’t care where you’re from we just hate all tourists
They were probably just confused by that weird ass Spanish accent 😉
It’s probably more down to their cultural/social norms being different.
If you’re not used to people being super chatty with strangers, that could make Americans seem overtly friendly to the point of being uncomfortably friendly. On the other hand if you’re used to being extremely boisterous or touchy feely when greeting strangers (as in giving cheek kisses, hugs right away, etc) and someone from Minnesota is visibly uncomfortable with that, we may seem cold or distant if that’s not what you’re used to. And those two interactions could have happened minutes apart with the same American.
I would say that their behavior/manner has much more to do with it for most people. Most people I know are going to be just as helpful/kind to a sincere, open, friendly person from Iraq as one from the next town over.
My husband is British and I’m American. When we lived in the US (in a major city) I never really noticed him being treated differently from myself, except for the odd question about where he’s from. I come across a lot friendlier than him though.
When we’re in the UK together, I do get the odd person who tells me about their trip to America and getting invited over to random peoples homes for dinner/to ride their horses. I have no clue what type of person invites a stranger to their house based on their accents.
Not really. I think any foreigner that comes to America with a healthy respect, or at least curiosity, for our country will be welcomed with open arms.
No, I think it’s the perception based off friendliness in the person’s home country. And of course, while we are culturally friendly, that doesn’t mean everyone is. Like anywhere else, some people are straight-up dicks, so there could be a measure of individual anecdotal experience as well.
The strangest things can influence how the friendliness/coldness of a culture is perceived. I’ve heard that something as simple as speaking distance can change a person’s perception. So if a person comes from a culture where people normally speak from 2 feet apart and goes to a culture where they normally speak from 3 feet apart that culture will seem cold to them.
I hope I explained that well enough.
People are right about our perceived friendliness depending on your country of origin. We’re probably one of the most outgoing highly developed nations, but kinda lukewarm when compared Latin American.
But I believe the ugly answer is a soft yes. A Norwegian accent will just about universally charm the socks off everyone. An Iraqi tourist is more likely to be perceived as a refugee/immigrant and some assholes might carry over the political baggage of that into a personal interaction. I think it will be rare!!! But still more likely.
What I think is more likely is just some people putting in less engagement cuz of assumed cultural gap.
Some extra touristy places in the US seem less friendly to foreigners and tourists in general. I live in a non tourist place, so foreigners are rare. When there is a foreign tourist, they get a lot od friendly attention.
If by Louisiana we mean New Orleans and specifically Bourbon Street, I’m sure a lot of service workers just get annoyed and overwhelmed with the constant tourism. I experienced the same thing in Rome. When you have tourists yesterday, tourists today, and tourists tomorrow, its difficult to keep up the happy facade. In contrast during my day trip to Napoli which had a fraction of the tourists Rome had, things were much less rushed and people were a bit more pleasant.
Could be multiple factors. Stereotypes do exist and while you’d hope that people could be evaluated as individuals rather than their country of origin, these things do happen. There are also cultural differences that could skew perception (even something seemingly minute like the acceptable amount of personal space in each culture). When meeting someone new, I’m more interested in what they have to say rather than where they’re from.
If you want anecdotes, I could tell you the differences in reaction from when I tell someone “I’m American” versus “I’m from New York.”
Yes definitely. Most Americans are friendly to people from other developed countries especially Western European countries. The farther away from you from those cultures, the less hospitable Americans become. But this is true of the British, Australians virtually most other countries in the west. So it’s essentially westerners 🤝 westerners.
To some Americans, yes. It doesn’t surprise me that what I’m assuming are white Europeans from developed nations would get a nicer treatment than an Afro anything in somewhere like the South.
So the answer to your questions is yes, but it depends on where you’re from, what you look like, where you’re at, and which people you encounter.
The answer to this really depends on which state you are in, the color of your skin, accent and if you’re in a city or not. But generally speaking 90% of the time Americans are nice and just trying to get through the day without being dicks.
I’m going to go against most answers here and say yes. European tourists get treated the best. That and, I have a friend who is black, who moved to north Florida (not Louisiana but also very southern) and complained about how cold the locals were to her. And she’s American.
Not for nothing, but your friend being dark-skinned and speaking an Iberian language in the heart of a region famous for negative opinions toward both those traits may be a more important factor than exact nationality. The question is a bit like asking whether Germany cares about nationality because a Swede was treated better in Berlin than a Haredi Israeli was in Obermmergau or Roth.
Has more to do with skin color. Afro Brazilian is not going to get the warmest welcome in a state where almost 70% of the people in prison are black. White guy is going to be treated much nicer in general.
An Iraqi wouldn’t be recognized as such either by complexion or accent.
I actually commented on something about this recently. Every culture has their own way of going about things.
People who speak germanic languages (such as German, Dutch, Norwegian, English, etc.) tend to be overall more “cold” when compared to people who come from romance languages (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, etc.).
It so happens that Americans are* more more so on the warm and welcoming part of that scale (generally speaking, local cultures may differ) than other countries, but many people who come from a Romance culture might comment that people from the US are cold and not as affectionate or emotive (at least when greeting new people or shooting the shit).
So it makes sense that someone from Germany or England will see us as friendly, maybe even a little outgoing, but someone from Brazil might feel like we’re thinking things that we’re not saying. Again, it’s not a guarantee, it’s not a hard and fast rule in every possible situation, but a general rule that I’ve notice reigns true more often than not.
It even goes as far as emojis. Most people I know from Latam use more, and some will even use the kiss emoji as a greeting sometimes. To us, it seems flirtatious. To some of them, it’s just saying “hi!”
Hell yes
No, you’ve got it backwards – it’s how friendly Americans are *compared to* their home country. If you’re from Brazil and expecting face kisses the first time we meet, you’ll think Americans are cold. If you’re Norwegian and think a handshake is PDA, you’ll think we’re overly friendly.
The perception of how friendly we are is also influenced by the travelers expectations of how they’ll be treated.
For instance, I managed a restaurant and we had a family of Australians come in. They sit down and ask the server for a mocktail. This being New Orleans and us not hearing that term often, or the fact that it was said with a thick accent, the server didn’t really understand what they were saying and asked him to repeat himself.
Dude gets up and flips his shit, gets his whole family up and storms out the dining room saying we’re racist against him because he’s black.
FIRST, dude and his family did not look black at all. But SECOND, the server was also a similarly ambiguous black guy, so they hadn’t even picked up on the fact that they were black being served by a black person. But ultimately all for nothing because simply asking someone to clarify what they were asking for isn’t a racist act by any stretch.
But they obviously came in with some expectation that because they were black, they were going to be treated differently in the South.
I think we’re friendlier to anyone with an accent. Doesn’t matter from where, just the accent. Admittedly I find myself smiling when I hear a Cajun or Savannah GA one too.
In the Pacific Northwest and CA, Americans were nothing but kind to me as a Filipino. I noticed some people were nicer when I spoke in a “Filipino” accent lol (my natural accent is neutral). I don’t know, maybe I was more foreign when I did that and hence more fascinating?
Yes, it absolutely is dependent on where a tourist is from. Not all people, but most Americans have internalized racism. And they will treat white people from whatever country better than brown people. It’s fucked up, but it’s reality. Just take a look at how many politicians want to ban brown people from entering America, but encourage white people to come. Look at what happened during the pandemic.
This is not exclusive to America though. I am a Black woman, and depending on where I travel, I am treated very kindly, or rudely. It just depends.
More dependent on who the American is AND how the foreigner appears (as opposed to where they’re actually from).
There was a famous case where about a month after 9/11, a man went on a hunting spree to “kill arabs,” and Muslims. He shot three men, two of which died. All of them were of south-Asian descent, and one of them was Hindu.
That’s a rare outlier, but while the vast majority are friendly with foreigners, there is a notably loud but small minority of people who absolutely despise ANYONE who appears foreign and non-white to them. A lot of U.S. citizens who were born and raised here are often targeted by these same nut-jobs. Basically, be white or outwardly Christian, otherwise this small minority will come after you.
Probably. I think all countries treat foreigners differently based on their relationship with that country. Of course there are people that just don’t care too and are nice to everyone.
In your friends situation, I’d find it less likely because Louisiana is rich with creole culture and POC. I don’t think a Brazilian would stand out to them in a negative way.
The average American is going to treat most tourists exactly the same.
Norwegians are weirded out by small talk with strangers, so the shop keeper asking them “Where y’all from?” may completely freak them out (“Why is this shopkeeper interested in where I live! This is invasive!”) but the Iraqi may stop shopping and talk to them for an hour.
This has WAY more to do with the culture the visitor is coming from and their own biases, tendencies, traditions, etc.
I’m not American, but in my experiences – most Americans judge you according to who you are as an individual as opposed to who you are according to your nationality. There are bigots in every human community, that’s just a reality of human nature. Humans break off into groups, and then attach value to those groups. But, in a general sense, the ideals of individualism and tolerance are pretty deeply rooted in contemporary American society. As such, they tend to be pretty welcoming folks.
I think the more “foreign” someone is (in relation to English speaking American culture) you’re more likely to provoke more curiosity, and probably some degree of caution. But I don’t think that’s an American thing, I think that’s a human thing. We tend to cozy up more towards others who are similar to us. But as far as friendliness goes, America is up there with the most tolerant and accepting IMO.
It’s like a continuum. You’ve got northern Europeans on the ‘cold’ end and you’ve got Brazilians on the ‘hot’ end. We Americans are somewhere in the middle.
Yes. No matter how much people like to pretend they, and fellow Americans, wouldn’t treat people differently, a brief glance at the news will tell you that is a lie for about 49% of the country.
Not only differently, but possibly even cruelly. “We’re nice to everyone here!” Is the biggest bullshit I’ve heard this week. They’ll be lowkey uncomfortable af and find a way to dismiss themselves. They don’t think they’re being racist. As a result of this “we treat everyone friendly/ maybe Americans are more reserved.” horseshit, many don’t believe things like that black people experience racism. They don’t think the things they do are racist bc they deny the experience exists.
Ask them about immigration lol
I don’t care where people are from, I try to be nice to everyone.
Short answer is yes, but the long answer is probably more dependent on where the American is from, where the traveler/immigrant is from and the geo-political climate of the day.
The US has no shortage of assholes and willfully ignorant ones at that.
Brazilians are just Americans who speak Portuguese and never learn to say no to anyone lol
If you go from a hot tub to a room temp pool the pool will feel cold in comparison but if go from an ice bath to a room temp pool then the pool with feel warm, it’s all about perspective