La Gringa has a bad day
An Ugly American*The beer belt, holds bottles or cans (beer not included)
(advertisement in return for stealing their photo)
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La Gringa is having a really bad day today...
Umm, and yesterday....
Oh, and the day before, too.
Lucky for you readers that I had some happy articles drafted up from last week which were displaced by Hurricane Felix.
I'm beginning to think that I don't much like gringos. I thought I came here to get away from all that stuff. Any of you other expatriates ever feel that way?
Oh, and you Hondurans, too. Feel free to jump in and tell us how pushy and obnoxious gringos are. (Me included.)
* "The Ugly American was a caricature built on the reality of a boisterous, loud, uncultured, unsophisticated, arrogant, insensitive clod − one who was prone to throwing around too much money, dressing absurdly, and acting oblivious to the subtleties of high culture."− From PopPolitics
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31 comments:
So, what happened?
I think this is, in reality, just one guy who travels from country to country, in his floral shirt & baggy pants, beer in one hand, cigar in the other, making rude comments, & giving us all a bad rap. The beer belt, however, is way to hip & funny for a lout such as this.
Hope your sense of humor carries you through the dark days.
It doesn't matter where you go, ignorant people are thoughtless boors on every continent.
I really don't know why Americans stand out more. Is it because we expect this kind of behaviour from them? Americans have one glaring fault. They believe they live in the greatest country in the history of the world. This arrogance unfortunately means they don't need or want to learn about other cultures.
When I first moved to the states from Canada, we were amazed that there was no "World News" on TV.
It took 9/11 to change that.
Americans should be given a test at the border before they are allowed to go abroad. Weed out the jerks.
I wrote about our latest encounter with an American here:
http://livingdominica.blogspot.com/2007/09/rude-encounter.htm
This certainly isn't limited to Honduras. I often feel the same way in Panama.
Why do Americans think that if you just talk louder the non-English speaking person will eventually understand?
Same thing in Mexico, which is exactly why we are living in a Mexican town rather than the tourist town which is like an annex of the USA.
The portly beer belt guy sure does have a
"I must be in Heaven" look on his face!
Cheer up, LG.
kman
Yeah, you gringos!
I think Tom pretty much hit the nail on the head. Basically from birth we're taught that the United States is not only the greatest country on earth, but it's the only country with "freedom and liberty".
So when many Americans go overseas it's like a novelty: "hey look at the cute little foreigners! Too bad they have to live here! When's our flight home again?"
I have such a hard time with the arrogance of people from the U.S. AND Canadians. Particularly French-Canadians. Besides being extremely arrogant, most of the ones that come to where I live in Mexico are very cheap. To the extent of refusing to pay parking fees for their giant motor homes, or to sneak out of the park in the night without paying.
Very strange.
The arrogance of people from the U.S. is so embarassing sometimes. People who have been here five days start telling locals "if you would just....."(do it like in they do it U.S./Canada.).
Canadians's want to make sure people know they aren't from the U.S., but many times their behavior in Mexico is even worse than U.S. people. Refusing to learn Spanish, and making nasty comments in front of locals in English, assuming they can't speak English. And of course, many times they can.
Canadians often insist they aren't "gringos". One time when a Canadian lady was telling me she wasn't a gringo on the collectivo, I took a poll of the mexican riders. To a man, they said she was a gringa. She was Furious!!!
Sometimes it's really embaraasing to be a gringa in Mexico, that's for sure.
I agree. I am so embarrassed when we are with a group of people and part are Mexicans and the other are from the US and the gringos keep switching over to English. I mean, how rude can you get! I have tried to teach my kids that when you do that, others who can't understand you, will think you are saying something you don't want them to hear or that you are talking about them.
I agree also with Gardener in Chacala. To me someone shows how stupid they really are when they say nasty or condescending remarks in English and think that others can't understand you. There are MANY English speaking Mexicans in the Yucatan.
I am one of the gringos who does think that the US is the greatest country in the world. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I am a very patriot person. What is wrong is if I think that OTHERS should think the US is better then their country.
Never post when you are in a hurry! My last post should have said, " I am a very PATRIOTIC person." :o)
Hmmm. Generalizations like this are very ugly. I think I expected more from this blog.
Disappointed.
Tell us why you expected more from this blog, Anon?
kman
I must admit, I too am a bit surprised by a few of the generalized comments posted here. I hope I wouldn't make such broadly negative statements about people of another nationality. At least my Canadian co-gringos were included in the arrogant bastard category. The level of apparent animosity is beyond what I might have expected.
So, the death of 2,794 people from 2 jets crashing into the World Trade Towers, one into the Pentagon, and a jet brought down in PA by brave people to save others lives, means better "world news" coverage to you, Tom?
kman
I think that the concept of an ugly American is greatly exaggerated. When I lived in Spain (3 years ago) I belonged to several quasi-national social clubs. American Club was one of them and it was obvious that Americans there - succesfully - tried to blend in inconspicuously with the predominantly European expat crowd. The same could be said about the Germans from the German club, although in Europe Germans are generally considered "ugly foreigners", not Americans. But go to Torremolinos, the vacationing British working class'es (and, seems like: underclass'es)Mecca and already in the afternoon you can sea and hear more bear swirling and loud as hell in some incomprehensible dialect ugly Brits. Are they representative for Brits in general? No, just like your "ugly Americans" aren't representative for Americans. There are cultural differences in behavior among nations. Americans - like Germans - are described as gregarious, aggressive and selfrighteous. Both nations are used to sable rattling of their political leaders and to proclaiming their greatness as nations. May be you remember that many Americans have German forefathers and that English supposedly won over German as Americas lingua franca by only one vote? ( I say supposedly, because I don't remember the source of that information and thus can't guaranee its correctness). I'd say lighten up. Personally, European as I am, I love teasing European sensibility of being proper - or not - wearing proudly an American boiled wool LAVENDER overcoat among the general greyness/navyness/brownness/blackness of typical European winter clothing. Guess I must be an ugly pseudo-American myself. ;-)
patty, talking lauder in your own language to a poor incomprehending foreigner is not an american trait. It happened to me in Finland and Hungary and in several other countries with so called "small" languages, eg. ususally incomprehensible to foreigners. Most people usually know some English, while many Americans have not really been exposed to other languages (may be now, with the sheer amount of Latinos, they will get used to non-English speakers), so they are somewhat excused to think that if you don't understand what they say, it is because they don't HEAR, not because they are unable to COMPREHEND. Guys, really, you don't have to have this superiotity/inferiority complex. You are not so different from the others: either as good, bad or ugly ;-)
jennifer en merida: the savoir vivre I was taught stated that if there is a company of over 3 people, you can (although you don't have to) subdivide conversation into smaller groups, but in such a way that no ONE person remains excluded. I am often in multilingual social gatherings and nobody considers it as rude if a few people strike a conversation in any particular language among themselves. So your American colleagues who do so, are not necessarily rude, unless they do it ostentatiously in the purpose to exclude.
"I agree. I am so embarrassed when we are with a group of people and part are Mexicans and the other are from the US and the gringos keep switching over to English. I mean, how rude can you get!"
jennifer - This reminds me of people in the US who think it is rude when latinos speak Spanish in front of them. It's almost like they are insecure that we are talking about them. Really though, the conversation probably has nothing to do with you.
By the way, America is so diverse...more than I've seen in anywhere in Latin America. We are all so different and unfortunately, the picture La Gringa is showing is a STEREOTYPE, nothing more.
It's the equivalent of showing a Mexican in a big sombrero taking a siesta against a tree.
These stereotypes are RUDE.
Wow! This obviously pushed some buttons!
Aside to kman- I meant that the news organizations had to tell the public why these obscure middle eastern people wanted to kill all of us. At the time no one knew who Al Queda or the Taliban were and where Afghanistan was.
Thanks for clarifying, Tom. However, you're lumping all Americans together as though we've been cloned or something. NO ONE knew about Al Queda, etc. before 9/11? Well, there you go again.
Well done, Minerva.
kman
As a US expat myself living in Holland, I don't mind other North Americans at all. I think the perception they are insensitive and rude is overrated. In fact, I think the fear of how other people perceive them makes them among the most sensitive and careful travelers.
If anything, when I travel outside Holland, it's Dutch travellers who annoy me. Dutch travellers often seem very unworldly and rude to me. To me they have all the stereotypical traits North Americans are supposed to have. They are loud, drunk and like to go places where people speak their language.
I think it's very easy to be upset by your 'fellow' travelers, whoever they may be.
There's always a lot of anger towards the US government. Most people understand there is a big difference between the US government and it's people. I think most people have disagreements with their own governments, and don't expect 'gringos' to be in agreement with the US government.
Everyone is their own person, and deserves respect accordingly. I think this is the opinion of most people in the world.
Wow! What a hurricane of comments we have here.
Isn't it bad enough that I get in trouble for what I say? Now I'm getting in trouble for what you say, too! ;-O
I just want to go on record to say that some of my best friends are US Americans. I even invite them to my home on occasion. ;-P
Of course, everyone is right that stereotypes and generalizations are bad, but like Minerva said, can't we just lighten up a little? Maybe *we* are perfect and it's just all those other guys that give our fellow countrymen a bad rap. Look at the sitcoms on TV -- It's no wonder that people all over the world think we US Americans are clods.
British are stuffy, Americans are pushy, French are rude, etc. etc. Stereotypes wouldn't evolve if there wasn't some little bit of truth to that, IN GENERAL. And we all know that truth is in the eye of the beholder. It is how we/they look to other people of other cultures.
Often someone who has met three Americans *think* they know what we all are like. Big deal. You have to be pretty insecure to worry about that.
It is possible to be so politically correct that you can't discuss anything. What fun is that?
This discussion reminded me of a very funny joke (to me anyway, probably not to anonymous commenters) that I read on internet long ago that I am going to try to find again.
Lighten up, folks. Laugh at yourself, or at least laugh at other's misperceptions. It's fun.
By the way, did anyone read the article? It actually said that American tourists are getting better and that nowadays it is hard to tell them from other tourists.
Oh, another BTW, the photo was from a Denmark site, so I guess it was actually a beer-guzzling, beer-bellied Dane. I didn't know all Danes were beer-guzzling, beer bellied oafs, did you?
I'm kidding!
You're one helluva snowball maker, LG!
kman
addendum: not impressed with your response.
kman
Kman, why? Are you Danish?
heheheh
BTW, I rushed over here to defend you because I misread the notice and thought it said, "I'm not impressed with your response, Kman."
I was going to tell Anonymous #1,935 that he wasn't here to attack my guests. Oh, well.
You're right. We do need to laugh at ourselves and other's misperceptions.
Your rushing over here to defend me from myself was pretty funny!
kman
please tell me that belt is fake...
No, the belt is real, found on the internet. Click the link and you can buy your own! ;-)
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