While Americans aren't the most popular folks on earth, the stereotype of the drunken, obnoxious American tourist that Anne Kim wrote about in her Sunday piece on the NEXT page was very much out of step with my recent experience abroad.
I found the opposite to be true, as far as general labels go. Every American I met was keenly aware of his or her deflated status and popularity and acted accordingly in public, drunk or not.
I met a couple of girls from Bainbridge Island who I had to persuade to drop their English accent. Other people I know pretended to be Canadians. If anything, the modern American tourist is extremely sensitive to our international disposition.
The Aussies and the English, on the other hand, inherited the obnoxious fury that so many wish to label the Americans with. Without failure, every time I awoke late at night to hear some drunken moron screaming in the streets. It was almost always somebody with an English accent.
The Americans know their role and for the most part have adapted. The world Anne Kim perpetuates is from ages past, a tired cliche.
As for belligerent Aussies and what not, if Anne travels abroad I can guarantee she'll find her share. When it comes to traveling to Europe, its cool to be anything but American; this is fairly obvious and I sincerely doubt there is any measure for gauguing the amount of hooliganistic activity derived by young American travelers of late. That trend probably died about the same time we invaded Iraq.
Respond to John
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