Topic: Difference between Americans and Europeans................

[Tatyana]

..............or Americans and Canadians, Americans and British, British and Australians, Australians and New Zealanders, South Africans and Dutch, Europeans and Japanese, Japanese and Koreans, etc, etc..............

Of course this thread is going to be super subjective and probably wrong most of the time, but I like hearing people's stereotypes, schema,  and general impressions about people, culture and different areas of the world.

I'll start.

I think that Americans are more likely to go to a  conference (ie. TAM, Dragoncon) than take a two week+ holiday.

[evil muppet]

I found this a while ago, it is about the difference between Americans and Germans.  Very interesting. 

http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/us-d.html

[Tatyana]

I found this a while ago, it is about the difference between Americans and Germans.  Very interesting. 

http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/us-d.html

Interesting, I love those sort of honest appraisals.

I can't believe I forgot this site, which may also be handy if you are thinking of moving to another country, not just for comparisons:

http://www.ifitweremyhome.com

[MisterMarc]

My German cousin just couldn't seem to grasp why Americans drive to most locations. He was flabbergasted that my sister and I took a bus to a school that was 2 miles away. We chalked it up to the fact that most US cities are designed around automobiles, and don't accommodate walkers or bikers (no sidewalks, walking paths, bike trails, or bike lanes). My Mom couldn't figure out why he didn't think children walking along a busy highway was a bad idea.

[Ah.hell]

I found this a while ago, it is about the difference between Americans and Germans.  Very interesting. 

http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/us-d.html

The politics section was pretty dead on but a lot of it seemed pretty dated.  I think some of his thoughts are influenced by media sensationalism.  I suspect one of the things that's different between Americans and Germans is what we consider "often" or "common". 

[Shadow Of A Doubt]

Americans are very snobby about the way things are done in America and have very stereotyped views of the world but Europeans have no cultural superiority complexes whatsoever.

This is definitely true because as a European I have the cultural sophistication not to elect George Bush or eat McDonalds.

 

[Ah.hell]

Americans are very snobby about the way things are done in America and have very stereotyped views of the world but Europeans have no cultural superiority complexes whatsoever.

This is definitely true because as a European I have the cultural sophistication not to elect George Bush or eat McDonalds.
 

I've heard Europeans express this a lot(its nearly certainly true) but they almost always follow it with, "except the french".  In my experience and I bet this varies depending on where in the US you are, Foreigners are much more likely to be openly racist or bigoted.  I've always just assumed their not more likely to be racist just less self conscious about it.

edited for a few reasons but mostly:

There's another thread about an 18 year old girl who was arrested for sexing up a 14/15 year old girl.  I think the age difference is about 3.5 years.

Since we have this thread about cultural differences.  What do slutty Europeans think?  Is a 3 or 4 year age gap important at 14-18?

[spawnstar]

Americans are more likely to use the term Europeans than people from Europe.

[Soldier of FORTRAN]

The short time I spent in Germany has convinced that they are beautiful drivers.

Two lanes were closed off heading into Berlin or Munich (can't remember), and all everyone did was space out and merge lanes in this smooth zipper action.  No one slowed down more than 15 or 20 miles an hour and it was amazing.  Here in the states that would've been like hours of backed up traffic.  Germany?  Nope.  I'm tempted to make Master Race jokes, but as well know, astronauts are the master race because they're really smart but also good with emotions (Germans would make good astronauts, I bet).