How the USA is regarded from the rest of the world

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It's also expensive for me and I don't see your point with correlating it to the excuse that I don't care.

I can't be bothered to me sounds like we should be bothering to travel overseas even though some of us let alone can't afford healthcare.

Lame man and besides not all of us like what our country has done with our foreign policy. I agree our country's pretty f****d up for what it's done but to generalize American people as whole is just ridiculous given the diverse people and different s**t were in.

I don't know but just my 2 cents...

I was making some generalisations to make a point. I understand that overseas travel is not the domain for everyone, and that for many its simply out of reach.

However, backing up my statement is that there are statistics that show the US has one of the least travelled populations for any developed nation. My point being is that the outside world certainly sees the US as unworldly yet quite free to judge from the perceived gilded towers of the hallowed US of A. Any US citizens while overseas have certainly been seen acting this way.

What about travel within the country? It's a big, diverse place.
Not as diverse as Europe, but that's because the states haven't sat there, hating each other for centuries.

You can't get away from the general sameness thats present within a country, sometimes you have to get out and view from without and from the eyes others.

Thats said, those from louisiana are different from Texans, who are different from ohio and so on. I find that each state is almost a seperate country within a country, its bizarre. Give the US a couple of hundred years and the states will start hating each other

From my home, I can travel probably 300 miles in any direction without needing a passport. Until a few years ago (when travel to Canada was restricted), I would have had to go over 1500 miles to reach the nearest place that required a passport. How far does the typical European have to travel before they need a passport to go further?

Georgia and New York may as well be different countries, the only "general sameness" is that they both speak some variant of English and accept dollars as currency. And our states already hate each other, but unlike Europe, we only had to fight one war to settle the question of who was better.

By the way, why do foreigners simultaneously b***h about stupid American tourists, and denigrate Americans in general for not spending enough time abroad?

Having been to Europe, I've actually noticed quite a lot of similarity.
1. A city was still a city.
2. In Denmark, they all spoke English.
3. There's no escaping American brands...

However, these similarities made certain differences apparent.
1. The cities had counter-intuitive street layouts, with names that changed too often.
2. In Germany, many of them didn't speak English. (seems to depend upon generation)
3. Sometimes, the American products had different names. (Diet Coke is Coke Light.)

Perhaps, though, it's a matter of perspective. Seeing something different, I found what was similar. My dad claims to have found London to be more foreign than Paris.

How in the eff does "too expensive" fit in with "can't be bothered" and "no care"? I don't know about you but I have bills to pay and have to be able to afford my life. I also don't have time to take off even more than 2 days. I've finally just recently been able to get a second day off in the week.

Probably. Los Angeles is way different from New Orleans is worlds apart from Dallas is worlds apart from Orlando. Different dialect, different laws, different culture.

Not sure what you mean by sameness, though. If you mean monoculture...that's pervasive pretty much the world over.

I tend to agree. There's only so much that can be learned from books, TV, and the internet. It's never a good idea to pass judgement on a place that you've never actually visited (that works both ways). Field trips are important for grown-ups too! I'm almost ashamed that my only experience with international travel was a brief trip to Niagra Falls. I hope to change that one day, but now I'm struggling to pay my health insurance premiums. My copays and deductibles are going up again in 2 weeks .

I put it all in the same basket because if travel was high enough in your value system you will find a way to do it. Words like "too expensive", "not enough time" , and "I have bills to pay" are all just excuses. Why not say you don't care to travel? Thats the deep down honest answer.

Whch of course brings me to my point.

I myself have travelled fairly extensively, and have learnt so much from my experiences. It really brings many things into perspective.

I appreciate it, and I am fortunate enough to manage things to enable me to do it.

I have no pressing need to travel abroad, and while I would like to visit other countries, I have other priorities that take precedence. Paying for my education, for example, is more important to me than visiting Europe.

That good enough for you?

Then why should we travel?

I mean I don't want to fit into those "statistics". As far as unworldy is concerned, I agree that being there is much more honest experience than reading about it. But do you actually think that many of us don't want to be bothered by it?

Are you implying that most of us just want to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and not travel?

You have no idea how many people I hear say where they'd love to go..Egypt, India, England, Ireland, Germany...etc. I myself have long dreamed of travelling. For most of us who don't fit the ubber class b/c we're busy working our tails off while getting an educationg. This is almost impossible unless a friend or someone would be willing to help pay for the trip.

For some of us, it is seen as a luxury rather than a job. I don't mean the type of luxury where you save enough money to buy something a bit pricey or out of your budget...I mean pricey $$$$. So the excuse of we don't want to be bothered by....eems laughable at least to me. I agree, being there is more of a learning experience than studying about it. But it is a one way trip to debt and for me my trailer.

Do you see where some of us our coming from?

Last edited by MissConstrue on 15 Oct 2009, 2:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

I question whether this is necessarily true. By visiting another country, you'd likely be confined to the tourist-y areas and even if you weren't, you would still only be able to see a very small subset of the country and its culture and so you would be forming your opinion based on very limited anecdotal evidence. Of course spending time in another country would give you a more vivid perception of the cultural differences, but much can be learned from a distance as well.

I absolutely get where you are coming from, and I apologise for rubbing anyone up the wrong way.

I guess I was trying to put across (perhaps badly) an illustration of how the US is seen by some. While there are good reasons perhaps of that observations, they are perceptions nonetheless.

Yeah I agree and the same can be said for those who don't study before going. I think this is where you get tourists who act like degenerates or come off inadvertanly offensive.

Ugh... I knew a couple of peers in college who did a lot of traveling. The only information they'd enlightened us with was what the parties and clubs were like.....

In the old days: a nation run by freemasons and the zionist lobby.

These days: a nation pretty much becoming as boring as Canada, with a gay army, gay marriage, multicultural idiocy (Quebec).