Morning Star

Hmm. Well, that's interesting.

hodor

okay after a few days now i have actually asked around so i could give an answer as to what residents from where i live think.... even though there is only between thirty and forty of us LOL. Most say well the govt has problems but so do theirs so they didnt say much about that... what i really picked up is how they look at the cars americans drive and how much gas they use; they pretty much all think americans in general waste alot. LOL and i couldnt disagree with that because when i lived there i had a chevy 4x4 extra cab v8.

i did however point out that there are more diesel cars on the roads in europe and they we aloof to that.

angrybuddhist

I would imagine Americans are just like everybody else; okay in small doses, but collectively our loud, obnoxious flaws tend to attract the most attention.

Circus Cranium

When I went to England (three times), I got to see a lot of the outside looking in view of America (my own country). I was baffled by one thing. A lot of them didn't quite grasp, for lack of a better word, the 'bigness' of our country. What I mean by that is, not only is the country divided into states, which are in affect tiny countries of their own in many ways, but the regional differences from East to West, Central, North to South, coastal to inland are SO incredibly different. In culture, in attitude, in beliefs, it's really like many small countries. So it's very difficult to coin what 'Americans' or the country as a whole is like, because diversity is paramount.

hodor

Here here circus! I am from the west USA and only been in the west (extreme west: oregon california and arizona). We are NOT New Yorkers, or Floridians, or even like ppl from Chicago. You would have to just each american separately. However, how the outside world judges us is differently. Since I have lived in France I think alot of ppl have changed their minds about us. Or at least about me. I am not what they would typicalize an american as.

Space Monkey

I agree again, and need to point out a couple of basic flaws in the question.

1. Generalization of any kind is bad. Any nation is made up of a billion individuals who don't all share a mindset. To say any race is anything is racially offensive to everyone who isn't like that. I'm English, but I don't read newspapers over breakfast, have bad teeth, wear a bowler hat or look down my nose at people.

2. Governmental policies and decisions don't necessarily reflect the opinions of the people. Is the question, what does the world think of Bush? What does the world think of Kerry? (Two very different versions of America right there).

To say they are 'collectively' this or that doesn't make it any more rational; it's stupid to try and describe the people of any nation as a collective.

Sirathiel

I know some Americans, or rather I know one American, she's the nicest girl ever, fun to be around and humorous. She's quite aware of what general traits of Americans are and she also aware that each people has their own quirks. So that particular American I like a lot.

Then there are those I only know from online forums like this one. They're great people to as far as I can tell.

When it comes to what I see of the States on TV (that means when I'm home in Germany, because my German TV doesn't work here in France), I'm a bit afraid. The US of A are a very powerful country (economically and in military aspects), and their current government (i.e. Bush) scares me. Really scares me. I can't help imagine what crazy idea he might get next. Add to that that he is the most powerful man on this planet (being president of the USA, even the French president doesn't have that much power, and he's got a lot already...), I really hoped he wouldn't be reelected.

To make long things short: I'm convinced that the individual Americans are nice enough, likeable people. But I'm not too happy with their government (i.e. its foregin policies).

(This is in no way a representative opinion, only my personal view, which might be way off, dead centre, or something else altogether.)

Alexa

I guess, this makes two of us. Bush was in Canada recently and tried to convince our government to join him in his crazy wars. Glad to hear, the answer was : NO.

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"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true" (R.W. Emerson)

hodor

I am an american and I couldn't possibly see how anybody in the whole world (with the exception of our own government) could possibly like our foriegn policy. I don't like our foreign policy.

Maryjane