Funny. I worked in Italy (Milan), France (Paris, Orleans) and Denmark in the early 90s'. They had some of the same ideas. While in Orleans with my boss, I figured out why the locals thought Americans were too much trouble. He was one of the ones that would only speak English and if they didn't understand him, he said it louder. I took him to one of my favorite restaurants there under the condition that he not speak to anyone at the restaurant except our group. I spoke enough French to order for our group and I didn't want him messing up the relationship that I'd built with them. It was a little family owned place and they treated us great. The wife always slowed down when speaking to me and I could almost always understand her.UpTheIrons wrote:When I visited Europe in 1983, we told everyone we were from Texas when asked. People liked that - they still had the idea that John Wayne was out in West Texas somewhere riding his horse and shooting his six-gun.mgood wrote:I've heard something similar, supposedly reported by people in other countries when they ask an American where they're from. People from other states tend to say "America" or "The United States. People from Texas say they're from "Texas."VMI77 wrote:Years ago when I was forced to live in the Northeast I remember hearing about some survey that asked people if they identified first with their state or with their country. I don't remember the exact numbers, but for every state except Texas something like 95-99% said country. In Texas something like 15% said state.
In Germany, too often some rowdy folks would come by whatever establishment/place of interest we were visiting, and they would be carrying on and making a fuss. It seems they were "Verdammt Amerikanisher" (danged Americans, loosely translated), and the locals didn't take too kindly to them. Texans were fine, but Americans? Too snooty and too much trouble.
It wasn't exactly and un-earned reputation, unfortunately.
That is a perfect way to explain what I love about Texas. My wife and I have been all over the State in our RV and have found the same kind of great, easy to get along with people where ever we have gone. We had to live in NJ for 3 years prior to coming to Texas back in '88 and found the transplanted New Yorkers that lived there just too much to deal with. Talk about cold and unfriendly. We coined the phrase JALDIT (Just another lovely day in Texas) right after we moved here - and it had nothing to do with the weather.