People who arent from the U.S. keep saying that Americans dont travel...?

Question

After 9/11 I am so terrified about going on air planes, because I saw it happen from my window, but everyone I know goes to at least one other country every year so I'm confused why people say Americans dont travel, and why are Americans called Americans, I mean It's not the only country in North and South America, I guess United Staters is too weird or something.

Answer 1

Of course Americans travel.

In fact they are very well travelled.

Just like any country, the residents who do not travel, tend to have a very ethnocentric view of the world.

Meaning that, my country is the best in the world, my culture is superior to others.
Everybody hates us because we are richer, better, smarter.

Unfortunately small numbers of arrogant folks who have not travelled and learned the "big picture" sometimes appear to the rest of the world to be the "voice" and "opinions" of their country as a whole.

When people generalise...

Americans don't travel
Poles are dumb
Scots are mean
French are arrogant and ungratefull
Germans are Nazis
Russians are communists
Cubans, all want to go to America.
Mexicans are spics

Sounds kind of stupid eh?

Answer 2

I hope that you fear of traveling by plane goes away because you are missing out on experiencing a lot of the great things this world has to offer. Terrorism, extremists, dictators have always been around. It is just on the news so much more these days. While over seas just use good judgment and common sense. Do not bring a lot of attention to your self and try to experience the culture and fit in as much as possible. Americans tend to be arrogant and compare everything to the States. Guess what, you are not in the States now, so don't compare. Enjoy the differences and learn about the area that you are visiting. You only have one shot at life and you are the only one that is going to keep you from living it to the fullest. Life is pretty much a collection of memories when it boils down to it, don't you want to have as many as possible...

We are called Americans for a few reasons. It is the United States of America, not Canada America or Mexico America. It is just easier to say American. North and South America was founded and named after Amerigo Vespucci. So our country is the United States of America. Hence we are Americans.

Americans as labeled that we do not travel abroad as much as others that are not from America. We have a lot of people living in the Us that are from other countries. If you go abroad you will notice that a lot of Americans do not live there full time. So their perception is that Americans do not travel. I guess America is such a great place that people flock here from all over the world?

I go over seas at least once a year. I have been to 40 of the 50 states and about 20 different countries. I was in the Navy and went to some of the countries that most Americans will not ever go.

All I can say is that you should get back on the plane and go see for your self. Air travel is much more safer than driving your car. People have an issue with not being in control and being so high up in the air. There are thousands of flights a day and very few crashes a year or more.

Answer 3

You have two questions: why are people from the US called Americans, and why do people say Americans don't travel.

First, people from the US are called Americans just out of habit. You are right that Canadians, Mexicans, Brazilians, and everyone in between are Americans. It's just that people in the US and around the world got used to saying, Are you American? when they meant are you from the United States of America? Properly speaking, I suppose people should say I am North American, Central American, South American, and so forth.

Second, one major reason for saying that people from the US don't travel is that only 18 percent of Americans have passports, and only 9 percent of those use their passports to travel beyond Cancun (Mexico) and the West Indies (Jamaica, etc.). This means that only around 28 million Americans travel beyond their own back doors (assuming a population of 300 million). Only about 3 million Americans, er, US citizens, live permenently abroad (expats), and the rest of the 25 million (which includes children) travel around the world. The rest of the citizenry are relatively ignorant of the rest of the world. Another sign that US citizens don't travel much is that they aren't interested that much in World news--tell me newspaper not on the border that even mentions Canadian or Mexican news on a daily basis. Hell, most Americans couldn't find Africa or Europe or China on a map.

Answer 4

travel, the terrorists are trying to keep people from traveling by using scare tactics. If we give in to them then they win.