I was in Italy, and too many people kept starring at me and gave me nasty looks, and they stare, i stare back, they keep starring and dont stop. I felt angry most of the time. I come from NYC- i was nicely dressed and fashionable. What the hell do they have against Americans?
BTW I have been to France and they were so nice and friendly not like these Italians.
2007-03-18 21:04:43 · 13 answers · asked by Jetglam 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Other - Society & Culture
i went to a restaurant, me and my family spoke and the people next to us turned right away and gave us a nasty look, continued to stare and shake their heads at us even as they were leaving. MY mom was talking to the help at the musuem in the elevator, this girl made a from right away, and look of disgust as my Mom talked. I know its because were Americans.
2007-03-18 21:17:47 · update #1
Reuben where are you from?
2007-03-18 21:41:48 · update #2
I'm Italian I don't think that Italians get impressed by new trend so much and we are not intolerant at all.
Is not clear to me if you were snob or we were snob.
Reading your question I'm thinking of very weird, obnoxious, laud, funny people. Next time you come here, drop me a line.
I wanna see you.
BTW
Why pushing the "help" in the elevator? That's for emergency!
You are like National Lampoon's European Vacation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANWbhv3rncc
2007-03-19 13:30:28 · answer #1 · answered by O.G. 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I'm American and live in Italy, and have never been stared at or given dirty looks. I work in a hotel and we get a lot of American clients, and no American client has ever told me they were given nasty looks or treated badly. I'm sorry you had a bad experience in Italy. Maybe you were obnoxious and/or loud, who knows. Or maybe you just happened to meet the *******, once again who knows.
2007-03-21 00:24:19 · answer #2 · answered by Mari76 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Well, as a Latin guy who has lived in the United States, my impression is that Americans don't value certain things all Latin cultures do (Italians are Latins, just in case you don't know).
For example, from our perspective, Americans are seen as rude, violent, intolerant, impatient, disrespectful, anti-social and we also perceive them as having no sense of humor. I'm not saying that Americans are all these things, I'm just saying that from our perspective, Americans don't value certain things that are very important in our cultures.
From our perspective, Americans seem to put too much value on money and very little on life. For example, many Americans favor war because it brings them prosperity and they don't really care about all the people that are dying. We Latins are horrified at this way of thinking.
Another example is racism. Americans usually marry with a partner of their own race and have friends of their own race. They even live in neighborhoods where most people are of the same race. Most Americans hate immigrants, etc. These just doesn't happen in most Latin countries where racism is considered something very primitve and wrong and where most immigrants are welcome with open arms.
I could go on and on but it all boils down to this, Americans are perceived as primitive, dangerous, and hard to interact with by most people in the world. Of course, at school (I went to school in the US for some years) they will brainwash you and tell you that the US is advanced politically and socially but it's actually only advanced economically and the reason behind it is the exploitation of resources done to other countries by Americans. I really have no idea why the French didn't treat you as they treat most Americans. French are known for their anti-american sentiment.
2007-03-18 21:30:47 · answer #3 · answered by reuben 1 · 2⤊ 3⤋
Maybe they were staring at you because you spoke ENGLISH. If I walked down a street in the US speaking Swahili loudly maybe I would get a few stares.
Don't worry. I don't think the Italians care a jot about your nationality. If they stared they were probably checking out your fine self or maybe you were seeing things. I doubt if your nationality had anything to do with it.
And don't go about Europe being cautious about your nationality. Frankly, Americans are still welcome here.
2007-03-18 21:14:06 · answer #4 · answered by Taharqa 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
One reason is our military base there, they had a big protest rally against it.
Too bad Rueben doesn't know that US people DO NOT favor 'the war' and don't mind immigration but why don't some nations want to be fair to it's citizens.
2007-03-18 23:12:39 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
You looked to flashy like you think your all that and a bag of chips. Nobody cares about that fashion crap over there. Its working class folks. Just like you probably look at handicapped or homeless they are weird. to them you are weird and a show off
2007-03-18 21:08:20 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 2⤋
They gave YOU dirty looks, not Americans;
2007-03-18 21:10:58 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
That's complicated to answer, but America has been doing many evil things recently, and we are generally not the most popular ccountry. Maybe they just didn't like you personally, though, and it had nothing to do with your nationality.
2007-03-18 21:08:45 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋
They are probably just staring, and you are interpreting it as dirty looks.
2007-03-18 21:14:00 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
i'm italian and what are u talking about ?? i'm sure they didn't
like you, maybe because u looked like a weirdo!!
2007-03-21 07:50:30 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋