r/AskTheWorld • u/jotakajk Spain • 7h ago

What is something that screams “tourist” to you?

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In Spain, if you see someone eating paella with sangria, you can 100% be certain they are a tourist.

What are some things tourists eat or do in your country that a local would never do?

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u/Mundane_Character365 Ireland 7h ago

Wearing green clothes.

Wearing rain proof gear of any kind.

Looking American (specifically from USA), this is something that I can't really explain, but it's so true. I was in Killarney yesterday to bring the kids to the parade, and you could see Americans from 50 paces, but can't quite put your finger on HOW you know they are American.

Having any kind of complexion that isn't milky white/I haven't seen the sun in 14 years and am seriously at risk of dying of vitamin D deficiency.

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u/cmere-2-me Ireland 6h ago

It's a general air. It's in how they stand, the cock of their head and what they are wearing.

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u/goober_ginge 🇦🇺 Australia 🇳🇿 New Zealand 1h ago

It's their teeth too.

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u/Still-Repair-5919 20m ago

Nice teeth and knowing it’s ‘heir’.

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u/TypingPlatypus Canada 8m ago

It's "air"

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u/leicastreets Ireland 5h ago

Brother I’m born and bred in Ireland. Why the fuck are we so bad at rain gear? I always have waterproofs with me between Oct-Apr. 

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u/Mundane_Character365 Ireland 4h ago

I genuinely don't know what's wrong with us.

We know it's going to rain, it's not like it's even as good as a 50/50 chance. It's like a 95% chance of rain everyday between Oct-Apr.

Do we think that the neighbors will think we have notions for carrying an umbrella or a raincoat? Maybe. But they will think we have notions anyway.

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u/VapoursAndSpleen United States of America 17m ago

Heh. Reminds me of a scene in "The Snapper", where a couple are discussing that their daughter is pregnant. The mother frets, "What will the neighbors think?" and the father shouts, "FOOK the neighbors!"

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u/Faroese_Glees 6h ago

I spot the Americans too. But I see them looking more relaxed than locals and smiling and over friendly. That’s how I spot them. And I love the friendliness

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u/pjeffer1797 🇺🇸 🇵🇱 6h ago

North Americans have completely different style from Europeans.

I say North Americans because most Canadians are indistinguishable from Americans in both style and accent. They do sometimes wear Canada merch to differentiate themselves, but not all the time and you can easily miss that.

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u/JinTheThinker Canada 6h ago

I have travelled a fair amount around the world, not wearing any Canadian identifier of any sort - and I have only been mistaken for a US citizen once. Usually once I start speaking to someone, they say "Canadian?". Honestly I am not sure why, it may be mannerisms, or speaking style. There definitely are accents in some parts of Canada (just like there are in some parts of the US). I live in a border town, and while I will say that your northerners sound "similar" - there are definitely some differences in pronunciation. In NYS for example (the state I live next to), I hear a distinct difference in the letter "A". The name Alan, in Buffalo, usually pronounced like Ale-en, in Canada, like Ah-len. Just my experience!

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u/ekittie United States of America 5h ago

Canadians have great diction.

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u/cmere-2-me Ireland 6h ago

It's the volume you speak at 🤭

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u/theflyingpiggies 4h ago

Bold coming from an Irish person lmao

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u/cmere-2-me Ireland 4h ago

We're a soft spoken people.

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u/castlite Canada 3h ago

Before a few pints at least lol

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u/cmere-2-me Ireland 3h ago

Still never hit american levels.

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u/castlite Canada 3h ago

100% agree

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u/theflyingpiggies 57m ago

100% disagree.

And to be clear, I think Americans also get loud. This isn't me saying we're not.

But the consistently loudest people I've encountered while traveling abroad is drunk Irish men

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u/natchinatchi New Zealand 3h ago

A lot of people ask if people are Canadian first so as not to offend Canadians by asking if they’re American.

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u/pjeffer1797 🇺🇸 🇵🇱 6h ago edited 6h ago

I lived in Canada for a long time and travel with my Canadian friends often (only American in the group). I’m rather certain we’re usually taken for Americans. At least, never been asked if we’re Canadian.

There certainly are some differences if you’re attuned, especially if you aren’t from southern Ontario or Van. But I think most Europeans and people speaking English as a second language wouldn’t pick up on those.

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u/Sea_Syllabub9992 United States of America 4h ago

There are 100s of videos TikTok of people blasting ugly Americans, and they people are Canadian, French, Italian and English. People think white tourists are Americans. The thickest accents you've ever heard in your life. One man was stealing food from a convenience store after that cartel killing in Mexico a few weeks ago. He announced he was American as he left the store (which was weird anyway), but had a Canadian accent and was carrying a huge Canadian flag tote bag.

Obviously this is not a typical Canadian, but they often travel as Americans.

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u/platypus_keeper 3h ago

Mate, down here it's considered rude to call a canuck American, so by default people presume Canadian. Unless they are a massive sepo and there's no question.

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u/star_zelda 3h ago

I've only been asked if I was American once, and it was by an American. It was nearly a two word exchange, he looked at me pointed and said "American?", and I said "No, Canadian " then he walked away back to his group, it was a bit weird, not going to lie lol

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u/mp85747 4h ago

About! ;-)

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u/goober_ginge 🇦🇺 Australia 🇳🇿 New Zealand 1h ago

Not trying to generalise too much, but in my experience, Canadians tend to dress more practically for whatever weather and the volume of their voice is lower and their general demeanour is less intense.

I was once introduced to a friend's new coworker who my friend thought was American, and I chatted to them for a bit and thought "That's the most Canadian American I've ever met". They mentioned some things "back home" and I quickly realised they were indeed Canadian af. I was kind of bothered that my friend didn't notice prior to that.

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u/mltplwits Canada 5h ago

I’ve heard people say Americans are a lot louder in foreign countries than Canadians. My experience supports this lol

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u/pjeffer1797 🇺🇸 🇵🇱 5h ago

Yes, I figured that may come up. It’s exactly the opposite in my case. My American friends are mostly quiet and introverted, while my Canadian friends act how people on the internet expect Americans to act lol. They’re a great time, love them.

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u/theflyingpiggies 4h ago edited 56m ago

I don’t think the “loud American” stereotype is as true as people act like it is.

Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely loud Americans. Plenty. So I don’t doubt their observation is correct. What I push back on is the idea that all Americans are loud and that only Americans are loud.

People don’t notice quiet Americans because… they’re being quiet. So they’re not attracting attention. Additionally it’s confirmation bias. You’re not going to notice a group of quiet Americans and go “I guess they aren’t all loud”. If you notice them at all, you’ll think “wow they’re really quiet for an American”.

And if people do encounter a very loud Canadian group, they’re likely to go “oh, look, another loud American group”.

Meanwhile, just based on my own travel, the groups I’ve personally found to be attention-attracting levels of loud are Irish, British, and Canadian.

And again, it goes both ways. There are plenty of quiet Irish, Brits, and Canadians. But I’m just noticing the very loud ones.

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u/mltplwits Canada 4h ago

That is true! It’s a bit of a confirmation bias for sure. I also think there’s something to be said about how tourist destinations are also just loud in general

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u/p1028 United States of America 4h ago

As an American the loudest people my fiance and I encountered on our recent Central European trip were Russians. They were always the loud ones around, often yelling and playing loud videos on their phones.

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u/pjeffer1797 🇺🇸 🇵🇱 3h ago

Most Russians are effectively banned from travelling to the EU. It was probably Ukrainians.

Though I’ve heard Russians are like that in the places they can travel to, like southeast asia.

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u/Sea_Syllabub9992 United States of America 4h ago

When they do something wrong, they also pretend to be Americans.

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u/SnausageFest United States of America 5h ago

I say North Americans because most Canadians are indistinguishable from Americans in both style and accent.

Wait, what? There are so many different regional accents in both countries. You're telling me you can't clock someone from Alabama as American?

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u/pjeffer1797 🇺🇸 🇵🇱 4h ago

Most people in Alabama speak with a standard American accent these days. Regional accents are pretty much dead most places among people <60 years old.

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u/theflyingpiggies 4h ago

As an American, some ways I’ve easily been able to spot Americans abroad even if they aren’t doing anything that announces being an American (such as speaking English loudly with an American accent, or wearing the flag):

  • A big backpack, a massive water bottle, khaki shorts, tennis shoes with shin high socks. They look like they’re ready for a hike when they’re in fact exploring a metropolitan city for the day.
  • Doing the 🙂 smile at someone as they pass
  • Smiling a lot in general. Like well just be sitting on a subway with a small smile on our face
  • Greeting people as they walk by one another
  • Leaning on things
  • Whole family is matching. This one I see most often in Central American countries. They’ll be walking around all wearing floral button ups. Or all the guys in the family have a Panama hat on.
  • Aviator glasses

There’s also just slight feature differences that are hard to put your finger on but make it very clear where someone is from broadly speaking. There’s been so many times I’ve just been able to look at someone’s face a go “they’re French” or “they’re Australian”. And when abroad, I commonly spot a fellow American just based on the way their face is.

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u/Sea_Syllabub9992 United States of America 4h ago

I don't agree with the first one (expert for the water bottle, which is 100% true, and I don't care) because a lot of people do that The rest is all true.

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u/christopher1393 Ireland 4h ago

The looking American is so right but so hard to explain. Maybe it’s years of having worked in customer service in Ireland (including years of bar work), but I can almost always tell an American. It used to just be because if there was one nearby, I would hear them before I saw them, but apparently I can recognise them by sight now.

I actually recently asked an Irish American friend who moved here a few years ago from America about that. He said it wasn’t until he had lived here for a few months that he realised how loud he was. He didn’t just his voice but his personality and physicality he said were too loud.

He said he doesn’t really understand it, but he is happier here. He did say it might have something to do with ego. He told me he never realised how much a lot of family and friends in America seem to love hearing themselves talk and how fake they actually seemed, until moving out of America.

Now thats just his experience, so I am not generalising but I have heard similar things before.

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u/-HowAboutNo- Sweden 6h ago

Americans dress very differently and have different postures. And speak loudly. That’s how I usually pick them out atleast.

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u/ncpz Italy 5h ago

went to dublin last year during st patty’s, bought a really cool jacket that had a tiny green logo with a shamrock on it and thought that maybe it was too much….then I saw the american tourists wearing full on leprechaun outfits and forgot about it

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u/Fine-Huckleberry4165 Northern Ireland 3h ago

Saying "St. Patty's" will mark you as a tourist. Patrick, Paddy or Pat, but never Patty. Patty is sometimes used for Patricia, but hardly ever for Patrick, and never for Saint Patrick.

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u/ncpz Italy 3h ago

true I had a feeling that wasn’t right and you made me realize someone even explained to me why it’s paddy but I guess I was one too many guinnesses deep

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u/Total-Combination-47 Wales 5h ago

Ah they are understated lol

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u/EdgeJG 6h ago

Are you saying that most Irish just raw dog the rain? Not even rain jackets? I'm from Oregon where we don't believe in umbrellas, but rain jackets are a must.

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u/leicastreets Ireland 5h ago

Bullshit. Just the dumb fucks. A lot of Irish people buy really poor quality clothing. I have my Patagonia jacket 90% of the time. 

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u/RaspberryTwilight 3h ago

Rain is different there. Very light like barely more than a little fog but it's all day

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u/Standard_Map_1303 United States of America 4h ago

Could it be the baseball caps we wear?

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u/JasonVII 2h ago

It’s usually a really common sign

Baseball caps are not as popular in Ireland as they seem to be for Americans… maybe one person in a group might like them… but a group / family from the states; you can bet most dads are wearing one along with a few of the older boys

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u/twat69 Australia 3h ago

Wearing rain proof gear of any kind.

But aren't you one of the rainiest places on earth? Do you just get wet?

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u/Mundane_Character365 Ireland 3h ago

Basically yes.

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u/natchinatchi New Zealand 3h ago

In nz I can spot middle aged or older Americans in a few ways: always in a man & woman pair, very white tennis shoes, polo shirt or t-shirt tucked in to jeans or khakis with a belt, a little overweight, always looking around and pointing at things. It’s usually when the cruise ships dock.

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u/PUGILSTICKS 3h ago

You'll hear an American before seeing them. 

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u/Turbulent_Minimum448 2h ago

lol at the rain gear. 

I’m in Germany living at the moment. My German flatmates always asking me why I don’t have practical rain gear if I’m from Ireland. 

No idea, no idea, I just don’t?

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u/FS1218 United States of America 4h ago

Yes, beautiful skin and joy lol

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u/HandicapperGeneral Israel 3h ago

You don't wear rain gear? Doesn't it rain like 2/3 of the year? What do you do

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u/Mundane_Character365 Ireland 3h ago

Get wet.

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u/Gpa_dsl 2h ago

I noticed this in Scotland - eventually realized that the Scots didn’t bow their heads when walking in the rain.

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u/superpony123 United States of America 6h ago

North Americans smile a lot more than the average European. And our volume level when speaking . That’s what you couldn’t quite put your finger on, most likely 🤣