Here it is, the moment all of you (Americans) have been waiting for: the follow up to my Fact & Fiction about the French post! Or in other words, a giant list of sometimes funny, sometimes surprising stereotypes that the French have about Americans.
- Americans are friendly
- Americans are fat
- Americans always have a coffee or tea in their hand (and only drink Starbucks)
- Americans eat the same foods over and over
- Americans are loud
- American girls are easy (putting it lightly)
- Americans are good in business (see what I said about surprising? Clearly no one is paying attention to the economy in the US)
- Americans eat all the time (some of them have developed this stereotype by being around me…)
- Americans alone are great company, but in a group they are obnoxious
- Americans eat a lot of hamburgers/cheeseburgers
- Americans are ignorant (i.e. they don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the world)
- Americans only drive big cars/SUVs
- Americans cannot drive manual transmission vehicles
- Americans are generally unhealthy, and take a pill for everything
- American men always wear t-shirts under a button-up (very atypical of European style)
- A lot of Americans have guns
Try to take these with a grain of salt, if you can. The thing I find interesting is not what the French think of Americans, but why. Maybe it’s from movies, television shows, or the news. Or maybe it’s what they’ve learned from personal encounters with Americans. In any case, not all of these are true, but some of them are – at least some of the time. And there’s a good chance I’ll continue to add to this list as I hear more “Americans are …” statements.
And maybe the next time you hear someone say “All French people all smoke cigarettes,” you can be reminded of the time you heard that the French think Americans always eat the same foods, and you can laugh and know that it’s probably not quite like that… 🙂
Ciao!
The Perpetual Passenger 
I adore these lists! Witty and “nail-head-hitting” once again!
Thank you! Now back to defending my reputation as a constantly-eating-yet-friendly American who probably can’t drive stick and owns a gun.
(The constantly eating part is definitely true. The rest – not so much 🙂 )
This is quite amusing. There is always some truth in stereotypes as well as things that are hugely false. I don’t witness many French people saying “Americans are”.. I think I’ve heard a few things which I had to correct.. or I shared a few things about my life in NY that shocked French people. What I’ve had some French people say here in the Alps is “It is hard to make French friends right? We aren’t as friendly up front”. Which has it’s truth. I’ve also heard French people complain that people in Grenoble are “cold / boring”. Everyone here has been quite enthusiastic to talk me me, a “New Yorker”. It probably wouldn’t be as impressive to Parisiens!
The cheeseburger thing.. I only ate cheeseburgers once in a while in the US, and I had to tell French people this on more than one occasion. ha!
Yes – the cheeseburger one actually caught me off-guard! I thought to myself… “really?”
And I think there are two reasons why I’ve heard so many American stereotypes:
One is that I’ve ASKED for them (“What do you think of when you think of Americans?”) and the other is that I’m living in Paris where there is a lot of media exposure to American culture, and a lot of people I know have been there briefly. So many of these stereotypical sentences begin “I’ve been to America before, and Americans are so…”
I’m always interested to hear the second half of that sentence, though. It’s a never-ending life lesson 🙂
I have to agree Nikki! In a nut shell, that wraps up a huge percentage of Americans. But then again, as you stated, it could fly with many other countries, with different stereotypes.
Here is my take to your post (enjoy!):
1. Of course Im friendly! (and I also enjoy Friendly’s… its a small restaurant chain here in America)
2. Only when I gained 42lbs being pregnant! (what the hell, I always eat healthy, it was a little excuse to eat what I wanted!)
3. I enjoy coffee in the a.m. The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cuupppp!
4. What the hell is wrong with Goldfish stashed in my desk? 😉
5. Yeah, when Im a little perturbed….
6. C’mon now! We’re not all skanks! Not everyone is like those losers from the Jersey Shore!
7. I run a business, and by golly, we’re doing great! (wanna buy a house?)
8. Ha! You try chasing your 2 year old around the office all day… oh, and during a meeting with clients!
9. Get a group of women together on a ‘kid free night’, dont we get a ‘hall pass’ to be a little obnoxious?!
10. Hook me up with some grilled onions, mushrooms and swiss, and Ill have one about 1-2x’s a year!
11. France? What the hell is that?! (kidding!.. no but seriously, you have a smokin’ first lady!)
12. I plead the 5th! (that’s American for you French Folk!)
13. I AM trying to talk Josh into buying a 69′ VW Bus… I have GOT to learn!
14. I’m usually a health NUT! But NO pills!
15. Since when did chest hair become sexy? Cover that sh*t up! 😉
16. I plead the 5th again!
🙂
(Just an American take on things… Hope your having a blast Nikki!!!!)
HAHA! Love this reply, Pam! There are definitely some of these that are true for me, too, and some that are just plain whacky. Love the Jersey Shore reference… which thankfully hasn’t made it onto the airwaves in Paris… YET.
xoxo!
Ha! Ha! Ha! Love it! Clearly a lot of French people HAVE been here! Bisous!
After having spent 7 years in the US, here is my take on this:
1 – True.
2 – They’re not all fat, but they’re fatter.
3 – Not always, but yes, they seem to enjoy drinking their coffee on the run rather than sit down and appreciate it.
4 – Sadly true.
5 – Especially when they’re abroad for some reason (not two days ago, I was in a café, I couldn’t hear a word of what the two French girls on the table next to mine were saying, but could hear the whole conversation that those Americans were having on the other side of the room).
6 – No, they’re not easy, but Frenchmen are led to believe that because of the stupid behavior some American girls have abroad (especially younger drunk ones).
7 – Meh. No more no less than others. Maybe some French people believe that because Americans have no problem talking openly about money, while most French people find the topic more or less taboo.
8 – Not “all the time” but definitely way too often during the day.
9 – True for the most part.
10 – Actually not true, but eat way too much junk food.
11 – Sadly true for the most part.
12 – Once again, not “all” but way too many SUVs on your side of the ocean.
13 – Nope, they can’t indeed.
14 – I believe they pop less pills than French people, but yeah, they’re generally unhealthy. Comes from the poor quality of the food and the nonsensical healthcare system (or lack of thereof)
15 – Never really paid attention to that.
16 – Well, can’t say that it’s not true (stupid 2nd amendment, as if there were that many roaming bears, Indians, Frenchmen and British nowadays in the American countryside that you need a gun to defend yourself like it was the case when that law was written)
Thanks for your feedback!
And for the record, I am now on “this” side of the ocean, and I CAN drive manual transmission. 🙂