American Tourists Being Oblivious That They’re Foreigners

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Stand-up comedian Ginny Hogan, from the US, started up a massively viral Twitter thread about oblivious American tourists after sharing a photo from the airport that stressed to Americans that, yes, they are considered foreigners abroad. Scroll down to see how Twitter users reacted to the photo and the types of experiences that they had with American tourists! Judging by how mush traction this Twitter tread created, people really love to make fun of Americans.

It’s funny to me that they’ve decided Americans are the only ones who might not realize they’re foreigners

I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Had someone pay in American Dollars but not understand why I couldn’t give them American change. I explained we’re in Canada with Canadian currency and he said “no we’re not, this is New Jersey!”

This happened to me once in Vancouver back in 2004. I would accept American currency, but he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that I didn't have American money in the till to return to him as change. My repeated explanation, "You're in Canada right now," wasn't enough.

In the Paris airport

I used to work in a restaurant in a very touristic place in Paris and had once to explain for like 30min, to a group of unitedstatians that no, we do not celebrate 4th july cause it is a foreign holiday and we do not care about their independence. they were beyond shock.

I worked at a coffee shop in a turistic city of Spain and I had this argument almost every day. One american told me that we had to learn that "the world is not europe", and we should adapt to "the world's coin". He threw ONE dollar to the counter and exited the shop outraged.

I (Brit) used to work in Thailand and I remember talking to this lady (USian) living a life of luxury as a trailing spouse, & she went off on a rant about Mexicans stealing American jobs & not even speaking English. And I was like “…can you speak Thai?” And she was all “That’s

different!” “But…your husband is literally here in Thailand taking a job from a Thai person?” “But it’s not the same! We’re AMERICAN!” “….”

Ill never forget when I took a vacation to Mexico in 2016 and there was this one group of American tourists at the resort who wouldnt shut up about how Trump will be the savior of USA and how badly they needed the wall to keep the illegal Mexicans out of their country

Wait til you find out how many guns Canadian border agents confiscate from Americans who don’t realize it’s a whole separate country with different laws every year.

I was flying between two Canadian cities a couple months ago. Security guard was telling someone to put on a mask... Who starred to rant about the supreme Court blah blah blah. Really tired security guard with all the patience in the world "Sir this is Canada"

I had a store in Old Montreal for a decade and Americans got so mad when we told them there was an exchange rate for US dollars and we legally had to give them change in CND money. SO SO MAD.

On our way home from Spain, we saw Americans who were genuinely confused about which line they should use -- they couldn't grasp that, to the Spanish, the US is just one country among others.

It’s true, in Ireland the number of Americans that stood in the Eu and U.K. line was comical

Reminds me of the video that went around for a while, wirh an angry American lady yelling at a bus driver to go back to China, turns out she's in China, yelling at a Chinese person to go back to China...

My uncle does not understand that France doesn't accept US dollars in shops. This baffles him.

Also saw an American arguing with a front desk person in a Paris hotel, that “I just gave you a hundred dollars! So you give me a hundred euros!!! What kind of scam are you trying to pull here?!!”

Visa problem.

I was a tour guide at the Sydney Opera House and US tourists would try to tip. We don’t really do tipping in Australia and weren’t supposed to accept them but sometimes it was easier to be polite than trying to explain that a single USD is worthless. I have US$38 in a drawer.

While visiting England, my aunt kept wishing everyone "Happy Fourth of July."

Reminded me that once an American veteran asked for a veteran discount... in Australia

If you enjoyed this post, you will also like a gallery of Polish people roleplaying as Americans that we published some time ago. Also, please share your encounters with oblivious American tourists in comments below! We’d love to hear more of these stories.

20 thoughts on “American Tourists Being Oblivious That They’re Foreigners”

  1. As someone who has lived in multiple tourist destination towns in the US, I can tell you that these ignorant and entitled jerks are the bane of service industry workers’ existence in America, too.

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  2. An amazing amount of Americans are confused that here in the UK, we have places called Boston, Washington, York (the old one)
    Bloody colonials

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  3. 1. Thank you for not calling it “America”. It’s the U.S.. I’m a citizen and that peeves me. We are not the whole damn continent. Have some humility.
    2. Dear Flying Spaghetti Monster, am I embarrassed.

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  4. I’m really not sure where ‘Mericans think illegal immigrants come from, given that they think the US is the only country on the planet …

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  5. Dear World:
    I am so, so sorry.
    And so, so embarrassed.

    (Uh…I didn’t know I would need a visa to travel to Brazil. I thought everyone took Mastercard.)

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  6. Murica is simply the worst country in the world…
    They are the most self-centred, egoistical, narcississtic Nation that is… They always thinks the world turns around them, that they are better than any other nation and that they can do whatever they like anywhere they are.
    Pelosi just proved this fact once more by visiting Taiwan at a time that could not have been chosen worse…..
    If China itself would have reacted in the worst way, we would now entered the third world war…
    Luckily China didn’t let themselves be provoked by US missbehavior as Russia did in terms of the Ukraine conflict…

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  7. To @BalurCDN and @ginny hogan:

    Canada actually HAS a Supreme Court, fittingly called, the Supreme Court of Canada. This embarrassing gaffe could have been avoided with a quick online search. (Please check if you don’t believe me – I’ll wait). It’s strangely satisfying that a smug Canadian, who let’s face it is attempting to be condescending, has proven that ignorance is universal. Also, @BalurCDN handily proved that the Canadians who opposed the mask mandate often knew more about their rights than the blindly obedient ones.

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  9. Let’s honor the courage and curiosity of people to travel the world – even if at times there are stupid situations. It’s not Them or Us, it’s humanity as a whole. It is human to create stupid and funny situations – and let’s have a laugh please

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  10. I was amazed when I realised the USians named a baseball competition “World series” when it only has teams from the US (and Canada)

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  12. Mini me; Just because the trumps do business in china doesn’t mean you have to help china in their acting like Americans and saying everything is theirs.

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  13. Wow, so much complaint.
    From Muricans (:

    Well which country do you associate with the following:
    1. Bad public health care
    2. (Very) Easy access to fire weapons
    3. Weird warning labels (e.g. don’t stop a chainsaw with your crotch)
    4. Denial of science (reason: creationism)
    5. Most citizens can only speak one language (English)
    6. A two party voting system of two groups who act more or less the same (it’s not that far from the Chinese system)

    Such a lovely place (:

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  14. Mimimi: The US has a lot of self-inflicted problems, but there are plenty of other countries in the running for “worst country in the world.” North Korea, anyone?

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  16. @anonymous (8. August).
    Yeah that was shit.
    But how about:
    Republican Riot at the white house and…
    Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Somali, Kenya, Libya, Uganda, Syria.

    You know.. all those countries the US is fighting for oil….. Errrr sorry I meant peace and against terrorism.

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  18. For those insisting that the U.S.A. is the “United States,” I would like to point out there is more than one offical “United States” in the Americas. The official name of the country just below Canada includes the word “America”–the United States of America. The south of the U.S.A. (in English), the United States of Mexico (translation from Spanish of Estados Unidos de Mexico). So neither “America” nor “the United States” is a definitive reference to the U.S.A.

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  20. Without a doubt Americans can be the worst tourists; arrogant and entitled, lacking any sense of geography, language, world history, geopolitical insights, and empathy. Of course there are the exceptions, but in general a bunch of spoiled brats.

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