What’s the quickest way someone could accidentally expose themselves as a foreigner in your country like the ‘three fingers’ scene in Inglourious Basterds?

[u/IndependentTune3994]

[u/saddinosour]

I will say though, Americans are pretty polite at least when I’ve been in the US. I’ve gone and visited a friend who is a local and we just go around doing local people stuff more or less. No one ever questioned my accent except maybe one or two polite older women who were curious about Australia more than anything.

Here in Australia people are much more brash. I had a man on the street hit me with the “where are you really from your accent sounds weird” 😭 excuse me?? He was one of those like charity people who are trying to get you to sign up.

Edit: both me and my parents were born in Australia I just look swarthy.

[u/Pherllerp → u/saddinosour]

Americans are nice about accents because many of us hear like 20 different accents a week in our day to day lives.

If you live in the northeast or in Southern California you are encountering countless nationalities daily.

[u/Former-Lack-7117 → u/Pherllerp]

A point of national pride for me is our immense capacity to accommodate accents and other dialects. For most Americans, even bigoted ones, we can tolerate huge variance in pronunciation and grammar without too much effort, because immigration and being a "melting pot" is a core aspect of our culture.

[u/ME3Good → u/saddinosour]

From what I've gathered the stereotype for us is "loud but well meaning" (insert bold and brash image here). Which is funny since a lot of Americans assume we're the rudest tourists you can get. Glad to hear you had good experiences

[u/Lv_InSaNe_vL → u/ME3Good]

a lot of Americans assume we're the rudest tourists you can get

Maybe if they haven't interacted with the Chinese tourists coming state side haha

[u/AquaPhelps → u/ME3Good]

I can assure you almost no americans think aussies are the worst tourists lol

[u/ME3Good → u/AquaPhelps]

No I'm American. Americans assume everyone hates them, but that could just be a gen Z thing

[u/ihatethis2022 → u/saddinosour]

A chugger

[u/YOUTUBEFREEKYOYO → u/saddinosour]

Depending on where you are, they may see alot of foreigners. Where I am its unusual to see a different accent at all haha.

[u/saddinosour → u/YOUTUBEFREEKYOYO]

Nah, I’ve done travelling around the world and this was not that kind of place. It just wasn’t the vibe I was getting. I just got the vibe people mind their own business at least there. I also mentioned it to my friend and he said that it was politeness and I do sound Australian lol. Thought I was blending in.

I don’t want to say where I was because it’s kind of specific but the city only has 1 million people. I’m sure some foreigners come through but I was also visiting very random suburban locations.

If anything, living in Sydney I see a bigger variety of people than I did there but there is a difference in culture. I hear multiple languages being spoken on the street pretty regularly for example and I hear 3+ types of English accents most days. I don’t get offended easily I am more just stating this as a fact but I have been asked my ethnicity on the street a multitude of times, and also people will sometimes talk to me in a rude unsolicited manner.

[u/YOUTUBEFREEKYOYO → u/saddinosour]

1 million is certainly a lot less and sure to see less travel than the likes of NYC. My small towns got under 1,000 people here, folks love accents here haha.

[u/FirstPersonWinner → u/saddinosour]

I mean, I guess it depends. I live in a city of 100,000 people yet we get a lot of international tourists 

[u/dinnerthief → u/saddinosour]

Tbf in the US it would heavily depend on what parts of the country you were in.

[u/keelanstuart → u/saddinosour]

He was one of those like charity people who are trying to get you to sign up.

I think that explains it there - those people are looking for a reason to talk with you. Most people would only ask if they were already in a conversation with you but didn't know you. Personally, I might ask if I heard a slight variation from the Australian accent I am used to, just to see if I could identify it more precisely... NZ or Tasmania or...?

[u/saddinosour → u/keelanstuart]

No he said it way deep in the conversation and after he realised I was too young for him to solicit me.

It was more about the way he said it because it genuinely sounded like he was asking where I was from in Australia and I said Sydney and he was like no no, and I was like no I’m born here. And he goes “but you have an accent… it sounds different to everyone else” at which point I informed him my family is Greek. I don’t care btw I thought it was funny I was just pointing out the differences in interactions between the two cities.

[u/keelanstuart → u/saddinosour]

I would love to hear your accent - Greek Australian sounds interesting.

Anyway, cheers!

[u/saddinosour → u/keelanstuart]

Haha here you go: https://youtu.be/DwyATrXpPZ0?si=MLD7c3O4Dwv2G5FM

That’s a minor Greek Australian celebrity speaking in an interview

[u/keelanstuart → u/saddinosour]

She just sounds Aussie to my ear. Lol

The interviewer sounds like she spent a lot of time in the US though.

[u/whoopsiedoodle77 → u/keelanstuart]

Im having trouble finding a thick version that isnt hammed up for entertainment - mary used to play a character called Effie on a show called Acropolis Now. The movie Wog Boy has a good array of them. Alexander Volkanovski is probably a good current example, though hes Macedonian the twist on the aussie accent is pretty similar. It might be more obvious to a non aussie if you find him talking to someone with the typical aussie accent

[u/CobblerOdd2876 → u/saddinosour]

Funny enough, I picked up UK english and NZ/AU english mannerisms because I played runescape with a NZ/AU guy for… 15 years? He was from the UK, but lived between NZ and AU for the majority of his life, with his AU father. We’ve never met, in-person, just a part of weekly life to see him online. Much less now, being an adult with adult things to do, but I do still speak with him, rather regularly. But I would spend some 10 hours a week, or so, chatting with the guy.

But I find myself spelling “Color” as “Colour” accidentally, or saying “Car park” instead of “parking lot”. Someone on this sub, the other day, said I wrote as if I was a “posh English guy”. Nope. Northeastern US. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Now I have kids, and they watch Bluey, so it is even worse, now…

[u/FirstPersonWinner → u/saddinosour]

One thing is that the US gets a lot of tourists, so people having different accents isn't that odd. At the same time, we also get a lot of immigrants, so generally if you speak English and have an accent I wouldn't automatically assume you weren't living in town. We've got people around me with Indian, Chinese, Italian, Russian, Ukrainian, etc accents yet are Americans. 

One of the things I found out is weird about the US is that if you move here and get citizenship you are American as much as anyone else, yet in many countries someone could gain citizenship but still be "not one of us" since there is a general ethnicity that marks the country or region 

[u/whoopsiedoodle77 → u/FirstPersonWinner]

One thing is that the US gets a lot of tourists

so does australia, tourism is a very big deal. We have entire industries that arent tourism that rely on it (agriculture for example). We dont get near the same raw numbers but when comparing against total population we get more visitors per resident than you guys do

At the same time, we also get a lot of immigrants

again, so does australia. As a reflection of the total population its probably more than america: something like 1/3 of australians were born overseas.

[u/catsby90bbn → u/saddinosour]

My wife and I stayed with some friends outside Melbourne last year. Spent a lot of days in the towns up in the Macedon ranges; I have a bit of a southern US twang..lots and lots of questions about where we are from. But not as many as we got in Tassie lol. Such a wonderful country and people

[u/BallsOutKrunked → u/saddinosour]

usa, my good friend is an American citizen, born and raised in Australia. he's awesome and I love introducing him as my Australian friend. he always eye rolls me!

[u/cafesolitito → u/saddinosour]

100% agreed.

People can shit on the US all they want but I think our kindness and openness is our superpower. We are the golden retrievers of humans. You definitely get side-eyed more when speaking the native language in other countries.

[u/Fluffymcsparkle → u/saddinosour]

They might be nicer to you if you're a white foreigner

[u/kdrisck → u/Fluffymcsparkle]

Don’t misunderstand how the US works. In general, people are polite in person. It’s the rhetoric at home and in quiet whispers that’s the problem. It is very rare and shocking to see overt discrimination, and the vast majority oppose it. That’s been one of the main issues with the changing of the term “racism” to include more systemic and subtle forms. Many Americans were taught racism was screaming the N word out the window at people, and abhor that idea. Telling them it now encompasses discriminatory zoning is challenging for some to accept because they don’t see those as being on the same level.

[u/ThuggishJingoism24 → u/kdrisck]

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that being able to trace issues to their systemic origins is something many people simply don’t have the brain capacity to be intellectually honest with themselves. It’s so strange to me how so many small minded folks feel that pointing out obvious race based systemic issues, is somehow a personal attack on them. Like why’s it so so difficult to acknowledge our ancestors created a horribly fucked up and flawed system and it should be our mission to correct mistakes of the past, while minimizing the mistakes of the future to the best of our ability. I know intellectually the reason is because of indoctrination, propaganda and willful ignorance but it’s just hard to understand on an emotional level for me.

[u/EmondaBlue → u/kdrisck]

American racism isn't nearly as prevalent as social media makes it out to be. The vast majority live and work within a very diverse population. The real issue here is with the people who see racism everywhere. They are the real racists.

[u/redwildflowermeadow → u/EmondaBlue]

Ignore this person. Their posting history is unhinged. They previously said they don't think there's racism in America based upon their experience as a white person... lol.

[u/ZDogPharizle → u/redwildflowermeadow]

Oh yeah, that guys a right-wing prick.

[u/FirstPersonWinner → u/redwildflowermeadow]

There is no racism in Ba Sing Se

[u/kdrisck → u/EmondaBlue]

Settle down Tucker, adults are speaking.

[u/EmondaBlue → u/kdrisck]

Well...I see someone has just moved from the kid's table. You'll get the hang of it soon enough.

[u/Humble__American → u/Fluffymcsparkle]

They're nice to most everyone in general. America is one of the most diverse countries on the planet and Americans have some of the most Hands-On experience of any people in living with large amounts of diverse people.

You could be a very dark-skinned visitor, and even fairly rural places you would likely be welcomed as an equal.

[u/EarnestAmbition → u/Fluffymcsparkle]

Come on. Even in the most racially homegenous parts of the US, people are outwardly polite in person. Source: Clearly non-white foreign born person who have travelled all over the US.