Can you spot an American at 10 paces?

[yvr girl]

OK we can all spot the easy ones. Accents so thick you can walk on them. Southern hair. That Vegas tourist look. The question is, "Are any of them truly able to blend in?"

[ClintonTyree]

1. I've been watching....................

some of the Olympic coverage and I must say that many Americans in Athens stick out like a turd in a punchbowl. It's usually the older Americans, not because of flags or pins, but becuase of the way they dress. There is no mistaking the 70 something American male.
I believe that there is a store somewhere that they all shop at. Pale blue stretch mock blue jeans, checkered short sleeved shirt and the ever present baseball cap depicting some Elk or Moose Lodge from their home town.
You can't miss them!

[yvr girl]

2. Women too

Stretchy pants. Sparkly/sequined/painted tops. Dyed, overly blond hair. Big earrings.

I can usually spot a younger American too. The accent helps, but it's more than that.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

3. No. They're 99% identical to us.

[iverglas]

4. my mum spotted one across the table from her

in Montreal last month, when she and my Montreal brother went on a boat tour around the island. She stood up to move beside my brother and offer one side of the table they'd snagged, by the edge of the top deck, to the retired couple looking for somewhere to sit -- and then saw, to her horror, that the woman across from her was wearing an NRA ball cap. Way to blend in. (National Rifle Association, for those who don't hang out in the gun dungeon here -- symbolic of all things right wing, and widely recognized as the force, and money, that tipped the scales against Al Gore in 2000.) They owned a ranch in California, and were in Mtl for a day before setting off on a cruise to Greenland.

My Montreal brother is pretty much an exact male replica of moi, politically and personality-wise, and as well he did his MA and PhD in the US. And my mother, while outwardly a typical 1950s wife-and-mother, did, after all, produce us. So, while playing the genial hosts -- expanding on the guide's patter about the local sights, answering questions, explaining things Canadian as they came up -- well, they just kinda did the job. My brother politely commented on how well the visitors' former President had looked on television, and how well his book was doing. Heh heh. The Mr. muttered that said former president wouldn't be getting any of his money for his book.

At one point the man asked whether my father was visiting Montreal as well, and my brother just said no, he wasn't. (My dad died last year.) When my mum went to the john, the man asked whether my dad was still living, and my brother told him. When they were all leaving the boat and saying the nice-to-meet you pleasantries, the man gave my mum a little hug and wished her well.

And my mum said to me afterwards that she guessed that not all members of the NRA just wanted to shoot people. ;) Although she was just as creeped out by their politics as she'd always been. She has the proverbial American cousins, and they're Republicans too, so she knows the breed. Kudos to the couple in question though for actually (and unlike the cousins in question) demonstrating curiosity and interest in something other than themselves, the main ingredient lacking from the USAmerican public psyche and from so many of them individually. That lack of interest is how I generally know I'm among 'em. ;)

[Culture Mind]

5. I'm sure i would miss 99% of them but...

If it's August and i see a person carrying a parka, I think American (South Americans/Mexicans will be wearing the parka).

If they look shocked to see a Starbucks, I think American.

If they let the shopkeeper select the money from their wallet/hand, I KNOW American. :crazy:

[TrogL]

14. It's August and I was wearing a parka two days ago

Of course I was bicycling in 1 degree weather.

[dakota_democrat]

16. what?

"If they let the shopkeeper select the money from their wallet/hand, I KNOW American."

I can't say I've EVER seen that, but I'm from North Dakota, so maybe it's a more urban thing.

the dakota_democrat

[FarLeftRage]

6. yeah sure

I'm in Toronto now, and I can spot a fellow American quickly.

The natives here have a problem spotting me, because my Upstate NY accent is no different than anyone else in Ontario.

Toronto is a great city, BTW.

[iverglas]

7. har har har!

my Upstate NY accent is no different than anyone else in Ontario.

That was a good joke. Right???

Forgive me, but the upstate New York accent is almost the most god awful on the face of the earth. Excuse me, I meant ga-ad a-afful.

Southern Ontarians do have a tendency to speak US television English, but they haven't descended to upstate New York English quite yet!

I was amazed how much that Watergate guy who just wrote another book ... Bob Woodward, that's him -- sounded like the fundraisers on my upstate NY PBS station. Trust me, your disguise is not working. ;)

[KurtNYC]

8. "Hey Dayod, lets go down ta' Perkins fer some pankeeks"

"we'll be shurr to git some melk too."

You mean that accent?

[FarLeftRage]

9. Well now...

No joke intended.

My accent is just a bit more pronounced than more of the other Upstate NYers.

I say the "o"'s just as anyone from Ontario would...

I don't really have a disguise, BTW...

My intention was that Upstaters are influenced by the Ontario accent,
but you will notice that I'm probably the only New Yorker to say this.

[TrogL]

15. I've got a US television accent

I sound a lot like Irv Weinstein (WKBK Buffalo)

[HEyHEY]

10. Yes, I can

You can tell, usually it's the clothes they wear and their mannerisms. As well, you can tell by the accent and if they speak loudly in public to each other.

(Not trying to slam americansby the way, by mannerisms I mean walk, talk, hand gestures)

[DODI]

11. As an American, I can honestly say that one of the proudest times

in my life as when my husband and I were traveling through western Canada and we were repeatedly mistaken for eastern Canadians. It was wonderful!

[yvr girl]

12. I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not

There is the great East / West divide in this country. After all, nothing good comes from Toronto. (tee, hee, hee)

Seriously, you must be doing something right.

[arikara]

13. No doubt about it, its all that jewellry

I was standing behind some Oklahomans with very thick southern accents at my local small town grocery store. The young cashier (herself in pounds and pounds of cornrows with several more pounds of beads on the ends)remarked that she could tell that they were not locals... because nobody from around here wears that much jewellery.

They seemed taken aback by it but I had a good chuckle!

[NinetySix]

17. Americans are very conspicuous

But I have a talent that goes beyond merely picking them out. I work with a lot of tourists, and having grown up in the South, I can identify any Southern accent and pinpoint its origin within a small radius. One elderly lady I spoke with (who was very nice, by the way), seemed to me to have a North Carolina accent, and when I asked, she told me that she lived in Virginia, just three miles from the NC border. I participated in another conversation the other night in which I listened to one man from Oregon speaking to another gentleman. After a few moments, the Oregonian asked the other man where he was from. "Kentucky, or Tennessee?" I quickly interjected. He was from Northern Tennessee. God, I'm good!