11 Feb 2009, Written by Monica Bologna-Huerta in politics, society, 4 Comments

Does Europe Still Hate Our Guts?

Most Americans, when traveling to Europe, are faced with a certain stigma. Ever since William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick wrote The Ugly American in 1958, a fever of anti-American sentiment began to build across the world. Originally this sentiment criticized American foreign policy in South East Asia, but it also cast a spotlight on how Americans behave overseas. “Ugly American” became a term used when describing the stereotypical American traveler. In the past (and in the present for that matter), Americans have had a reputation for judging everything by their home experience, being demanding, arrogant, loud, fat, unwilling to learn another language, uncouth, unfashionable, and uneducated. That list is just part of the bloated stereotype that may never escape us. English has become the world’s lingua franca, and often one will hear “Don’t worry, everyone speaks English over there!”–as if English-speaking Americans need more discouragement from learning another language.

The first time I went to Europe, I traveled to the old and shimmering city of Prague. I was prepared to conceal my American identity and join in on the Bush bashing so they would see I wasn’t one of those Americans. I found it interesting that no one in Prague seemed to care that I was American, and when I asked about Bush, I got “He’s your problem.” In fact, Bush came to Prague while I was there and I saw no protesters, no angry people. I was confused. Could it be that the anti-American feeling had been exaggerated? Or was it because they had been under Soviet rule so long that they still weren’t there yet?

I relaxed a little until I went to sunny Spain and realized that much of the resentment for Americans was reserved for Western Europe, and the rest of the world. Only the part of Prague I was in was immune.

Once I got to Barcelona, as long as I spoke my less than idiomatic Spanish, things were relatively mas o menos. Yet other friends I know felt stung by the Spaniards. I eventually did too, when I didn’t get up quickly enough for a Spanish woman on the bus. She spat out some rather unkind things about me as I was making my exit, including thoughts on my nationality in her list of insults.

Everyone has heard stories about trips to Europe: anti-American graffiti, rude waiters, and general “screw you” attitudes. When Americans flip open their passports abroad, they are inflicted with the feeling that they are personae non gratae. I think Diane Lane put it best in Under the Tuscan Sun when a German woman declares “You Americans, you think you’re so entitled. You ruin everything.” To which she sincerely replies, “Some of us feel really badly about that.”

That’s the thing, some of us really, really do. A lot of Americans feel bad, and those Americans are usually the people who are most instilled with wanderlust. That is why in the last few years, we’ve been trying to reverse things for ourselves. We’ve been fighting to combat the stereotypes since our former president fought to degrade our image to a dangerous degree (a factor that makes American travelers magically turn into Canadians).

This time, going to Europe, I wanted to find out if anything had changed. I wondered, as I sat on the plane next to a Croatian gal with an Obama pin on her luggage, if European opinions of Americans had changed since Obama was elected. Prior to the election, all the Europeans I knew thought we were incapable of electing a black man as our leader. In their minds, most of us were backward, gun-toting idiots. I asked one British friend how much diversity there was in his government and he quickly became quiet.

I spent most of my time in my boyfriend’s hometown of Frankfurt, Germany, an Obama hotspot. Everyone was overjoyed with the election results. The dinner conversations usually included praise, as if they had a chance to give a universal pat on the back to all Americans through me. The German people are in love with Obama and they seem to take the “any friend of Obama is a friend of mine” attitude.

Frankfurt recently had a local election; signs with different parties’ candidates littered the boulevards, near the eye-catching skyscrapers, and along the streets filled with markets and the smell of glühwein. A nine-year-old girl named Carlotta was eating dinner with us one night and suddenly the Frankfurt election came up. She turned to my boyfriend and in German asked: “Did you vote for Obama? I love Obama!”

I was shocked. A German schoolgirl not only knew about Obama, but knew enough to love him? Germans of all ages had definitely been struck with Obama fever and weren’t shy about proclaiming it. I felt only enthusiasm and happiness exuding from the German people. Every person I met had a comment or two about the new leader of America.

The next stop was Paris, the perceived holy grail of anti-American attitudes. Basking in my sheer excitement over going to the city of lights, I tried to forget what I had heard about the stereotype of pompous Parisians and their attitude about Americans. I was nervous about opening my little French phrase book in front of the suave Parisian pedestrians. I was slathered from head to toe in self-doubt. To me, I was the butcher and their dancing language was the unfortunate slab of meat. I relied on my boyfriend’s German accent and my high school French to get us through uncomfortable restaurant trips. Eventually I began to notice that it wasn’t as bad as I had expected. People were gracious about giving directions; whenever I dropped my gloves (which was often), someone chased me down to hand them to me. When we went to buy wine and couldn’t get our desires across, the store’s owner managed to sell us a great wine as well as giving us a free glass to ring in 2009. “Bon Année!” he exclaimed cheerfully, downing his wine. I had to say that the residents of Paris were as pétillant as their wine and as colorful as their luminous city.

The only time I noticed snobbery was in the very touristy areas. I got the feeling that people there weren’t so much snobby, but instead annoyed by the massive number of tourists. When I thought about it, I was able to sympathize with that. How often in Chicago am I annoyed by the clusters of clicking cameras on Michigan Avenue when I’m trying to get work? It did not so much seem to be a slight towards Americans, but more of a general irritation at those who do not really know how to get along in a bustling city. I could equate tourists in Paris to small town Americans going to New York City for the first time. New Yorkers aren’t being rude because you are from a small town; they are being rude because you are in their way and they are in a rush. The majority of people in Paris seemed indifferent about Americans overall. They lumped me in with the Japanese, German, and Australian tourists. The exception was the African Eiffel Tower keychain vendors: when they found out I was American, they smiled and said “Go Obama!”

We stayed with a friend of my boyfriend’s father and his girlfriend, Sabrina. When the news came on after dinner, conversation turned to politics. “I used to say that I would never go to America if Bush was president. Never. I didn’t even want to step foot there. But now that Obama is president, I think I would like to go,” she said happily. Though people in Paris seemed to be excited about Obama and Americans for the time being, the general attitude was a reserved enthusiasm. The French seem to keep in mind that the foreign policy of the US is so fickle, it may be hard to maintain the enthusiasm in years to come.

The last stop was the Netherlands. The laissez-faire Dutch attitude is known throughout the world due to their relaxation habits and lack of judgment towards others. I was thrilled to see Amsterdam’s flowing canals and billions of bicycles. I came to find the most kind and sincere people of any city I have visited. Alarmingly friendly street traffic greeted us at every single corner, happy to give us directions, and to smile warmly while waving goodbye.

As we approached a woman outside a boutique, we asked directions to the Anne Frank House. She gave us intricate instructions, and eventually asked us where we were from. When I told her I lived in Chicago, she immediately began to talk about Obama. “Yes we can!” she said, laughing out loud as I began to walk away. Her cheeks were as red as the tulips in my postcard-imagined Holland.

The broad rule of thumb seems to be that if you actually sit down and talk to a person in Europe, they will respond to you on the basis of whether you are a gracious traveler, rather than from where you hail.

Overall it seemed to me that most European people are as swept up in Obama fever as that little German girl. It seems that the world is cheering with us. International news praises Obama, and a sense of universal relief has swept over the globe; everyone’s realized that Bush’s time has come to an end. From China to Canada, the general feeling is that Obama is the the future, a future in which we will not use military force to secure our best interests. For the first time in years, the leading figure in the White House believes in humanitarianism, environmentalism, and all the isms that have been lacking in American foreign policy. This is a man who said he actually wanted to “build bridges across the world,” a pleasant shock since the public was accustomed to the literal destruction of bridges. Not only that, but he’s… cool. The same goes for his family. The German newspaper BILD proclaimed Michelle Obama the beautiful, sensuous, and interesting new first lady.

The sense of change has even been marked by Americans who have said ciao to America in search of greener pastures. Bernd Debusman of the International Herald Tribune (the global edition of the New York Times) writes “What was remarkable in 2008 was how quickly Americans abroad sensed a change of mood. After the Nov. 4 election, American expatriates posted jubilant messages to social networking sites like Facebook saying it was cool to be American again.”

In my opinion, European attitudes towards Americans have definitely improved, but still have a few kilometers to go. Will this pro-American feeling last? As for Spain, my sister has been studying abroad outside Madrid for the past five months and said that the people in Spain have proved to be ecstatic about Obama’s win. The morning after the election, the country was buzzing with sheer thrill. In fact, she walked into her classroom to find Si Se Puede! (Yes we can!) written on the board in bold lettering. I think the same goes for us Americans in improving our world reputation… yes we can.

Monica Bologna-Huerta , a native of Cincinnati Ohio, is finishing up her BA in Fiction Writing at Columbia College Chicago. After graduation she plans to travel the world teaching English and perfect her (now intermediate level) Spanish.

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Tags: politics, travel