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Friday, March 22, 2024

People from across the globe reveal the 'obvious signs that someone is an American'

People from across the globe are sharing how they spot Americans in a matter of seconds - based on everything from their body language to the way they smile. 

An unnamed social media user took to Reddit to ask people on the web to dish out the obvious signs that someone is from the United States.

In the Ask Reddit subreddit, people flooded the comments section and shared that the way Americans greeted each other, tipped, and even stood were telltale indications that they were from the States. 

*****

They left out the most obvious clue - it's because they look American. The clothing, hairstyles and mannerisms are somewhat of a clue, but Americans look like Americans in their facial features.

That's true of almost any nationality of White folks. Men, anyway. Women are harder. When I was younger and living in Europe, I could tell an American from a German from a Frenchman from a Spaniard from an Italian. Granted, some nationalities were more difficult - Belgians look more like Frenchmen to me, but you can still see the Germanic features. Swiss and Austrians look German, but their features are different somehow. If you can't guess the exact nationality, you can pretty much pin down the region.
The English, Scots, Irish and Welsh..... I can tell they're all from across the channel because of the way their teeth are all jacked up, but if they ain't talking, I'll be damned if I can tell which is which.

 But Americans? We just look American. It works the other way around, too.
Check it out: My first girlfriend was half German, half American. Any time we went anywhere in Germany, say a neighboring town or downtown Kaiserslautern, people who saw her photographing landmarks or old buildings would come up and talk to her in German while ignoring me completely. 
When I ran into Rhonda 10 years later and I was showing her around the Mother Lode, a pair of German tourists came up to us on the street to ask for help or clarification on something they'd seen, and they immediately started speaking German to her without asking if she spoke the language, even when they heard us speaking English to each other first. They just knew.

Asians are even easier. Chinese look Chinese, Japanese look Japanese, Vietnamese look Vietnamese and flat faced Koreans look like flat faced Koreans. I will admit though that I can't tell a Cambodian from a Laotian.