Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
thedial.world
thedial.world
However, the American behavior the author is describing is more attributed to how American social norms don't force anyone to "read the room" and "know your place". At least, not as much as Italians and Koreans. Americans have simple rules they abide by, like general etiquette and the constitution. And Americans are brought up to neither refrain from nor judge others acting within that boundary.
So I don't agree Americans are "tasteless". I find Americans to be more tolerant and accepting, at least compared to cultures with longer history. And that is the American "taste" in my opinion. This has its cons, one of which is someone from my culture thinking they are oblivious to others around them.
I am not sure this holds scrutiny so I'd love to read a counter
This guy just doesn't know how to seriously talk about imperialism, globalization and over-tourism from a geopolitical and economic prospective, so instead he talks about things more at his level: gelato, coffee, and quirkily decorated restaurants. With a bad, paternalistic attitude as well.
BTW we all hate those hipster burger places (which now turned to doing smash burgers), and they've been popping up everywhere even in totally non-touristy places. There are fashions and trends in the food business, and many Italians look at that with disgust and take refuge in tradition, but it is often not the tourists fault, it's Italians spending their money there.
Italians are posting about it on TikTok, and Italians are watching it on TikTok. It's not complicated.
- Yogi Berra
My family does this and I can barely go anywhere with them for the embarrassment. Everything is an interrogation. They actually take delight in the waiter not knowing the answer to where the seafood was caught, and then lecturing them about the importance of knowing such things (this is the most common one they pull). That's not just failing to read the room.
It depends where they ask. An Eastern European waiter would probably answer "in the sea" to that, although the correct and mundane answer would probably be "the supermarket freezer". Relay that to your folks the next time they ask. Most fish that you order in restaurants is probably farmed, except for small school fish and big ocean fish. So unless they eat sardines, ocean caught tuna or sabre fish, the supermarket freezer or the fish market if you are lucky is probably a good answer. Of course, the Greek might tell you that their grandfather caught the fish that very morning and even show you his foul smelling fishing boat.
Actually I do not find American tourists obnoxious and ham fisted at all. Demanding? Maybe. That other word is specifically reserved for the drunk English bachelor partying in Southern Spain and Zakynthos. The American tourist is a bit naïve, like Twoflower, albeit without the sentient pearwood Luggage.
Being oblivious to the cultural norms and tastes of your environs is, quite literally, being taste-less in that place/context.
I'm not sure I can do so either. Something about cultural and monetary pressure, how people respond to incentives for better or for worse. People crave the new and different and authentic, they find it, then too many people find it. Some kind of Goodhart's Law for tourism: once a place is deemed an authentic experience it ceases to be an authentic experience.
I was just on my phone in an Italian gelato shop in Belgrade not too long ago, looking up what "stracciatella" means in the context of gelato so I didn't sound like an idiot or struggle to communicate with the employee. It's not just a Pinterest fever dream for people? People do want to experience different cultures but of course there's really no way to do that without some kind of friction.
1. Culturally important experiences lean towards the prescriptive side. You enter, you are observing or being challenged in something, and it leaves an imprint on you. It is usually a bit discomforting in an exciting way that transforms a part of you in a infinitesimally small, but distinct and permanent way.
2. The unimportant experience is the conforming one, where zero friction is the preferred method of interaction, but it is universally loved in the way high-fructose corn syrup is; it's an economically sound decision to at least try and profit from it.
I understand the latter, but just as one datapoint, I would not think you sound like an idiot for asking "what exactly is this that you're selling?"
I think I just have a hangup in general about "acting like a tourist".
Plenty of places have smashburgers instead of pljeskavica now, and I had a couple of moments where I thought I had found some authentic cultural thing only to realize that young, progressive Belgradians have the same kind of regard towards historical stuff that plenty of young Americans tend to have as well.
All of that informed my reading of this article. The author laments the kind of changes that came to his land but we visitors don't necessarily want them either!
I think we're all wrestling with the downstream consequences of a shrinking world.
You should totally visit Skopje if you get the chance. Belgrade is a bit too cosmopolite. The bad is that they still allowed smoking in hotel rooms back before 2020 but otherwise I liked it a lot. Also I don't get the big statues and the anti Greek animosity. Should be anti Bulgarian by now.
I don't think we'll lose _all_ diversity of culture, as there will always be stalwarts to uphold institutions (even espresso bars) but as generations transition I think we'll be shocked at how much we've lost just a few years from now.
This isn't strictly a bad thing, as there are many traditions which have been laid by the wayside over the centuries, but I have to admit: I am not impressed at the things we've been replacing them with. Phones, social media, selfies, a constant sense of connectedness, influencer tourism -- it all feels so terrible, and it feels like only now are people around me recognizing that we may have dug too deep.
It seems to me that 2020 was the turning point (do you remember what it was like to be a tourist before then?) and that we're deeply nestled in the jaws of the Balrog now.
I'm really not sure what it looks like to climb back out.
Loudly proclaiming you're anti Trump is not a skip-the-line ticket to acceptance with us all. We also know a lot of people lie about their politics
I even called out very specific behaviours but you're trying to dismiss me by implying I'm tarring everyone with the same brush.
But I know truth and criticism can hurt and often our first response is often to deflect and blame and call the other person a jerk. I guess you're just human
There is massive irony in a European being told 'shut up, we're actually not a problem' when said European is trying to point out the issues. It's a wonderful demonstration of the arrogance and bullying that is typical in USA culture
Spit it out mate don't be shy.
As long as a foreign visitor is polite, pays their way, and doesn't do anything outrageous, they have done enough. If you don't want to accept them, then that's a problem for you. None of the things you listed or was listed in the article is anywhere close to being a problem.
Americans (both continents) are some of the friendliest and most easy going tourists. And yes, they want AC.
But yes we're acutely aware many don't care whether they are accepted it or not. That lack of consideration is not hidden at all
> As long as a foreign visitor is polite,
That's the point - many are not. You can't be that ignorant of what we are discussing? What is considered polite is local, and often ignored
> Americans (both continents) are some of the friendliest and most easy going tourists.
That's your opinion. I agree about South Americans and Canadians. USAians have a famous, famous reputation for being entitled and not easy going - it's really hard to deny that. They're even proud of it!
I have lost count the times me and my travel partners have sat with our jaws dropped at some of the behaviour of them. I have travelled a lot. And living in the UK I have to put up with the influx of USA citizens everywhere
Even as a Brit, I would take French and German tourists any day
Being polite means that you do your best, and as a tourist - a visitor - it is quite hard to know every quirk and hang-up that some locals might have. Once again: why would a visitor care about being "accepted"? They are visiting, not settling down.
The article makes it very clear: No matter what these American tourists would do, the author would still sit there with seething hatred towards them. It has nothing to do with their behaviour as visitors; the author just hates them and is reaching for "justifications".
Entitlement as a paying customer, that's a very multifaceted thing. Especially when it comes to tourism, where there are many actors who want to exploit the inexperienced traveler.
> And living in the UK I have to put up with the influx of USA citizens everywhere
I'm sure the USA citizens is the big influx problem you have in the UK...
But it's good to have a punching bag, when you don't have a loicense to talk about the real problem.
Because of their money. If USA folk were poor, their opinion would be very different
But then I don't live in eg Portugal where the effect of US immigrants has been felt more strongly
Which is the feeling this article is trying to capture.
I’m not as clear on the cause. Whether people are richer and can afford to travel more? Or travel costs have gone down?
Tribes homogenize into villages, villages into cities, cities into states, states into nations, and now we’re witnessing nations beginning to homogenize.
The whole way, it’s being driven by technology (farming, writing, metallurgy, printing, telecommunications, and so on).
Which ironically is why they are being inundated by tourists looking for something “authentic”.
By the way the “Ugly American” tourist was a thing many decades before 2020.
When it's your time it's your time. And in comparison to the empires of old, the American empire is far more humane to it's subjects. The biggest mistake our nation has made in the last 100 years is being merciful to the war mongers; Perhaps if they received justice instead of undeserved tolerance they wouldn't be so insolent to complain of what is put in their bowl.
Too merciful to slaveowners before, too merciful to warmongers as of late and way too merciful to grifters for as long as this country has existed.
I learnt that you should never bet against the U.S but I don't know how much longer you will be able to waste that seemingly infinite potential.
Good times creates bored, ignorant men. Bored ignorant, men create bad times.
The Marshall Plan was the smartest foreign policy decision the US ever made.
Turned enemies into allies and got the world acting in our interests without the overhead of running actual colonies.
That was the express and public reason for nearly driving the bison to extinction. Said so by General Sherman himself.
To starve indians nearly to death, so that they would conform to American imperialism. Then we invented "schools" which were advertised to "Kill the indian, save the man" by erasing any remnants of their culture.
The paradox of the tourist is fascinating. All at the same time, a locality experiencing a flood of tourism will welcome the sudden wellspring of foreign currency pouring forth from the rock, and loathe the disruption the flood causes to the steady pace of life. Anyone who has been a tourist knows what the tourist wants, a break from the monotony of their own culture, a desire to know the other and tread in their footsteps, in some cases a wholesome longing to break down cultural barriers and prejudice. And yet anyone who has been on the other side of the interaction with a tourist feels the heady mix of emotions that comes with the experience of being the toured. The discomfort that comes from the wall being torn down unexpectedly. The inconvenience of disruption in routine. No tourist wants to do harm, but even the most sensitive and well-meaning tourist creates a breach in routine that is disruptive. Nobody likes change.
It's ok if you didn't like it, but you don't have to be mean about it.
The people the article describes are a very small subset of the American cultures: the ones with intellectual curiosity and money to travel to another country.
For each American tourist you see in Europe there are at leas a dozen, back in the U.S., that don't travel, don't have curiosity for a foreign culture or don't even have any curiosity at all.
And, then, what moral grounds do Europeans have to talk about "invasion" or "imperialism"? The golden eras of Europe where built on exactly that. At least they're conquering you with dollars, not guns. The 3rd world European colonies of 19th century weren't that lucky.
You know what this article smells like? It is typical European insularity. Europe is still a continent with people that spent the last 3000 years in wars among themselves. Actually, Italians only stopped wars against other Italians on the 19th century, after unification.
I'm at a point in my life that I'm able to travel and see the world beyond my town. I don't like being a jerk and try very hard to not be a jerk. This piece makes me feel like a jerk for being curious.
However, this does remind me that people in other countries kind of suck just as much as Americans. We're often led to believe that Europeans are enlightened and superior to the illiterate, xenophobic, simpletons in the US. It's a good reminder that intolerance, prejudice, and willful ignorance are universal attributes.
I bet you wouldn't even hold up a line of regulars with your curiosity.
If you try very hard to not be a jerk, that's already better than baseline. This piece wasn't aiming squarely at the American Tourist but aiming a bit at everyone including the writer.
I bet the ones who never travel or leave their own country annoy him, too.
Of course at the end he confesses he’s the annoying tourist when he travels, too.
On content: if it's any consolation, America is doing this to America as well. Locals everywhere are wringing their hands over stylistic homogenization, Instagrammability-driven design choices, and rapidly increasing prices.
This is absolute art.
> Their job of giving value and meaning to our city is so important to them; they don’t seem to realize we are not as excited as they are about their discovery of gianduia.
And this
But people don't want to do that. They want to put all their wealth into real estate and "guaranteed" profits with no risk and no need to bother your mind about it. Not investing in a small business or in industry, in your nation, in your youth. "Yuck!" is what the author and other very refined people think when hearing that. "No thanks!", naturally followed by "Let's tax anybody who does that!".
In a way it’s not really that different or unusual than any other tourists, but there’s something that feels so choreographed about it that stands out to me. Maybe it’s just how large the tour groups are.
> The American tourist used to be regarded as the most obnoxious creature in the world. Loud, naïve, ham fisted, needy. The reason I told you about the opening of this borghetto di merda is that it made me realize: Now we are all American tourists.
The author seems to agree with you.
(FWIW, The author did say cold brew, and not iced coffee, but still...)