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After living in Europe for 7 years, I can tell you that it's a mixed bag. Some people HATE us, while others quietly admire us. I think everyone has at least some sense of nationalism about them though. Nobody likes to feel like they are looked down upon because of where they are from. Everyone wants to be proud of something about their country. In general I feel like people already have a bias about Americans from their personal exposure, whether it's via the press or just by running into tourists.
Quite frankly, I'm embarrassed by how some Americans act when they are around foreigners. It really gives the rest of us a bad name. Sometimes I feel like I'm fighting against all the stupid and arrogant things that other Americans do and say. We can really come across to others as arrogant, clueless and in general elitists. When you look at how some of us act from a European point of view, it's hard to argue with them.
I don't know how many times Americans come to Russia and say that they are surprised that nobody speaks English. Well duh! How many people in your city speak Russian? Then there are the Swedes and Swiss, which usually speak 3 or 4 languages. We don't do "international" very well as a society.
Most Americans don't realize what they look like to Europeans. The way the guy acted on youtube doesn't surprise me because it wasn't as much what you did, but the accumulation of all the stuff that he's seen and heard about Americans AND what he perceived from you. I deal with this every day. It's like walking on egg shells some days.
Just my 2 cents.
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