To name a few:
Calling yourself Americans, after the entire dual continent. There are two continents and many other countries in the Americas, you knowโฆ [I know you know. And, what are you supposed to call yourselves, โUSAiansโ? โAmericansโ makes more sense and is easier to roll off the tongue. But itโs weird.]
Holding the door open for me. Smiling at me on the street. Those are sure signs of a swindler, but itโs the norm in the USA. [I am not suggesting USA folks are swindlers, only that those actions are what swindlers in much of the world use. USA people are generally super nice and a genuine pleasure to be around.]
Turning right on red light. Red means stop. Itโs weird and confusing.
Edit: I added a third thing.
Edit2 in []
Very true. I added context as you commented. Iโm not putting you down for it. Itโs the term that makes most sense. Itโs just weird. Not wrong or dumb or stupid or anything else insulting. Itโs just a weird term to use, even though itโs the one that makes most sense. I honestly meant no disrespect or offense. I actually like USA and its people (I mean, there are crazies everywhere, but they donโt define the rest of you). I genuinely apologize if I offended you. Seriously, mate, I meant no offense at all.
Edit: clarity
No problems at all, I just see this opinion a lot and think its weird when people think weโre the only ones that say it, when it seems pretty common for other nationalities to do it too.
You can even turn left on a red if itโs from or into a one-way street. I think that is state specific though
No I donโt. You can turn left on a red from a two-way into a one-way in Oregon and Washington. When I went to school on the east coast the locals informed me that itโs not true everywhere.
With regards to right on red. It (legally at least) requires that you must first stop at the light. So if you are turning right the idea is that you are supposed to first check for active traffic and treat it as if it is a stop sign. If someone ahead of you is waiting to turn right and then goes. Then you are supposed to pull up and then stop again before turning. Though in practice a lot of people will at best treat it more like a yield sign and just roll through without stopping. In super low traffic times or places where traffic is a non-issue (like a rural road where as you pull up to the light you can clearly see open roads without anyone) then this isnโt really an issue aside from learning bad habits. Though heavy traffic places are much more of an issue.
No replies on the holding the door and smiling being the sign of a swindler? That actually sounds like you live in an exceptionally hostile place. Iโm swedish, as in people not exactly known for showing a lot of warmth to each other in public, and I always hold the door, and smile at people very often. The smiling part might be somewhat unusual here in Sweden too, but not unusual as in bad or a sign of a swindler. Most people seem to appreciate these behaviors. Either that or Iโm absolutely delusional and everyone secretly views me as a swindler ยฏ\_(ใ)_/ยฏ
Regarding the red stoplight:
In Germany we have a rule that you may turn right if theres a sign permitting you to do so. In that case the traffic light is to be treated like a STOP-sign.
Functionally the same but inverted in the states, there are signs that tell you when itโs NOT allowed. Just a matter of which is more efficient, signing when itโs allowed or signing when itโs not.
Iโd prefer the need to look for the sign instead of hoping nobody ripped it off.
Calling yourself Americans, after the entire dual continent
But we never use โAmericaโ to refer to North and South America collectively. You can say โthe Americasโ, or just โNorth and South Americaโ. And thereโs no adjective that means โof the Americasโ; you can say โNorth or South Americanโ. But just โAmericanโ unambiguously means โof the USAโ.
Iโve always wondered if disagreement over this comes from the fact that in some parts of the world, North and South America are considered to be one continent just called โAmericaโ, whereas we consider them to be two separate continents. And we donโt have a word for the pair of continents, any more than we have a word for Europe and Africa together. (I mean we do have โEurasiaโ, which kind of pokes a hole in the hypothesis, but maybe thatโs a special case because a brief glance at a map makes it clear itโs pure fantasy to count those as separate continents.)
Yeah, I always wonder how often thereโs a need to refer to inhabitants of two continents together as a single entity. Like, if you say someone is South American or North American, that is never confused with being someone specifically from the US. When would those terms be insufficient?
