Americans are ‘flag jacking’ to fake they’re Canadian abroad – right here’s why it doesn’t work | EUROtoday

Some Americans are pretending to be Canadian whereas touring – however locals aren’t shopping for it.

One method by which they do that is by “flag jacking”. The development goes like this: touring Americans, cautious {that a} overseas hosts will deal with them with scorn and resentment, affix Canadian flags to their backpacks or clothes in an try to cover their heritage.

Reports of “flag jacking” date again to not less than the Sixties, when the U.S. was going through scrutiny over the Vietnam War. It occurred once more within the 2000s as some Americans reportedly sought to distance themselves from U.S. overseas coverage.

More not too long ago, Canadians indignant with the Trump administration’s insurance policies and rhetoric in direction of their nation have referred to as out the act, with many on-line even evaluating it to cultural appropriation, based on CNN.

open picture in gallery

On prime of that, American vacationers in disguise usually are not actually fooling anybody.

Apart from the plain variations – such a techniques of measurements, accents, customs and geographical data – many subtleties distinguish Americans from their neighbors to the north.

European tour guides who spoke to CNN mentioned that a technique they will inform Americans aside is how loud they’re.

“Stereotypes exist for a reason,” Denisa Podhrazska, the founding father of the Let Me Show You London tour group, instructed the broadcaster. “We use them because many of them are true. And it’s not just Americans, it’s for everybody. Every nation has its own little quirks, that’s how we recognize each other.”

Americans are usually “really nice, and loud,” she added.

open picture in gallery

As Podhrazska mentioned, stereotypes exist on either side of the aisle. The previous joke of: ‘How do you tell is someone is from Canada? They tell you,’ additionally rings true, based on guides.

“Canadians will identify themselves as Canadian right away,” Parisian Bertrand d’Aleman, founding father of My Private Paris excursions, instructed CNN. Other tour guides interviewed by the outlet added that Canadians do usually attempt to distinguish themselves from Americans.

The approaches vacationers take to overseas cultures also can assist differentiate which nation they arrive from, guides say.

Many Canadians have a broader data of European historical past and affairs given their cultural heritage. Charley Harrison, founding father of the London-based Totally Tailored Tours, in the meantime, instructed CNN that Americans can fall into the lure of assuming their tradition is the norm, even making an attempt to pay in U.S. {dollars} whereas in Briton.

Canadian cultural commentator Stewart Reynolds mentioned that his countrymen aren’t excellent both, nevertheless. “Canada’s got jerks. We’ve got loads of jerks,” he instructed CNN.

Robert Schertzer, a professor on the University of Toronto, defined that some Canadians get upset by acts comparable to “flag jacking” because the nation’s nationalism “at its core has an element of anti-Americanism.”

“So when an American pretends to be Canadian, it’s understandable why a person who is feeling this national pride and is stimulated by outside threats would respond emotionally to that,” he mentioned.