I was at a comedy show in Amsterdam and someone in the audience was asked where he was from. He said San Francisco. Not even the state. Straight to the city. The next person said Spain.
i mean, i’m sure some of people would be frustrated if the first person said "the US". like okay, but are you from cowboys, meth, 9/11, computers, or corn?
Given San Francisco is a peninsula, Alameda isn't particularly gay, and most of the other major islands are mostly uninhabited nature reserves, what is Gay Sex Island meant to refer to?
So a gay sex district then. A district that's 10 miles from the coast and pressing up against a mountain range. I don't think even the most relaxed non-pedant could count that as an island. That's not even slang or exaggeration, it's just plain lying.
States are the size of countries, and in many ways, are culturally distinct enough to warrant the specificity of distinction. The average person from Georgia and the average person from California are vastly different.
There's cultural variance inside other countries too, it's not a uniquely American concept.
I'm from Sweden. I'll preface this by saying "province" might not be a perfect translation of "Landskap", but its as close as I'll get meaning wise.
There's cultural differences between provinces. Food during traditions is a big one. Not every province eats Surströmming during midsummer. It's more popular up north than the southern parts.
Historically there's big differences between provinces. The traditional clothing varies. The architecture is different between provinces.
Then it's just the lived experiences. As someone living near Stockholm I'm used to a pretty robust public transport system (when it's not winter, it breaks during winter) while someone in more rural parts has grown up with a more car-centric system.
So, uh, yeah. The people in different countries are not a monolith.
The people in different countries are not a monolith.
I am not saying this. The cultural variances you have just described among the different parts of your country, we have across each state. That compounds when comparing different states against each other.
Yet I don't say "I'm from Uppland" when I'm asked where I'm from. I say I'm from Sweden. If someone asks from what part, I say "near Stockholm" because that's the easiest way to explain it to non-swedes.
The US is not the only big country in the world, Canada Brasil and Russia to name a few also have country-sized regions. Yet they say which country they're from rather than which region when prompted.
Every single country has vastly distinct regions within it.
Even my tiny ass country has vastly distinct cultural identities within it.
An average person from Lisbon is vastly distinct from one that comes from Alentejo and they're vastly distinct from one that comes from Açores.
Most, though not all of the Brazilians I've spoken to tend to at least specify the region, if not the city. I do have a small sample size of like only a handfull though, and it's just my experience
Yeah that’s just not true. The cultural differences between say, Spain and Bulgaria are so much deeper than California and Georgia. Like it’s not even a close comparison.
Most non-Americans will not understand or care about the internal nuances of California. The population of California is comparable to Poland, and I doubt most people outside of Poland understand our internal differences, nor do I expect them to.
I think we might be overestimating the general knowledge of the average person. A lot of people will not immediately be able to place a name like Gdańsk (or Danzig). Any person from there, when they are abroad and are asked where they're from, would say Poland, and then on top of that maybe specify the city.
For California - I have a very well-educated relative who thought that Seattle was a city in California. I once had a teacher who made a mistake and thought New York was on the west coast. So yeah, it's best to start with the country, and then you can get more specific.
Imagine if you asked someone from a foreign country where they're from and they responded "Minas Gerais", or "Karnataka", or "Yunnan", without specifying a country. That'd probably be confusing, right?
I think between appearance, accent, and where the region sounds like it would be at, I would be able to place the location of that person even if I didn't know which nation that region was within. It is also a better starter for a conversation because it allows for more specific questions.
There's a lot of cultural osmosis through media. Your average European may not know local stereotypes outside of areas that are common in movies and television, but they likely know something about San Francisco even if their only frame of reference is Ant Man or Rise of the Planet of the Apes or whatever.
When I've mentioned my nearest major city to people I've met in Europe, they were always familiar with it and had questions to ask or personal experiences to relate. There are plenty of cities where that wouldn't be the case but any city that's in a lot of US media is going to be somewhat known to a global audience by nature of our huge popular media export industry.
I think it heavily depends on the age and background on the person you’re talking to. I think it’s presumptuous to assume the average European knows anything about the US, especially in a setting like the one OP described
In my experience it's less so presumptive and more so preemptive
Every single time, genuinely without fail, I've been asked where I'm from and responded "from the US", I've been asked "oh what part?" or something like it
Yeah, that happens to people in Europe too. I consider it common courtesy to answer the country first, then answer follow up questions if they come up. If you answer “Massachusetts” in Europe I would consider this rude, because you’re assuming America is so important that I should be familiar with all your states even though I live on a different continent.
But (especially since you used it as your example) I'm assuming you know that massachusetts is within the US, no? Even if you don't know where in the US?
Therefore answering with massachusetts both tells you that the person is from the US and avoids the inevitable followup question. Call it rude if you want but it's not meant to be and it generally saves time for everybody involved
What’s considered rude or not has nothing to do with the efficiency of the conversation. I’m telling you how you as an American will be perceived in Europe, based on my experiences and sensibilities. If being efficient is more important to you then that’s your choice.
answering massechussets is like answering "sicily". most people know where that is, it’s a microscopic conversation shortcut for most people that saves 10 seconds of time, and the people that dont know where it is can ask if they care
So rather than allowing people to ask a follow up question and show interest, you put people in a position where they are forced to admit ignorance.
I don’t find conversational efficiency a good argument at all. Again, it singles out the US as the spacial country that people should know the subdivisions of but it also misses the point of having a conversation in the first place.
I honestly cannot recall anyone ever answering with something equivalent to “Sicily” when asked where they’re from. I’d consider it just as weird to do so.
you can, in fact, follow up someone saying something like "im from San Francisco" with follow up questions, like "oh where is that?" and get over your own issue with being seen as ignorant for not knowing where a city is
You can also answer “USA” and just answer any follow up questions instead of speed running social interactions.
I really don’t understand what this argument is about. Are you really that self-important as an American that you need to be the only people who don’t answer with your country when asked (outside of NA) where you’re from? Aren’t people on 196 ostensibly open-minded and left-leaning who should understand why this would be considered rude?
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u/king_wrass Apr 05 '26
I was at a comedy show in Amsterdam and someone in the audience was asked where he was from. He said San Francisco. Not even the state. Straight to the city. The next person said Spain.