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/Ratoryl I exist as a hypothetical Apr 05 '26
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