I was over in Scotland for a conference this summer and made a day trip into Edinburgh where I got into an isolated situation where I was approached by some panhandlers. When I returned to where I was staying, I remarked to this one man that I wish I hadn't brought my bookbag so I didn't look and feel so much like a tourist. He then says that I couldn't do much about that and "we can usually tell." "Body language, then?" I asked. Again, usually we can just tell. I've read of people saying this same thing across the British Isles, too regarding Americans and other foreigners.
First of all, when many Americans say they "don't want to look like a tourist," they are not necessarily saying that they able to look like they are native. When I say that I mean that I do not want to look vulnerable and naive enough to be easily exploited. In my experience living in some rundown minority dominated neighborhoods in the US, I got to the point where I would walk through them at night and be left alone. Whereas when somebody who has never spent a lot of time in those environments walks through its almost as if they smell you coming and you might have 10 year old black kids throwing rocks at you.
Secondly, many Americans like myself know how the world works and have spent time growing up in homogeneous areas and can spot outsiders, too. I also know that there is more than body language and my time on skadi's taxonomy section has refined that knowledge and put some theory behind it.
Anyways, you could be "not a tourist" but rather be a student or taken up residency in Scotland. All the while one still would not be claiming to be from there.
My questions to the Scots are this:
1. Do you always happily point this out to people? Is it assumed Americans are more naive? When I was working in North Carolina a Scottish couple walked through the store and everyone could see you were "different" before you spoke.
2. Is saying that I don't want to look a tourist sound so presumptuous that people may reflexively remind somebody that they "are not one of us" to put them in their place?
I'm just trying to figure out the psychology behind stuff like this in Europe. I might have the opportunity to work over in the UK on a short-term assignment for a year or two.
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