I guess you could say I've interviewed a few Canadians on the topic - since
I am one, and I have travelled to Europe 11 times, 5 as a backpacker in my
"youth" - ahem.

Of course Europeans can tell and Aussie or Kiwi from a North American, but
unless you have a pronounced Southern drawl, a Canadian will almost always
be presumed to be an American at first glance. I'm quite good at sourcing
accents but many of my friends and family can't source an Aussie from a
Kiwi, forma South African, nor can they differentiate different UK accents,
so I assume there are a number of Europeans who can't tell any North
American accent from another.

If population tends translate into travels Europeans will see 10 times as
many Americans as Canadians. It is only natural to generalize based on those
kinds of real life encounters.

You can count a far greater number of truly generous encounters in Europe,
as a Canadian, if the people you are interacting with know you are a
Canadian. It's not absolute, nothing is, but I have had dozens of encounters
where initial aloofness dissipated once the individual I was interacting
with asked, or figured out that I was a Canadian.

If you would like some examples;

- A trucker in the Netherlands turned around to pick me up after he saw the
flag on my backpack.

- I have never had to answer a single question crossing a border when
displaying my passport - American backpackers I have been travelling with
had to empty their backpacks and were questioned privately on several
occasions.

It even extends beyond Europeans -once when I hooked up with some Kiwis in
Ireland and was invited back to their London flat for a few days, one of
their flat mates was particularly cold towards me. He wouldn't even look at,
or speak to me as we piled in the VW to head to a pub the first night I was
there. 10 minutes after we arrived at the pub one of the other folks asks me
something about Canada and this distant guy gets a quizzical look on his
face, comes over, has me confirm I am Canadian and then apologizes for his
behaviour because he thought I was a Yank. After that we drank and snag for
days - ah Europe and youth!.

The fallout from American foreign policy and cultural myopia is a fact. It
affects some people more than others, and may not at all dictate the way
some people react to tourists. It is enough of a factor, overall to be
noticed by those who are most likely to get mistaken for an American, eh?




"Pete" wrote in message
link.net...
No, it's the distinction from the American thing.

Really? Have you interviewed a significant number of them to verify
your claim? Australians do not need a flag to separate themselves
from Americans as their accent is quite different.


Pete