I read people say online that Americans are loud. What does this mean, exactly? Is it literal volume or is it our personality/presentation? Something else?
I may be moving to Australia because of my wife’s job, and I want to better understand this. I want to assimilate and I don’t want to be annoying. I’m personally pretty low key and listen more than speak, but this is my perception of myself.
Sometimes literally loud(New Jersey residents raise your hands), but usually also overbearing, painfully extroverted, having to control conversations, injecting themselves into what didn’t need them, etc.
I’m not judging from the outside. As an American that at one time was married to an Australian, we met when I was stationed there and we were both at the same base so I would see how my squadmates behaved then later when they had gone off to the racks, I’d get to hear the Aussie service members mock and laugh at some of the behaviors of the guys I came over with. They would joke that I had to be an immigrant because I rarely talked.
It’s not an “all Americans do this” type of thing, it’s that the Americans that do this are so impactful in a negative way that it becomes a cliched caricature. If you’re not that type of person, you won’t need to do anything to assimilate, you’ll fit in just fine. Those folks were some of the best people I’ve ever met in my life and they were very welcoming and inclusive.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply! Your last paragraph is pretty much what I was thinking, but I also wanted to gather some opinions.
I will just be myself and hopefully be one of the ones that leaves a great impression. I am finishing my masters degree in elementary education and I hope to eventually get a job teaching over there if we move. I am so excited to learn their culture and history. It’ll be an awesome experience to have my knowledge and learn theirs while sharing between us.