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Americans are known for their patriotism and pride in their great country.
But there is one scenario in which some American citizens may not be so quick to admit where they are from: when they travel abroad and want to integrate.
According to behavioral experts, we are perhaps the easiest nationality to spot before we even open our mouths.
Over the years, intelligence officials have been trying to determine what it was that made Americans seem so American that it helped undercover officers maintain their cover behind enemy lines.
And one – Joe Navarro, former FBI A body language expert and spy hunter has revealed to DailyMail.com exactly what researchers have discovered these characteristics are.
Americans tend to dress less formally than many other cultures, Navarro said.
Of From the way you dress to the way you hold flowers, she’s told us what you need to modify if you’re trying to fit in.
Navarro has made his career a source of interpreting and understanding people’s body language, a skill he says he began developing when he and his family moved to the United States from Cuba when he was a child.
“I’m here as an observer. I’m examining the human zoo,” he said, explaining his profession.
He noted that the United States is an incredibly diverse place and that cultural differences within the country make it difficult to draw conclusions about Americans as a whole.
However, in his work abroad and in his personal experience identifying spies, he has found that certain themes continue to emerge.
Navarro says there’s nothing wrong with looking American, but he believes the best way to travel is to integrate into the culture you’re entering.
This could keep you safe and ensure you have the most authentic experience possible while abroad.
Hand signals and signs
Certain hand gestures that are harmless in the United States may be shocking in other cultures. Crossing your fingers is explicit in Vietnam.
Mr Navarro says something as simple as the way a person carries a bouquet of flowers can offer clues about its origin.
While conducting surveillance on a suspected U.S. spy, Navarro and his team saw their target leave a store with a bouquet of flowers. The man left the flowers hanging at his side, pointing downwards, a telltale sign that he was not the American he was impersonating.
Americans, she said, tend to hold flowers upright, like a bridesmaid at a wedding. Eastern Europeans tend to hold flowers down, so water flows down onto the petals.
Later, when confronted with this information, the spy confessed to Mr. Navarro.
Other hand and body movements could also give you away.
For example, if you want to wish someone luck while traveling to Vietnam and show them that you’re keeping your fingers crossed for them, you might be in for a nasty surprise.
In the country, the hand sign is said to resemble female genitalia, and is something like the middle finger in Western countries.
Social media users have brought the idea of an “American tilt” to the masses, to describe a way of being among Americans that they say distinguishes them from Europeans.
Users like it Tiktoker rachaelsulliHe explained that when Americans stand without doing anything, they tend to shift their weight from one leg to the other or look for a wall, railing or counter to lean on.
She said that in Italy, where she lives, people tend to stand upright when they are waiting.
Sneakers, caps and shorts
People from different countries wear sportswear, but they reserve it mainly for the gym, according to Navarro.
Americans tend to dress much more casually than other cultures, Navarro said.
On many of her trips — to Milan, Budapest, even rural Russia — people tend to dress much more formally than Americans, with fashion in mind.
For example, he said, American men often wear shorts on summer vacation, which clearly gives away their nationality.
Baseball caps, sportswear, large reusable water bottles, and old, dirty tennis shoes are other common American accessories that are usually only seen in gyms in European countries.
Makeup style also plays a role. In many European countries, wearing false eyelashes, acrylic nails and contouring makeup would be out of place, she said, and could give clues about American citizenship.
The volume of your voice -and your whistle-
Foreigners sometimes think Americans are loud. Acting as a cultural mirror can help with integration, she said.
Mr. Navarro has taught numerous workshops abroad and has said that in almost every country he has been to someone asks him, “Why do Americans talk so loud?”
While he doesn’t think this is true for all Americans, Navarro said many foreigners find Americans loud and brash. This could have to do with American culture, which lacks the emphasis on community seen in other cultures.
If a child were whistling while walking down the aisles of a supermarket in the United States, chances are no one would say anything about it, he said.
In contrast, he said, in a country like Japan, strangers will tell you when you are doing something rude and ask you to stop.
“There are societies in which culture and the group are more important than the individual, and then there is the United States,” he says.
“People are taught to see themselves as separate individuals.”
A good rule of thumb is to become a mirror of your surroundings, Navarro said.
“At the agency you have to fit in. So whatever culture you’re in, you have to reflect that,” he said.
For example, in many Latin American countries, people tend to be a little more affectionate than Americans are used to: they greet each other with a kiss on the cheek and touch each other’s arms and shoulders when talking, he explained.
If you travel there, you might want to adopt some of these gestures.
In contrast, in Nordic countries people rarely touch each other casually, so Navarro said he is careful to keep a respectful distance from his colleagues.
The same goes for voice volume. If you’re an American abroad, if you’re mindful of the voice volume of those around you, you’re less likely to stand out.
It may seem strange or disingenuous, but Mr. Navarro said being a cultural mirror is the key to “being the best version of yourself, because the trick is to fit in, not to be dismissed, ignored, ridiculed, mocked or considered awkward.”