Comments on: A controversial address?

By: Gerhard

Gerhard — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:52:15 +0000

Don’t worry about it. I lived over a decade as a german expate in the states. Now allready six years back, they still call me “Captain America” or “der Ami”. It’s not the person they address, it’s the unfamiliar culture. Don’t forget, in the states a lot of people call germans still “dutch”.

By: Yankee Talks to an Expat: Christina G, An American Expat in Deutschland, part I | Yankee in a New World

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:44:31 +0000

[...] Only an interview with one of the coolest American expats in Europe, Christina Geyer of American Expat in Deustchland fame, and of Mamas Worldwide. Be sure to check our her site, and you can follow her on Twitter, here! I’ve followed her blog for a while now. Interestingly enough, the name of her site, AmiExpat.com, caused a bit of controversy, which you can read about here, on a blog post, A Controversial Address? [...]

By: sequined

sequined — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:59:31 +0000

I commented on one of the other posts in this discussion, but I agree with you (and your live-in German). Ami could be derogatory, but you can also say American in a derogatory way. No one is ever insulting to me (where I live in Bayern), so it’s not a topic that even comes up for me, generally speaking.

By: cliff1976

cliff1976 — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 20:22:22 +0000

Thanks to this discussion, I noticed about a day or two after it really started getting going that the nicest person in Germany (that we've met) uses the term "Ami" to refer to all kinds of American stuff (people, products, politics, etc.). This is just more evidence for me that it's not in the same league as other racial slurs as I know them from my USA background and losing the negative-only connotation I'd been warned about 15 years ago. I mean, if the nicest person ever uses it — and she really is; that picture was her doing her meanest face possible — it can't be as bad as I'd imagined (anymore).

By: Christina G

Christina G — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:11:36 +0000

@dixie: I agree that it doesn’t seem to be an insult in the East (although I haven’t heard it used negatively in the year I’ve been living in the West either…)

By: Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and a glorious turkey | Regensblog

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 12:04:39 +0000

[...] other parties roll in. It was a good mixture of Germans and “U.S.-Amerikaner” (with a wink to Christina) and even a sprinkling of “others,” some of whom also drove us back to [...]

By: A Controversial Address, Part 2 | an american expat in deutschland

A Controversial Address, Part 2 | an american expat in deutschland — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 10:45:29 +0000

[...] A controversial address? [...]

By: Dixie

Dixie — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:57:11 +0000

I’ve never been called an Ami – I’ve actually very seldom heard the term in the ten years I’ve lived in Germany. But then again I live in the former East and people here didn’t have a lot of contact with Americans until the Wall came down.

It’s funny to me how the terms Ossi and Wessi are seen by y’all living in the west. I know my husband calls himself an Ossi all the time. It’s almost as if it’s a badge of pride for him for having survived living in the DDR.

As for the US-Amerikaner thing – I’ve never had someone insist that I do it but I’ve heard the term used on TV. I’ve always assumed that it was to identify someone as being specifically from the US as opposed to being from any other of the many countries in the Americas.

By: Ami? | Lisa's Blog

Ami? | Lisa's Blog — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 07:15:09 +0000

[...] Is it a derogatory term – when used to describe a US-American citizen? Here, and here, and here [...]

By: Silke

Silke — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:14:50 +0000

Ami might not be insulting nowadays, but at one point it was. So if somebody uses it you can never be sure how they mean it.