It’s no secret that American’s favorability around the world is on the decline. I was reminded of this earlier in the year when I traveled to Quebec with a slightly obnoxious stars-and-stripes luggage identifier tied to my suitcase, which mysteriously wound up getting “lost.” After speaking to the airline agent in Canada, who chuckled when I told her of the tag, I began to wonder if my missing piece of luggage had more to do with the red, white and blue than I could have anticipated.

My experience may have been a complete coincidence, a mistake made by a distracted baggage handler, but it served as a reminder that the patriotic, proud-to-be-American attitude doesn’t always translate well across borders (even when you're just traveling next door). Does this increasingly anti-American sentiment stop me from traveling? Absolutely not, but it’s certainly something I think about (and plan for) when I travel internationally. I haven’t traveled out of the country since my trip to Quebec. Anxious that I would make another uninformed mistake, I turned to the World Citizen’s Guide for advice on crushing the “Ugly American” stereotype when I started preparing for my upcoming trip to Europe.

The guide serves as a reminder of how Americans in general have the ability to be rude when traveling: apparently, we speak too loudly, boast too frequently and tend to offend all too often. Utilizing the research of Business for Diplomatic Action, a non-profit organization dedicated to changing the worldwide view of America, five college students created the guide. BDA sited four root causes of anti-American sentiment in their research: U.S. public policy, the negative effects of globalization, our popular culture and our collective personality.

I’m personally going to incorporate the important tips from this pocket-sized guide into my future travels, with the hopes of becoming a better world citizen.