travel

You are largely correct. Largely for the reasons Dante describes, Americans seldom travel outside of the USA - and those that do, seldom travel far.

Consider also that there is little interaction with large groups of people speaking any languages other than English and (in some places) Spanish, and Americans do not get the linguistic experience that Europeans do. As a consequence, just as people who don't know how to swim may be afraid to go near water, Americans are often unsettled at the prospect of traveling abroad. What is true for North Americans is also true for South Americans, except that the languages are the closely related Spanish and Portuguese. A surprising number of middle-class South Americans have never left their country - though if their country is Argentina, they still have plenty of places to travel.

That said, it is relatively easy for an English speaker to travel almost anywhere in the world. It helps to speak one of the standard dialects (midwestern American, West Country British, Estuary English, educated anything), and to have experience speaking to people for whom English is a second language, but with a few exceptions (I once translated for a Glaswegian by simply repeating what he said, word for word) it shouldn't be too difficult. Some places are a little tricky, especially if they use non-Roman and non-Greek/Cyrillic alphabets, but there are a few English speakers just about everywhere. Due to many words in common, I find written Spanish particularly easy to understand - at least for simple signs and instructions - even though I have never formally studied that language. Of course, travelling to Scandinavia or any big city in Europe is especially easy, because most young people will have learned at least some English.

Likewise, most people around the world are pretty friendly and welcoming, with some notable exceptions in touristy areas and southeast Asia, so it is not nearly so scary as many Americans fear - though naturally if one is inclined towards alcohol one can find trouble anywhere in the world.

Finally, the shows and movies about foreign countries tend to want to emphasize their foreignness, so naturally they show (for example) the traditional mud huts rather than the modern cities where a majority of the people usually live, so viewers tend to get a distorted view of what foreign countries are like.