Some travelers, Americans among them, would prefer not to announce their nationality, when overseas.

The world is a judgmental place, sometimes a dangerous one, and why should visitors make it clear what sort of passport they are carrying when it hasn’t even come out of their pockets?

That famously has led some Americans to wear backpacks with Canadian maple-leaf flags on them — figuring that most of the rest of the world has no idea when a Yank is impersonating a Canuck.

Some, however, would suggest that Americans also “out” themselves by the volume of their speech (11 on a scale of 10), by being overly familiar, by tipping in countries where tipping is not encouraged.

But the biggest “tell” of all, in my opinion?

The baseball cap.

You can put a Yank in a scarf and a sweater, a French sort of look, but the cap (above) overpowers all that.

iMany Americans wear ball caps. To keep their heads warm. To keep sun off their scalps. Because they like them and the message of team or school or company support they provide.

The rest of the world? Not so infatuated with the ball cap.

Some reject it because it is too closely associated with Amercans.

The exceptions? Hep cats who get them via American hip-hop culture.

For example, a handful of soccer players in the UAE could be counted on to wear a ball cap after a match — albeit one with the big, flat bill. And with the whole of it cocked to about the 2 o’clock position. Like NBA guys might wear them.

Other than those guys, someone wearing a ball cap, outside the U.S., pretty much is a Yank. And it pegs him (rarely her) even if he is otherwise carefully non-obvious about his nationality.

I generally don’t mind when people assume I’m American, because it isn’t otherwise hard to figure out.

They will know I’m an anglophone the moment I open my mouth and in France (as in much of the world) it is no advantage to be considered English instead of American.

So, the cap stays on. A shout-out for Long Beach and Long Beach State, and it’s the only head-covering I own. Until the beret, that is.