Americans through the eyes of foreigners (cultural event)

A very interesting lecture entitled “The Stereotyped American” took place on Monday, April 28^th at California State University, Chico as a part of international education week. The lecture consisted of two parts.  At the beginning Tasha Dev, a study abroad coordinator, gave a brief introduction on common misconceptions about Americans abroad and about foreigners who visit the U.S. Afterwards a number of CSU students who are either exchange students from foreign countries or American students who participated in the Study Abroad program answered different questions asked by Tasha Dev and shared their personal experience on how Americans are viewed abroad.

Tasha Dev started the lecture by stating that there are a number of common misconceptions about foreigners and their attitude to Americans and their lifestyle. The first common myth is that most people in the world would like to leave their native country and move to America. Tasha underlined that studies and her personal experience show that it is not true and most people all over the world are quite satisfied with the lives in their national countries. The second typical myth is that most people in the world want to resemble the American lifestyle and have a lot of possessions and “stuff.” Tasha rebuts this widespread generalization and claims that the majority of people in the world don’t practice capitalistic values. Another common myth is that people abroad either love or hate Americans. Tasha asserts that normally there is a mixed feeling about Americans among foreigners: most people like some features of the American lifestyle and disapprove of the others. Afterwards, Tasha listed several values that are common among Americans. They include self-help concept, individualism/privacy, equality, competition, work orientation, materialism, change, efficiency, informality and openness/directness.

During the second part of the lecture a number of exchange students from Germany, France, Mexico and American students who went to study in Italy, Japan, Check Republic and Argentina answered questions asked by Tasha and shared their personal experience about the perception of Americans abroad. The first question was what Americans look like in the eyes of foreigners.  One of the exchange students from Germany said that  Americans dress too casually during day time (some even wear their pajamas!) and dress up too much during the evening time (if they go out for dinner or to the bars).  Other foreign students commented on the appearance of Americans and said that they thought that all Americans were fat, whereas in fact it is not true. The girl, who went to study in Argentina, said that nobody in Argentina believed that she was from America because they told her she wasn’t fat. The second question was what Americans eat from the foreigners’ perspective. Almost all exchange students agreed that American food is greasier, sweeter or more salty than the European food. They also commented on the American fast food and Americans’ typical feature to take food to go. The person, who went to study in Italy, said that if you asked in the Italian restaurant to take food to go, it would be an insult to the owner of the restaurant as Italians like to take their time while they dine. American students who went to study abroad almost all agreed that food portions in Europe are much smaller than in America.

Next Tasha asked the student to share their experience on how Americans communicate.  Most of the exchange students observed that Americans are friendlier and more open with strangers than the people in Europe, but at the same time Americans tend to be louder and nosier than Europeans.  Also, many students asserted the concept that Americans like to have lost of personal space. For example in Europe, Japan and Italy, there is no idea of personal space as people are crammed in the buses and tend to stand very close to each other on escalators and in lines. Also, the way people greet each other in the U.S. is different than in Europe. The person from France said that French usually kiss each other on the cheeks, but never hug as it is a sign of a more intimate relationship.  Another foreigner, a person from Mexico, said that it is traditional to kiss women on their cheeks when they are introduced to one another, whereas here in America if you kiss a girl on her cheeks it is often misinterpreted.  The last question asked by Tasha was to comment on if Americans are considered ignorant abroad. All of the students concurred that idea. The American person, who went to study in Japan, said that most Japanese students can name all of the presidents or prime ministers of many different countries in the world, whereas he couldn’t.

It was very exciting to attend this lecture and since I am myself from Russia, I thought it would be interesting to compare my opinion on Americans and their lifestyle with the views’ of the foreign students who were invited by Tasha to take part in this lecture.  For the most part I agreed with everything that was said about Americans and their main personality features and habits.  As most foreigners I thought that all Americans were overweight, but I was quite surprised to find out that they are not.  As for their appearance it was quite shocking to see how casual everybody dresses even professors at the university. Also, I think in Russia people show their class or wealth by the way they are dressed, whereas here in America everybody dresses pretty much the same and you could never know that for example, this simply dressed old man in the restaurant is a real estate tycoon. Speaking about the way Americans eat, it was quite difficult for me to get used to the huge sizes of food portions in the restaurant or even sizes of soda cups in a movie theater.  In Russia, the small size of a soda cup by Americans standards will be the large size by Russian. Also, I found it interesting that American people eat so much microwaveable food and fast food and like to go out a lot instead of preparing meals at home. In Russia all the food we eat is homemade as it is too expensive to go out to a nice restaurant and nobody these days wants to eat at MacDonald’s. You buy all the fresh food at the local market and cook it at home. My mum used to cook a lot in our house and sometimes I really miss her delicious borsch or baked salmon with carrots and mushrooms.

  Another interesting thing I noticed when I first came to America was the way people apologize in the grocery store if they come to close to you.  Coming from the country where the idea of personal space doesn’t simply exist, it was quite surprising for me to discover that people find it offensive if you come up or stand too close to them. In Russia if you stand at the bus stop too close to the bus you will find yourself on that bus even if it is not the bus that you need because people in order to get on the bus start running and pushing each other. The crowd simply pushes you in the bus even if you refuse to move and even if it is not the bus that you want to take. Also, people in Russia are so crammed on the buses that sometimes I would find myself having my head on somebody’s shoulders and standing with one foot on somebody’s toes.

I agree with all the foreign students when they say that Americans tend to be ignorant. Every time I tell somebody that I’m from Russia they ask me how far from the border with Germany I used to live (I guess they think that Germany and Russia are neighboring countries) and if I ever saw bears walking in the streets. Also, they keep inviting me to drink vodka with them and when I tell them that I don’t drink, they simply don’t believe it.

All in all, I thought “The Stereotyped American” was a very riveting lecture. I think it was interesting and useful for many Americans to find out what foreigners think of them and what Americans think of Europeans and their lifestyle. I hope that this lecture will inspire many people to travel abroad in order to learn different peculiarities and customs of cultures all over the world as the more we find out about other nationalities the more united our global community becomes.