All last week Chico State was celebrating International Education week. To do this they put on many events educating people about international students. On Monday the first event of the week started, which was a panel of international students talking about stereotyped Americans. The members of the panel are Chico State students, some are coming from other countries to study here and others are back from studying in other countries. For example some of the students went to Japan, France, Italy, Argentina, and England; while some of the students are from Mexico, Germany, France, and Costa Rica.
The first 10 minutes of the discussion was given over to a quick introduction to some ideals Americans live by and what are some of the stereotypes of Americans out there. A lot of the discussion was about how Americans are perceived by people in other countries.
These stereotypes come from the mass media, Hollywood, the government and its policies and Americans living and traveling abroad. The biggest difference that the international students found between the United States and other countries was the food. Americans are all perceived to be overweight because of all our fast food and huge portions that we eat.
In other countries it is common to go shopping many times a week so you always have fresh food and you never have that much food in your refrigerator. Fast food chains are making its way into other countries, but for them to make any money the food there is of better quality.
Another question asked of the panel was how Americans are treated in their countries and the difference when they say they are from California instead of the United States. The general consensus was that when you say you are from America, they jump right into politics or talk about how they don’t like Americas foreign policy.
But if you say you are from California they want to talk about surfing, Hollywood, and having fun. People are also much more open to people from California. This was an exceptional panel; I found the hour to be very informative.
I know how uncaring a lot of Americans are about politics, it’s just weird to see that people from other countries know more about your country than other people that live here. I was not surprised at all that Americans are seen to be overweight, wealthy, gun carrying people that don’t care about the poor. These would be easy stereotypes to create because of how true some of them are.
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Its very common that other people from other cultures or nation, surprisingly know more about someone elses'.
I've been living and working here in Saudi Arabia for a long time and sometimes it shocks me to talk to a Pakistani who knows when the Philippines was "discovered" by Ferdinant Magellan.
Its the unknown and interesting that fascinates you.
How about you? How do you perceive Arabs, Muslims, Filipinos? Maybe we can exchange thoughts.
My thought on Americans:
1. Hardworking (they have to really work very hard to make ends meet because of the huge tax they pay)
2. Most are still conservative. Although they try to promote separation of state and church in politics, the fact that there are Republicans and Democrats prove that you can't humans in general are still adherent of morals and values
3. Seems to me majority of Americans in politics and business have a very strong bias in favor of Israel's interest
4. Many Americans are obese
5. Black Americans are stronger in racial discrimination than the whites
6. I wonder why Black Americans can call each other the "N" word, call their sisters and mothers "bitches and whores", and sell millions of records by doing so, and even get a clap from their audience. But if a White American does the same, they crucify him, remove him from job, file lawsuit against him/her and make a big fuss!
7. I find it appalling that many White Americans are talking against immigration as if they are the real "Americans" and non immigrants. They should remember, they are descendants of occupiers and colonialist ..... and it is the RED INDIANS who are the real residents of the land.
8. I wonder why no Red Indian has been elected President or VP or Speaker of the house?