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The Greatest Country on Earth!
Zimmydoom
Accept no substitutesRegistered User regular
Accept no substitutesRegistered User regular
This is a thread about America. Or, rather, this is a thread about how America (the country) and Americans (the people) are perceived around the world, and how foreign media influences these perceptions.
Before I went to Japan my Japanese history teacher, a German, warned me that if I got any flack while I was over there it would probably be from Europeans who were also studying abroad. I was prepared for this, so I kept my guard up around them, but I tried to be my natural self with my Japanese friends. The funny thing was, while I was not discriminated against intentionally, I was constantly having to deal with the most ridiculous stigmas about American men and Japanese women, and just general stupidity. "How you know how to use cell phone?" "Don't you drive big SUV?" "Don't you know American men rape Japanese girls?" (As if Japanese men don't already have that covered.)
It was a weird year, to say the least, and I constantly found myself having to explain to both Japanese and other international students that, no, not all Americans think alike, we didn't all vote for Bush, we're not all Protestants, I've never even touched a gun, and not all black people are in the Army (I have no fucking clue where that one came from). This is not to say that your average American actually knows diddly fuck about life outside his own tri-county area, but these were students at the international school of one of the four most prestigious universities in Japan.
The common thread among all these misconceptions seemed to be that my foreign friends were convinced that the American press was at least partially owned and operated by the Government, just like in their country. My roommate this past semester was from Hong Kong, and he refused to believe that it was even legal to criticize George Bush until he saw the Daily Show ("Oh my God, are they allowed to say that? Won't he go to jail now?"). Watching TV news in Japan and reading their daily papers (English translation...) I was always floored at how America was framed as this colossal, monolithic bully full of stupid, inbred white rednecks and black drug dealers (apparently there are no Hispanics in the US, by the way).
Anyway, I know there are quite a few people from around the world who post on these forums, and I'm really curious as to how you think the media in your country influences popular perception about the US, and how that jives with your own personal experiences. Also, for Americans who have lived abroad, what were your experiences with negative stereotypes? How did you handle it?
EDIT: Upon further consideration, feel free to share experiences about otherwise intelligent Americans had some kind of ridiculous misconception about you because you were from another country. (Legit complaints only, though. No one cares if Bucky-Jim from Kentucky didn't know your traditional Slavic clog-hat dance of friendship and misogyny.)
Before I went to Japan my Japanese history teacher, a German, warned me that if I got any flack while I was over there it would probably be from Europeans who were also studying abroad. I was prepared for this, so I kept my guard up around them, but I tried to be my natural self with my Japanese friends. The funny thing was, while I was not discriminated against intentionally, I was constantly having to deal with the most ridiculous stigmas about American men and Japanese women, and just general stupidity. "How you know how to use cell phone?" "Don't you drive big SUV?" "Don't you know American men rape Japanese girls?" (As if Japanese men don't already have that covered.)
It was a weird year, to say the least, and I constantly found myself having to explain to both Japanese and other international students that, no, not all Americans think alike, we didn't all vote for Bush, we're not all Protestants, I've never even touched a gun, and not all black people are in the Army (I have no fucking clue where that one came from). This is not to say that your average American actually knows diddly fuck about life outside his own tri-county area, but these were students at the international school of one of the four most prestigious universities in Japan.
The common thread among all these misconceptions seemed to be that my foreign friends were convinced that the American press was at least partially owned and operated by the Government, just like in their country. My roommate this past semester was from Hong Kong, and he refused to believe that it was even legal to criticize George Bush until he saw the Daily Show ("Oh my God, are they allowed to say that? Won't he go to jail now?"). Watching TV news in Japan and reading their daily papers (English translation...) I was always floored at how America was framed as this colossal, monolithic bully full of stupid, inbred white rednecks and black drug dealers (apparently there are no Hispanics in the US, by the way).
Anyway, I know there are quite a few people from around the world who post on these forums, and I'm really curious as to how you think the media in your country influences popular perception about the US, and how that jives with your own personal experiences. Also, for Americans who have lived abroad, what were your experiences with negative stereotypes? How did you handle it?
EDIT: Upon further consideration, feel free to share experiences about otherwise intelligent Americans had some kind of ridiculous misconception about you because you were from another country. (Legit complaints only, though. No one cares if Bucky-Jim from Kentucky didn't know your traditional Slavic clog-hat dance of friendship and misogyny.)
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Zimmydoom on
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Sure, this country is far from perfect and does a lot of stupid and/or shady things, but anything that groups a whole people together is going to be ignorant by nature.
I'm pretty surprised that they didn't think we could operate cell-phones though, I mean every moronic air-head American celebrity is always talking on them. If Paris Hilton can figure it out, anyone can.
Kazakhstan is the greatest
Country in the world
Step off G. Unless you've misspelled French Guiana especially poorly.
Edit: How embarrassing.
Out in the countryside, those who didn't speak english were very polite about it, and we actually had some humerous moments with them because of the language barrier.
We did engage in an in-depth conversation with a world travelling woman who did our portrait. We did discuss some American traits and her visits to New York- we explained that it's different on the west coast and in between. She didn't have the hatred that most Americans assume foreigners have.
I haven't traveled abroad, but the people I know who have generally think that Europeans tend to be fairly polite, if not overtly friendly. Most of the Europeans I've known who visited the states, though, were complete fuckwads. Not all, but most.
Spend much time in Paris? Its like the NYC of France, and I definitely ran into some complete asshole french parisians. I definitely went out of my way to talk to arabs when i needed help with directions or whatever.
In general though, Europeans are very good people. I spent ten months living in Sweden and a few weeks traveling around the continent. 99% of the people i ran into were great.
fucking cdma. I just switched to verizon from cingular and i spent all day yesterday pissed off about it.
On that vein of criticizing the government, I heard somewhere that it was illegal to make fun of the government in Japan. Any truth to this?
My sister said the people in Paris were largely total douchebags to her when she was out there, and she couldn't be more obviously American.
In Japan's case, it's obvious why the focus is entirely on external forces as agents of change. Can't have Japanese responsible for fucking up the perfectly good Yamato race, after all. What shocked me was the fact that while many Japanese would grudgingly admit that the Japanese press is bullshit government propaganda, they were still shocked when they met foreigners who didn't fit into their preconceptions of what a proper gaijin should be.
Ultimately, it's the media creation of the "foreign devil" in this age of information that I'm so curious about.
Kinda came as a bit of a suprise, and I caught a bunch of dirty looks a couple times from big groups of people waiting at lights. Hell, they don't even do the herd behavior thing where if one person goes everyone else will follow. They just look at you like you're a douche, kinda.
They also kinda suck at pull in parking.
In English Canada, I've always thought of the media in two camps when it comes to covering the US. There's the one that tends to show favour to US actions more often than not (the continentalists; I'm looking at you, Global and Bell). Most of the media groupings that tend to be continentalist also tend to have a Tory (red, blue, or otherwise) bias. The other grouping (CBC, chiefly) tend to take a more nationalist bent. Coverage, at least from my experience, is intentionally critical of the US (i.e., "how does action [x] affect Canada?", rather than "the U.S. committed action [x] today").
Of course, within these two camps there is still a pro-Canadian focus (except for the fringe Alberta rags like the Western Standard who favour annexation), which inevitably leads to what most Americans would consider anti-Americanism. I find that part of the cultural ethos, especially for older Canadians, is that we are fundamentally distinct from America and Americans. The manifestation of that distinctiveness more often than not is a negative attitude towards American action in the world and Americans in general.
For me, personally, my experiences in the US just reinforced the general disdain that most of my peers have for the US and Americans in general. I found that people were rather rude in general and went all funny whenever I mentioned I was Canadian. The amount of advertising that pervades absolutely everything you do, I found extremely jarring, as well as the horrible layout of your cities and lack of decent public transportation.
I also found it quite disconcerting the militarist culture that seems to be tied inextricably to Americans' conception of 'patriotism' (which is just as jarring; flags everywhere, the anthem being sung and the pledge being recited at the drop of a hat). That was another aspect of things that I didn't enjoy at all.
In all honesty, I have no desire to go to the US ever again. This isn't a knock on the people; my best friend is an American who has lived here for the past few years. It's just that the whole package there (militarism, lessened social conscious, lots and lots of advertising, rude people, far-right wing politics in the mainstream) makes me find it rather repulsive. Kind of like Alberta.
A friend of mine spent some time in China, where her host family were a part of a pop culture (fairly common over there I understand) that loves any clothing with English writing. Sort of like how kanji is cool in certain circles here, except on a much broader scale.
Anyway, the host Mom was beaming with pride over a tie-dyed "Tripping is Fun" t-shirt she was wearing in honor of the American guest. She insisted that my friend translate it for her. Not recognizing the immediate need for tact, she told her in her best Chinese possible, that it says, "LSD is a good thing." And the Mom burst into sobs of shame.
Anyway, my experiences are more as a Georgian travelling domestically, where I am frequently asked about my expertise in pick-up trucks, hound dogs, and the most common: cross-burning.
Perhaps the media message is a self-reinforcing symptom rather than a root cause of popular preconceptions, much like in the US.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Man what. Where did you go?
Eh, I guess. Those National Guard recruitment ads at movie theatres are pretty fucking obnoxious and ridiculous.
i fucking love the one where they guy fights a lava monster.
This is always the first question I ask when someone tells me that they visited America. I go to school in Boston, but I was born to a French-Canadian family (my great-grandparents emigrated from Quebec) and grew up in rural Maine. I've spent a couple of weeks in South Carolina, and about six weeks total in DC over the years. I also spent a week with my born-again uncle in Riverside, CA before heading to Tokyo.
By far the biggest shock to my foreign friends was that all Americans are not the same, that culture varies depending on where you go within the US. Patriotism in New England means something very different from patriotism in the southwest. We worship the founders not as war heroes, but as statesmen and philosophers.
As for all our advertising, it's not nearly as bad as it is in Japan, trust me. We do have our limits.
It still baffles me how anyone can say anything about Europeans in general. For the record: Europe ranges from Portugal to Bulgary and from Sweden to Greece. Europe is vastly different from the United States, your country has the same currency all around, they all speak the same language, they all celebrate the same national holidays and every state is ruled in the same way.
In Europe, there are roughly 20 currencies, every country has its own language, every country has different holidays, even the end of the WWI and WWII is celebrated on different days, some countries are ruled as a monarchy, others as a republic, others are still ran by dictators and then there's everything in between.
Even from a historic point of view, Europe has never shown much unity, we have pretty much waged war from the beginning of time until now. (Balkan hi2u)
Anyway, I first thought the media in the USA was pretty pro-gov, mostly because that is what I taught at school, I remember a documentary about FOX News as an example of media gone wrong, which pretty heavily influenced my opinion on US media. Of course, this was later rectified by seeing some of the Daily Show and visiting your country.
At the moment, my opinion on your country is rather positive; I think your government sucks monkeyballs, but the people are fantastic. In fact, if I'll ever leave this country, I'll move to the US, just because I like the way people think.
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Just as long as I don't have to deal with the government, healthcare or law enforcement.
/0,02€
Almost to 3 cents.
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Opinions from Europe are worth more.
I think it's very true. The media here always gives every story a canada focus. Like with the new moon base thing or something... headline was something like:
"CANADA TO BE INVOLVED WITH MOONBASE"
When I read the actual article, only in the very last paragraph was canada mentioned, and it was along the lines of something like this:
"Canada may participate in the moonbase".
Bias? hell yes.
Just because Average Joe is only interested in what goes on in his own backyard. You've gotta keep things interesting for "the average man" and the average man just isn't interested in what they're doing down in Houston unless it's his tax money they're fooling around with.
Southern or Northern France?
I'm Canadian and they immediately treated us with hostility in Northern France.