the Misconceptions of Americans. Part 1

*NOTE* I've added a picture to the past blog "Sara" that was taken during my family's visit to Slovakia a few weeks ago. It's a nice picture, scroll down and check it out! :) Ok, back to my current blog...

So I’ve collected ideas, comments, misconceptions that my students at Ilava Obchodna Akademia (my first placement) had of Americans. I’ve also included general misconceptions from people I’ve met along the way, from either Koseca, Hybe, or both. (Also, some added misconceptions about America itself.)

“All AMERICANS ARE FAT”. I can’t tell you how many times people have told me, “Wow, you don’t look American. You’re too thin to be American” since I came to Slovakia in August. “You look Slovak.” Just because I’m thin? That’s not fair, because there are overweight people here too (although I’m aware that America’s weight problem definitely exceeds any other country’s). They’re a bit shocked that I like healthier foods, and that I don’t really desire to eat cakes every day. And to go along with that…

“ALL AMERICANS EAT MCDONALDS. A LOT.” Of course many of us eat McDonalds from time to time, but not always a lot. And I know many people who would sooner die than stick a Big Mac in their mouth. Myself? I go a few times a year, and that’s more than enough. I understand why they would think this though, since McDonalds did COME from America. And have you all seen “Supersize Me?” Yikes.

“ALL AMERICANS ARE BUDDIES WITH CELEBRITIES.” No, I’m sorry, I don’t know Brad Pitt, or Julia Roberts, or Renee Zellwegger. One kid at Ilava even came up to me and said, “Hey, when you go back home…can you tell Weezer (music group) that I say hello, and that I really like them? Next time you see them?” Um, sure. I will do that. WHEN I meet Weezer….

“ALL AMERICANS LIKE GEORGE W. BUSH, BECAUSE THEY ELECTED HIM….TWICE.” I’ve had to very carefully handle this one a few times. This is a pretty rough assumption, I would say. Many Americans would be quite irritated with this. I’ll just leave it at that.

“SO, THE WEATHER IS PRETTY WARM IN AMERICA, YES?” Whoa. They don’t really have a concept of how BIG the United States is, and how many different climates, and temperatures exist. They also were surprised that we didn’t have a train system running from state to state (like they do, running country to country) as well. This is why everybody in America owns a car. Also, when I told them about how common it is for students to move all around the country for colleges and jobs, they weren’t that surprised at first. They sometimes do this too, but the other side of the country is reachable in one afternoon. Not so much our case, eh?

“AMERICAN ENGLISH AND BRITISH ENGLISH ARE THE SAME.” Well, I myself thought they were really similar until I came here, and tried to teach English out of British English books. I knew there was a lot of British English slang, but I didn’t realize how much British English is its own language. They are of course both English, but a LOT more different than I realized. The teachers in Ilava used to get REALLY frustrated with me, especially.

“Can you explain block of flats to the students, please?”
“Um. Sure.” I silently walked over to the teachers and whispered quietly, “What exactly is a block of flats?”
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
“But it’s English. You speak English! You’re a native speaker!”
“Well yes, but I have no idea what a block of flats is.”

I also didn’t understand “trainers,” “standing in queue,” “getting on,” or “in a row.” Anyways, they’re definitely different. (A block of flats is an apartment building, “trainers” are tennis shoes, “standing in queue” means to stand in line, “getting on” means to get along with someone well, and “in a row” means to get into an argument.) We speak the same language, but we do NOT speak the same language.

“LIFE IN AMERICA IS A DREAM!” This has been an interesting one. Living in America, in the economic powerhouse of the world, has its advantages to say the least. And many Slovak people end up traveling there (or more often to somewhere in the United Kingdom, because it’s closer) to improve their English and to earn money. However, living in America also has definite disadvantages, especially in comparison to Slovakia. They have no idea about our problems with money, with health care (they are required to leave work for weeks at a time when they’re ill, and are paid for it), with maternity leave (we have a few months, they have 4 years, and they’re paid basic living expenses during that time and are guaranteed their job back), with retirement, and that it costs THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of dollars for higher education (their universities/colleges are government funded, and practically free). I’m glad I was able to inform them of the realities of living in the U.S., and to inform them that people work REALLY hard, and things are still difficult.

“AMERICA IS JUST LIKE EVERYTHING WE SEE IN THE MOVIES.” And how scary is this! I’ve gotten many questions like, “Is it true that in American schools, all of the girls like guys who play sports?” (Slovakia has NO organized sports, music programs, or any kind of groups or organizations as part of school) and “Is it true that you guys have REALLY BIG parties where people hang out of houses, and have really loud music, and puke on front yards?” Haha! Um, well of course there is some truth to most of the things they see in movies, but of course it’s not the “do and say all” of American ways. And how do we defend those stereotypes when they keep popping up OVER and OVER in movies? And our movie industry is THEIR movie industry. They watch mostly American movies here, because Slovakia has almost NO money to create their own industries for film, music, television, etc.

People have said, “Oh yeah, HALLOWEEN! Where you dress up in costumes! I saw that in the movies!” and (while looking at pictures of our house in Westbrook) “Your house looks exactly like a typical American house in the movies!” I think it’s scary how many assumptions opinions they have formed/can form about our country, because of movies and SO much more. The U.S. gets the most attention in the world, as far as the entertainment business goes, and political news, amongst other things.

*I will continue with the second part of this, sometime in the future!
Until next time... :-)