Hello my fellow Americans.
You all probably are aware of the fact we are one of the most powerful, populated, and structured countries the world has to offer. We have one of the strongest military forces in the world, a democracy that has birthed one of the most internationally-known presidencies there has ever been (Obama [duh]), an economy that runs fairly well and doesn't throw an entire country into a downward plunge, a standard of living that is optimal in comparison to some other countries, and an abundance of exports, imports, and products that we have access to every minute of every day.
Some of those things were an overshot, I know. But y'all can't be pessimists with this one.
I digress...you all probably are also aware that those reasons are the exact same reasons that we are one of the most hated countries on the planet. Love us or hate us, you know us as the Americans.
Believe it or not we are one of the most mistreated, stereotyped, and misinterpreted ethnicities there are on this planet. We talk a lot about racism in our every-day lives, about acceptance, about understanding, about knowledge of other cultures surrounding us, but no one really seems to talk about us. In all reality the American culture (as it really is) is a taboo subject abroad. So many are educated from television shows and settings of them, like Glee, How I Met Your Mother, The Simpsons/Cleveland Show/Family Guy, and The Big Bang Theory. Or, I hate to say it but even worse, educated from vacationing in America.
Aiuto.
As I said in that one post from November about all the stereotypes that Americans have of Italians, let's name a few from Italy about the grand ol' Nifty Fifty.
- "But what do you mean you don't eat McDonald's every day?!" This one I couldn't take seriously until I finally thought it through. Americans have the stereotype of Italians that eat a strict diet of pasta every day for almost every meal, which is 95% accurate, in all honesty. The mindset here is that every culture has a food, and it eats that food every day. What is America's food, you ask? HAMBURGERS! FRENCH FRIES! HOT DOGS! PANCAKES! Half of the people here ask if we really do eat McDonald's every day, the other half warn me that when I go back I can't return to my diet of Whoppers and curly fries every day that apparently we are portrayed of having globally.
- "Is school really like it is in the movies?" If I had a euro for every single time I have heard this question I could afford first class flights from NYC to Catania for the rest of my life and the consecutive lives of my children, grandchildren, and all of their children. So many people, in fact, have asked me this question, I have had to start lying (slightly) to keep away from the whole spiel of "it's nothing like the movies" and wasting an hour trying to convince them that we do not break out in random dance numbers, nerds don't get shoved in lockers, cheerleaders really do exist and they're not jackwagons, and we have school dances.
- "You all are such a happy country!" This one I got from the friend of my mom who went to New York City for New Years.In the month of January we all know surely that NYC is pumping with adrenaline like heck yes we just dropped a metal ball and the whole world saw it and January is just a super refreshing month. It's a restart. Plus, NYC is a touristic paradise all year round, so anyone who goes there is going to go head over heels for any piece of it. We seem like such a happy population to any tourist that comes. It's all a part of the illusion created by the grapevine. America is rainbows and smiley faces raining down from the skies for some communities of people.
- "Do you eat pancakes every morning? And bacon? And eggs?" Thanks for movies for creating this one. They're relieved to know that we don't eat it every morning, but we do actually eat all of this for breakfast. (Sweet baby Jesus my mouth is watering as I type this)
Foreigners, or shall it be more correctly said as non-Americans, have the mindset that we are overly-patriotic, egotistical, air-headed bastards that think the universe revolves around our existence. Well, at least some of them do. From time to time when I am introduced to someone as an American, I get the "oh god, not one of you" look at first. Normally, this introduction is followed with the person trying to muster up some English, because of the sad-but-yet-pretty-much-true stereotype that we don't learn other languages, let alone such an isolated language like Italian. I'll give them credit and say that there are Americans abroad that do speak "cazzi per mazzi", kind of the offensive equivalent to "not even jack squat". Way to help our stereotype, guys! A+!
There's another thing about being an American abroad, while also surrounded by other foreigners abroad. For example, EXCHANGE.
Here's a story.
At the AFS Camp in Palermo back in October (holy crap that's like 7 months ago), every country had to make a poster of their country and all of the significant items of the culture of their country. Then, we went around with post it notes and wrote what we knew about the country and stuck it to the poster. Anyways, while the Americans (there were 6 of us but now there are 4 of us in Sicily) presented our poster, I forget completely how it rolled around, but a girl from Latin/South America stood up (everyone could ask questions) and asked us why we call ourselves Americans and we don't classify them as Americans. And then all of them clapped, and we looked like douchebags.
This got the Americans, meaning me and the five others, pretty frustrated. Here's how it goes.
We are open people. We may be one of the most open cultures that you will encounter. Yes, there's a large amount of ignorance in our culture but you know what? It's what makes us up. We deal with it and the human race is going to have to deal with it too. In a bunch of languages, there are words that are substitutions for the word "American". Like in Italian its "statiunese" and I know there's one in Spanish as well. We don't have this word or something like it. Hop off of it. It's our language, not our ignorance. The world knows us as the "Americans". We don't have a reason when you think about it to go out of our way to not use the word "American" in our vocabulary. I have personally tried to use the words "United States" or "people of the United States" for the sake of not offending an entire continent but really, I think we can all be a little less sensitive over this whole thing.
Rant over.
It's almost an immediate assumption as an American abroad that you are completely oblivious to the world around you. Yes, there are people that can't tell you the capital of Canada (hint, it's Ottawa) that live in the US. There are probably people who can't tell you the capital of the state they live in. There are people who can't point out where Egypt is on a map. There are people who didn't know Africa is a freaking continent and not a country. Point being, these people exist, but don't let them define us.
I said these exact words in Italian about two weeks ago at an AFS meeting. As you all know I went up to Bergamo for a week and I encountered the stereotype that they have of Sicily and the people there that we are all "mafiosi" (part of the Mafia) or homeless that steal money from the rich and wealthy up in the north by not working. I, being a reincarnation of a full-blooded Sicilian, defended my Madreterra by saying "Si, noi abbiamo la mafia e anche i barboni in Sicilia, ma non ci definiscono." (Yes, we have the mafia and the homeless in Sicily, but they do not define us.)
Moral of the story is, be you American, Asian, European, Australian, or African, for the love of all that the planet provides for us, hop off of each other's backs for little things. It's one thing to get mildly aggrivated when someone may or may not call you by a prefered name. It's another thing if someone is calling you or your ethnicity/nationality in the means of slander. You know how many times my name has been mispronounced in Italy? So many times that it's now pronounced "Carah" instead of the Americanized "Keruh". It's like that. Let's focus on the bigger things in life, because we are lucky to be in the situations we are.
There's another thing about being an American abroad, while also surrounded by other foreigners abroad. For example, EXCHANGE.
Here's a story.
At the AFS Camp in Palermo back in October (holy crap that's like 7 months ago), every country had to make a poster of their country and all of the significant items of the culture of their country. Then, we went around with post it notes and wrote what we knew about the country and stuck it to the poster. Anyways, while the Americans (there were 6 of us but now there are 4 of us in Sicily) presented our poster, I forget completely how it rolled around, but a girl from Latin/South America stood up (everyone could ask questions) and asked us why we call ourselves Americans and we don't classify them as Americans. And then all of them clapped, and we looked like douchebags.
This got the Americans, meaning me and the five others, pretty frustrated. Here's how it goes.
We are open people. We may be one of the most open cultures that you will encounter. Yes, there's a large amount of ignorance in our culture but you know what? It's what makes us up. We deal with it and the human race is going to have to deal with it too. In a bunch of languages, there are words that are substitutions for the word "American". Like in Italian its "statiunese" and I know there's one in Spanish as well. We don't have this word or something like it. Hop off of it. It's our language, not our ignorance. The world knows us as the "Americans". We don't have a reason when you think about it to go out of our way to not use the word "American" in our vocabulary. I have personally tried to use the words "United States" or "people of the United States" for the sake of not offending an entire continent but really, I think we can all be a little less sensitive over this whole thing.
Rant over.
It's almost an immediate assumption as an American abroad that you are completely oblivious to the world around you. Yes, there are people that can't tell you the capital of Canada (hint, it's Ottawa) that live in the US. There are probably people who can't tell you the capital of the state they live in. There are people who can't point out where Egypt is on a map. There are people who didn't know Africa is a freaking continent and not a country. Point being, these people exist, but don't let them define us.
I said these exact words in Italian about two weeks ago at an AFS meeting. As you all know I went up to Bergamo for a week and I encountered the stereotype that they have of Sicily and the people there that we are all "mafiosi" (part of the Mafia) or homeless that steal money from the rich and wealthy up in the north by not working. I, being a reincarnation of a full-blooded Sicilian, defended my Madreterra by saying "Si, noi abbiamo la mafia e anche i barboni in Sicilia, ma non ci definiscono." (Yes, we have the mafia and the homeless in Sicily, but they do not define us.)
Moral of the story is, be you American, Asian, European, Australian, or African, for the love of all that the planet provides for us, hop off of each other's backs for little things. It's one thing to get mildly aggrivated when someone may or may not call you by a prefered name. It's another thing if someone is calling you or your ethnicity/nationality in the means of slander. You know how many times my name has been mispronounced in Italy? So many times that it's now pronounced "Carah" instead of the Americanized "Keruh". It's like that. Let's focus on the bigger things in life, because we are lucky to be in the situations we are.
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