The thing is, I have never considered myself as an American, yes I live there but many rituals, celebrations and foods don't shout American. When people ask me what I am my answer everytime is, Swedish and Armenian.
Since being here, I have gotten so many questions about America, and I feel most of the time like I need to make excuses as to why they may have these twisted ideas about America and Americans. I knew people were going to have their opinions about Americans and I would be stuck hearing a lot of them, and somehow needing to explain the whole of American culture (which is NOT possible)
I am going to list a few typical stereotypes that I have heard about Americans, I am sure you to have heard a few of these if not all of them before....
- Self centered, Arrogant
- Loud, obnoxious
- Fat, Lazy
- to consumed with things
- unfriendly, or too friendly
- Stupid and Uneducated about the rest of the world.
- Everything deserves a High Five or an Awesome response
My personal favorite, "You all elected a dumb president" and even when I tell them I can personally tell you that many didn't vote for Bush... they don't believe me.
I have to say, none of these are ones I haven't heard before, but I have never felt so embarrassed in my life. I have never felt more American in my life.
My struggle is to find a way to get people to understand that those are not all true and are all attributes you find in other cultures too. I have however been told many times, "you are not a typical American" and I have to agree, but how many Americans have they met, and not just seen on TV? Can anyone give me a few good stereotypes about Americans?
Turks love you =)
ReplyDeleteand the sentence "i have never felt more american in my life.". nice observation...