is making lists really going to help when i can't even speak the language?

[helenmelon]

two of the little girls who used to be favorites of mine when i used to babysit are having their graduation receptions this weekend. i made a card for one of the girls on photoshop today, with pictures of her and me at camp (i was a volunteer, it was her first time away from home) in '96. it's a super cool card:) i love photoshop.

Comments

[zaklog]

So now I'm curious. What are some of the Chinese stereotypes of Americans?

[helenmelon]

oh, these aren't strictly chinese stereotypes of americans. this book is for americans going wherever overseas to live/work. the lists are general ones, collected from people from all over. here's the list:

optimistic, outgoing, friendly, informal, loud, rude, boastful, immature, naive, hardworking, aggressive, judgemental, moralistic, superficial, extravegant, wasteful, confidant they have all the answers, politically naive and/or uninformed, ignorant of other countries, disrespectful of authority, wealthy, materialistic, generous, impatient, always in a hurry (also that all u.s. women are promiscuous)

and it's funny to read the list, because the thing we might pick out as positive might not necessarily be positive to people from a totally different culture. what we see as positive and what we see as negative is as much of an indicator of our own-- value system, i guess.

I hate to be a cliche, but . . .

[zaklog]

Well, what I think applies to me has been bolded. I'm curious if other people could do this too. See how accurate the stereotype is.

optimistic, outgoing, friendly, informal, loud, rude, boastful, immature, naive, hardworking, aggressive, judgemental, moralistic, superficial, extravegant, wasteful, confidant they have all the answers, politically naive and/or uninformed, ignorant of other countries, disrespectful of authority, wealthy, materialistic, generous, impatient, always in a hurry (also that all u.s. women are promiscuous)

Yeah, I think those are the ones that match me.

Re: I hate to be a cliche, but . . .

[helenmelon]

well, i think it's interesting and useful to decide which items on the list apply to you, but the point is that they're the perceptions of americans that non-americans often have. so you may not actually be aggressive by american standards, say, but by japanese standards, you would.

[fred_smith]

I was going to ask the same question. Its interesting. My brother-in-law also used to claim that Americans were either extreme health-freaks or extremely fat, that they couldn't recognise sarcasm, that they're really more like the Japanese than Europeans and that the small towns were like another country entirely. But then, I don't think he likes Americans particularly.

[helenmelon]

the health freaks or fat thing... i can see how he would get that impression:) that's sure the way it is on tv and in movies

[fred_smith]

He'd visited America a few times. So it wasn't totally an uneducated view-point I suppose.

I'd love to see small town America one day. It sounds like a pleasant place.