The Stereotypical American

Studying abroad. Everyone who has been in college has heard this term more than once. Here at Chico State, the college urges students to take the opportunity to travel to a far away land and learn, not only about their major, but about different cultures as well. To make students learn about different opportunities, the study abroad office at Chico State has put on an International Education Week. During this week, students are given the chance to learn about different programs and what they might face when studying abroad.

So being the curious person that I am, I decided to go to one of these talks that they offered during the week. Having experienced different countries, I was very interested to hear other students give there opinion and their experiences while they were over seas.

One lecture/ discussion group that they held was “The Stereotyped American”. In this event different students who have either traveled or that were from a different country came together and discussed how other countries view Americans. Different stereotypes were brought up during the discussion and the panel, as well as the audience, was able to view their opinion different topics. Stereotypical topics such as: what the typical American is “viewed as”, what American’s eat, and how Californian’s are “viewed” were just some of the many topics discussed.

According to many of the foreign students on the panel, as well as the Americans themselves, agreed that there are certain behaviors that American’s have that make them standout. Being loud and very outgoing as well as ignorant to other countries issues were some behaviors that seem to make the average American stand out in a foreign country.

When it came to eating behaviors, many of the foreign students said that in America our portion sizes are quite larger than they expected. They feel that we have too many choices and everything seems more salty/sweet. One of the girls on the panel that was American said that when she went to Argentina, no one believed that she was American. The Argentineans had the image of Americans being large and fat, whereas the girl was slim and slender.

Many of the students that were from Chico State and who studied abroad would tell people that they were from California, not the United States. By saying that they were from California, they received a different response from people. Instead of getting the distasteful remarks (that are sometimes given when mentioning America) they received questions about California. Many of the students were given questions of: Do you live on the beach? Do you surf? They view Californians as tan, in shape, very superficial and care about what they look like.

I found this discussion group very interesting. Having experience with studying abroad and being able to listen to how other people’s experiences were was very intriguing to me. I think it was great that the Associated Students held a discussion group like this. It not only was enjoyable to hear, but it also gave us a different view point on how other cultures picture America.