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Most Infuriating Myth about your Country? | ||
Tags: Stereotypes | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| GuardianJY Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5685 days ago 74 posts - 72 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Italian, Swedish, French | Message 25 of 177 22 June 2009 at 1:53am | IP Logged | |||||
Those aren't true? My friend is from Texas, and she says it is, especially around the border areas and rural areas.
#2 does exist to a degree in certain areas of the states. This is probably due to my earlier post about the British stereotype of Americans. That is, Americans are lazy, obese, and dirty. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lindsay19 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5821 days ago 183 posts - 214 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC1 Studies: Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic | Message 27 of 177 22 June 2009 at 4:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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I only recently discovered that we Americans are apparently fairly loud and a bit "too" friendly. Here it's seen as quite normal to greet a stranger passing by with a smile or simple "Hello", "Good morning/afternoon/evening", etc - apparently elsewhere this is seen as strange, "fake", and even suspicious. We just see it as polite to agknowlege you, that's all!
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| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 28 of 177 22 June 2009 at 5:04am | IP Logged | |||||
It is creepy. Unless that person seems to be genuinely cheerful and like something really good has just happened to him/her. And even then that person comes across as childish. :D Also, the American way of smiling is creepy. There also is the myth that Americans don't know anything about the rest of the world. Somebody once told me this urban myth that a friend of his friend (German) went to the US and was asked by his host family "Was a long drive, was't it?" Edited by Bao on 22 June 2009 at 5:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 29 of 177 22 June 2009 at 10:19am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, I've heard those stories. It's the school's fault. The education is very one-sided. I didn't take world geography until I was in college. It's embarassing. In school we learned 50 states, their capitals various social, historical, geophysical, economical facts about each region... and the only way Americans can know anything about the rest of the world is if they educate themselves privately. Also I never thought how smiling could be creepy, but I agree, I went to the US on vacation after living here and it is a bit annoying for a complete stranger to be standing next to you at the cash register blabbing about their health problems. On one hand the hospitality is refreshing, but it can be täuschend/misleading
(lol) Your friend is making a broad reference to our good old conformism. Truthfully you have to remember that Texas is a state that's twice as large as Germany (268,820 square miles according to Wiki). From Dallas Fort Worth (that's not even considered the utmost northern part of the state) it's 8 hours to the coast. It takes forever to get across the state so it's incredible to imagine all those people wearing the same crazy outfit. We don't all dress like John Travolta in "Urban Cowboy". Texas' cities are huge metropolitan areas and what people wear in Austin is not what they wear in Dallas. The fasion is different from one region to the next. What about the demographics? Texas has a growing Asian population. You think they'd be caught dead in a ten gallon hat? Tejanos in El Paso (it doesn't get more "on the border" than that) don't dress like some obnoxious rodeo hero, either. Edited by Sunja on 22 June 2009 at 10:20am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 30 of 177 22 June 2009 at 10:51am | IP Logged | |||||
I think that was the way it used to be in Germany, too. When I first got here I always greeted elderly people with a respectfully polite "Guten Tag/Guten Morgen/Guten Abend". I kept getting confused looks. They acted as if they'd been rudely awakened or at least torn from their routine. I'm sure they were desperately trying to remember if they'd met me somewhere before and had forgotten about it. Some would ask, "do I know you?". Now I just look straight ahead, no smiling, no politeness and that seems to work better ;) Edited by Sunja on 22 June 2009 at 10:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| anytram Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie France Joined 5669 days ago 85 posts - 89 votes Speaks: German*, Polish*, French, English Studies: Japanese | Message 31 of 177 22 June 2009 at 11:05am | IP Logged | |||||
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Personally I keep the greeting to people I might not know, but which I cross regularly since they live in my neighbourhood or any other place one crosses each other regularly. (University, work, ...) If however someone makes eye-contact with me, I always smile and sometimes nod to acknowledge them. It's personal philosophy, there're enough grumpy looking people all over the world, right? On the other hand, being female it may attract people too much and when I'm greeted by "strange looking" guys (going with the cliché here) I do ignore most of the time, not wanting myself to get in a mess. (As in girl, small and not too self-confident when it comes to fighting someone. ;P)
Just by smiling at someone the person might keep you bugging for a phone number or what not and when you refuse and this keeps going on it is scary. As far as I've experienced, Germans are more distant when comparing with Polish or French people. (I feel anyway that French and Polish are more close than any of those with Germany.) On the other hand, the "European" thinking and mixing does have some effect... Whew, I'm getting off-topic here. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 32 of 177 22 June 2009 at 11:07am | IP Logged | |||||
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Sunja, if there are many people, I look straight ahead and ignore everyone else. (Unless I feel mean, then I greet strangers friendly to confuse them :D)
If there's only one other person or a couple, I usually make eye-contact at maybe around 7 metres distance. Then I usually give a tiny nod to acknowledge the other person, get a nod back and stare straight ahead. Depending on the opposite person and the time of day, I might also greet, but only after, how to say? After a rapport has been established that we indeed are strangers to each other. And it's not a loud greeting, more like ... nodding including my vocal chords. (= Oh, whatever, almost every thread here changes topics anyways. Scary smile. Not American but scary. Edited by Bao on 22 June 2009 at 11:10am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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