Assignment #2

Describe the perceptions of the U.S. in your host country. Are there a range of perceptions or are they general? Are they what you expected? Do host-nationals ask you about the U.S.? What do they ask? What creates these perceptions?

Perceptions of the United States have varied, but are, for the most part, negative. I have heard a range of perspectives ranging from personal (i.e. fat, lazy stupid, etc), to broad (i.e. excessive, power-hungry, don't know geography). I feel like there is a certain international expectation for Americans, and many South Africans uphold these expectations while having very few interactions with Americans. However, in their defense, many of the people who have had experiences with Americans did find them to be extremely stupid. Perhaps we're just letting the wrong people travel. Many people have also admitted that there is an array of Americans who go abroad, it seems like the two extremes are the most obvious: the extremely stupid and the well-educated. They expect more from American abroad students than they do from Americans they've met, for example, traveling around Europe.

I have talked to a handful of students here, both from Zimbabwe and South Africa, who have traveled to the United States. Another interesting point here is that many of them traveled to the American South. There experiences there were always pleasant, they said, and everyone was generous and hospitable (Southern Hospitality lives up to its reputation, I suppose). Few of them had travelled very far north, which I was disappointed to learn, because I would like for people to grasp just how huge our country is and just how many different types of people live in America. I think that would help to break down developed stereotypes.

What I found most interesting regarding South African's perceptions of the United States is that they are avid consumers of our popular culture; the movies and tv shows they watch and the music they play in clubs are, for the most part, American. I don't know if this is just a result of globalization and capitalism, or if it is because there is a genuine interest and market for American media. Whatever the reason: people here love Black-Eyed Pea's "Good Night", How I Met Your Mother, Dexter, and Friends.

One girl who I've become rather close to in my time here, Lara, has finally admitted that I have changed her mind about Americans. She had said that America was "too excessive" and she could never live there. After spending time with me and a few of my other American friends she has come to the conclusion that she really should visit the United States, and most of us aren't the way that our media would present us to be. Most of us aren't sluts, we're not fat, or stupid, or anti-Islam, impulsive, excessive...whatever. She has found that we are really just the same as she is, with a different upbringing and perhaps a slightly altered worldview. But there is nothing wrong with that. I'm glad that we were able to change her perspective about Americans, and hopefully she will go on to defend us if other South Africans feel the need to America-bash.