All Americans Eat With Forks

The title of this particular blog may sound absolutely ludicrous, but I suppose in essence that is the point.  My flat mates and I sat down this evening and began discussing the world.  Considering it was Americans from two different states and a Hungarian, we could have a fairly decent variety in our conversation.

If I were to attempt to recreate this conversation, it would take pages and pages and pages, and it would still maybe not even convey the intensity and passion in the actual conversation itself.  What it got down to (one part of it at least, to briefly explain) was culture.  The questions arose of how can we say that some other culture is less superior to ours, who are we to judge?  How can you explain and has bias for or against another culture if you 1. do not know people from there 2. do not know the history of the country 3. do not know/understand the language 4. do not know/understand the culture, etc etc?

One of the most difficult questions I get here is "Well do Americans do (insert some phrase here)?"  And all I can do is sit and think, "I am one person in a country of 350 million...how can I answer for all Americans?"  It would be as crazy as asking, for example, if all Americans eat with forks.  Well, some do, some may use sporks, or chopsticks, or fingers , etc etc.  There is no way for us to answer for what "Americans" do.  Just like in every country, there are people of all backgrounds.

When our van broke down today, instead of waiting or trying to help in anyway, two of the guys (from the US) immediately very rudely said it wasn't their problem that the 12 of us were stranded and needed help figuring out what to do, and jumped out and did an 'each man for himself' escapade.   It was shocking today to hear a friend tell me after the event, "They are the reason that I don't like Americans.  They are the stereotype of how I feel Americans are.  They are always doing things for themselves, not trying to help out the group".  As terrible as that statement sounds, it was jaw dropping to hear it, and think "Wow, we as international students are ambassadors of types to our own countries.  Everything we say or do shapes the perspectives of how people view our country as a whole."

If you only meet 5 people from a certain country, you tend to shape your bias around your personal experiences.  If you have a negative experience, you are more likely to think negatively of the group as a whole, and vis versa.  If I were from another country, and had the experience with only the US guys in our van this afternoon, I would be wondering what people were like.  Is it fair to judge all Americans just because you happened to just meet the two guys who are very rude?  Of course not.  But does it happen in circumstances like this all the time? Definitely.  (BTW I reminded my friend that he knew several of us Americans who he really likes, so that's not very fair to us haha)

I am very fortunate to be living with very open minded people who can have discussions about different aspects of culture and want to go out and meet people and have a better understanding of the world as a whole.  But how many people actually sit down and discuss these sorts of things? Or maybe it is just a crazy thing that happens at 1 AM that people just begin to talk more about the world? I'm not sure.

I guess the question for today is, what are you saying and doing? And do you realize what a large impact it is actually having?