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5
March
2003
How Do
We Seek
to Define
One Another?
"Excuse me, Alex," the young man said. "I don't want to be ignorant, but is Germany a democracy?" I didn't know what to say. Was he serious? Should I laugh or should I just answer?
We — let us say his name was George — were eating together, hamburgers and French fries and a cola. It was my first day in Arkansas and my first real American lunch. I hope you don't think it was the first time I've ever eaten hamburgers and French fries. Of course we have these plebian staples in Germany. It was my first taste of junk food in the States, something special for me.
T H E F R I E N D L Y A M E R I C A N .
Let me tell you a bit more about this fellow named George, one of the first students I met on campus. He was very interested in my studies, in my country, and my experience before arriving in Arkansas. All in all, George was very friendly. By the way, friendliness is one of the most common stereotypical images Europeans have about Americans. I was glad to meet George. I told him that I'm an exchange student and he wanted to know if this was my first trip to the USA. "No," I answered. "I've been here before, but never for very long, never for nearly half a year like now."
For God's sake, I wondered, why did he ask me if Germany was a democracy? The western part of Germany has been a democracy since 1949. In 1990 the former communist East unified with the West to expand German democracy. "Yes, Germany is a democracy," I replied without laughing. All the same, I was shocked and confused. Did an American university student really not know that Germany is a democracy?
Many Europeans, not only Germans, think that Americans conform to another stereotype. They think Americans are ignorant about the rest of the whole wide world. I don't believe this — although Germany is a democracy, George!
T H E I G N O R A N T A M E R I C A N .
Let me turn this story somehow upside down. Do Europeans have the right to call Americans ignorant? Of course not. What do Europeans know about the USA? They might be aware of the fact that the USA is a democracy and that there is something called the Declaration of Independence. That's just about it, however. Ask the average European about the Civil War, and he certainly has to admit his ignorance of the matter.
By using adjectives like "friendly" and "ignorant," we do not deepen our knowledge of one another. Rather, we just perpetuate stereotypes. Surely stereotypes are true, but they are also false. The problem of stereotypical thinking is that it reveals what one wants to see, and little more: ignorance, friendliness, or nothing, George! Germans are not any less, not any more ignorant or friendly than Americans.
Finally, I want to share another interesting anecdote. When I was leaving Berlin and flying towards Arkansas, another German student took the same flight to our first stop in London. He was traveling to Los Angeles. I told him that I am going to stay for six months in Arkansas. "Ah, Arkansas," he repeated, "it is in the North, right?"
Mr. Kranz can be reached by E-mail
at alexanderpaetow@web.de
*This is the first step toward THE One World Language.
Step Back: Balderdash and bombast in a binomial!
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