Why Foreigners' Impressions of Americans are Often Somewhat Correct

Hello again.

While I sit in this agonizing torture pit they call Spanish class, with people who remember not even the simplest vocabulary, talk constantly, and pay absolutely no attention, I have decided that I will do something that I actually enjoy, instead of listening to all the other people butcher a beautiful language.

So, let's get to today's topic so I can block out these obnoxiously American people and spare my aching ears. The topic is: why foreign people's impression of Americans is often correct.

Impression 1: Americans are overweight. That's true, for some. America is currently battling obesity, and fast-food chains like McDonalds and Burger King aren't helping. But it's not just the restaurants. A burger once in a while certainly won't kill you, and it probably won't make you fat. On the other end, there are those people who don't eat healthily - they practically starve themselves. It's ALL about cutting fats, cutting calories, "lite" foods, "diet" foods. Many of said foods are the most artificial things on the market, like ones with fake sweeteners that aren't sugar, so they can claim "no sugar". We're really a mixed bunch, and almost nobody has gotten the whole "healthy diet" thing right.

Impression 2: Americans care too much about their appearance and spend too much on it. That's also true, this time for most Americans. When was the last time you wore makeup? Put on jewelry? Thought about what other people would think about you if you wore that kind of clothing? Got a piercing? News flash: the rest of the world cares about their appearance too, but a lot of other people do it to feel good about themselves, or because their style is a tradition, not to impress other people. Women: did you feel like you got pressured into getting earrings? Buying certain brands? Everyone else has that feeling, too, but many cultures don't "overdo" it as much as Americans. They look at us and think we're nuts. And don't get me started on unnecessary plastic surgery.

That's all for now. I'll resume my semi-rant next time. Your eyes are probably exploding by now.
- Lazy Girl

The Thing about Some People who are Supposedly Intelligent

Hi everyone,

Sorry it took so long for me to post again. My brain works so slowly sometimes that by the time I had another blog post in mind, two months had gone by. Okay, almost two months. Blah, blah, blah. Time to get to the point of this post, which is....(insert drumroll here) the thing about some really smart people. So: a family member told me about a TV news special that she had seen, and she thought that it was interesting. Normally I would just roll my eyes and go on with my day, but she insisted on telling me about the news thing that she had seen, and despite my best intentions I got interested.

This guy did a study about "stranger danger" (which, by the way, is an incredibly stupid name for something that is actually very serious), in which he stood near a black utility van outside a college with a large video camera on his shoulder, the kind that TV crews use. He asked eight students, at different times of day, who came near if they wanted to be on a reality TV show. Keep in mind, he had no credentials, nothing. Just this video camera and what he said. All of the students said yes. Then he asked them to fill out some paperwork that asked for highly sensitive information - and we're not talking, "have you ever done underage drinking?" We're talking Social Security number, address, phone number, etc. Then, to top it all off, he asked them if they wanted to sit in the van to fill out the paperwork. Warning bells went off in the heads of four of the students, and they immediately walked away. The other four stayed, sat down, and filled out the paperwork.

Wait, what? The college that he was outside of was a good one, relatively hard to get into. The students were supposed to be pretty smart. But here's the thing about some very intelligent people: while they may have gotten an A on every test in high school because they're book-smart, they have no common sense at all. Thankfully, this man wasn't really trying to kidnap them, but he could have if he wanted to. The number of kidnappings of 13-25 year olds has spiked dramatically in the past year. Maybe the problem is just a simple matter of teaching our children not quite enough about being savvy concerning people they don't know well or at all.

- Lazy Girl