This project is pretty truthful in my opinion. I've been to many countries all over the world thanks to my travels with the US Navy but in every new country I visit, the only thing I knew about the country were things I heard about through bias opinions or stereotypes. For example, I've been to Perth, Australia and all I knew about Aussies were they have a lot of koalas and kangaroos. I even purposely went out to eat a kangaroo steak but I enjoyed my time in Perth, one of the best places I have ever visited because they have a colonial looking city like Boston or Philadelphia but with a great beach like California.
My visits to Tokyo, Japan were bias because of all the ninja movies and anime I've watched. Now, I wish I could live there. It is my goal to find a overseas job in Japan because I've visited it so often that I am enamored with its culture and history and food (other than sushi and teriyaki). I've also heard many bad things about Thailand and it's sex industry. Yes, they do have a sex industry but it is not what defines them. If that's what defines Thailand, then Americans are nothing but scary gun owners (which isn't true). Thailand is known as "The Land of Smiles" and it is very true. Thai people are wonderful and modest and Thailand has great places to visit and sightsee. For me, it was breathtaking to visit Thailand.
All in all, Yanko hit on target about the stereotypes of all the countries including American views of themselves. The only way to overcome these stereotypes is to actually go out and get to know the people around the world in your neighborhood or school or better yet, go out and travel. If not, you'll just perpetuate the views of Americans by the rest of the world.
Whoa, good find. Did Alice see this yet?
ReplyDelete