[OT] Americans I need your aid !

[reutbing0]

I am a Dutch student (American Studies) and for an assignment I’ll need the help of a few people from the USA. The assignment consists of 3 rounds of shorts sets of questions, which shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes each to answer. Unfortunately I don’t know when or what the next round will be, that all depends on the teacher. If you would like to participate please send me an e-mail at j.reutelingsperger@student.kun.nl. Thank you in advance !

FYI the first set is:

Please complete the following statements
1. Americans are...
2. They like...
3. They don´t really...
4. Most Americans feel...
5. They act...
6. Most Americans believe in...
7. The United States is a country where...
8. The average American is...
9. Americans today are worried about...
10 The most important thing in life to most Americans is...

PS: Please don’t answer the questions on the boards, I don’t know if the mods would be too happy with that.

 

[Umbran]

Hrr. This looks suspiciously like an academic study in (or of) stereotyping and over-generalizations. I honestly don't think those question have particularly valid answers.

 

[Kibo]

An interesting survey really....

Not on its described level mind you. But really something like this isn't a survey of americans, its an internet survey, and an odd one. Enworld is a fairly cosmopolitin local, I suppose, a little too polite perhaps at times....

In the end something like this will tell a lot less about americans than it will say about peoples respect (or what I expect would be a lack there of) for the truth, the ability of others to distinguish the truth from ammusing fabrication, and the how seriously people take little fluffy assignments like this.

Between you and me, your teacher should be beaten with a stick, for wasting your time while they search to perfect their new flavor of lazy. But I suppose if it got a prominent possition, on a really busy site, the results would almost certainly be ammusing.

If you really want some interesting responses, may I suggest posting this same request to these guys? If you can't make the assignment worthwhile, why not make it entertaining, no?

 

[Xeriar]

If this really is a sincere questionaire, replace 'Americans' with 'Europeans' to see just how much sense it makes.

The United States is just that - a collection of independant governmental bodies joined together for the purpose of common defense and trade. We're called 'Americans' because 'USian' is annoying and no one outside the US cares to take the time to call me a 'Minnesotan' for example.

Not that I blame them, that's just how it is. I'm a resident of Minnesota, which is party to the United States of America, which is represented singularly in the United Nations.

As for culture though, I am a part of Minnesota's geek-culture, there is no overarching American culture per se, just as there is no overarching European culture.

 

[reutbing0]

Hrr. This looks suspiciously like an academic study in (or of) stereotyping and over-generalizations. I honestly don't think those question have particularly valid answers.

Well this is an assignment that I´m obliged to do and these are the questions that I have to ask. Personally I would make the questions less general. To put your mind at ease though, the purpose isn´t stereotyping and over-generalizing. The purpose is to show that even though there are a number of recurring themes and idea that pervade American society, there are as many different views of America as there are Americans.

 

[reutbing0]

Between you and me, your teacher should be beaten with a stick, for wasting your time while they search to perfect their new flavor of lazy. But I suppose if it got a prominent possition, on a really busy site, the results would almost certainly be ammusing.

She probably should be beaten with a stick ! I mean she teaches 'Listening & Speaking' and has absolutely no experience in Social Sciences. That said I still want to pass the course and preferably with an A .

 

[Roland Delacroix]

If this really is a sincere questionaire, replace 'Americans' with 'Europeans' to see just how much sense it makes.

The United States is just that - a collection of independant governmental bodies joined together for the purpose of common defense and trade. We're called 'Americans' because 'USian' is annoying and no one outside the US cares to take the time to call me a 'Minnesotan' for example.

Not that I blame them, that's just how it is. I'm a resident of Minnesota, which is party to the United States of America, which is represented singularly in the United Nations.

As for culture though, I am a part of Minnesota's geek-culture, there is no overarching American culture per se, just as there is no overarching European culture.

I have to agree with that. I'm an American, but theres still quite a few differences between us all. We consider ourselves 'overeating-cold-weather-loving-fast-driving-culture-rich-city-going-ethnic-conservatives' but we go by the moniker 'Illinoians'. Swap 'city-going' for 'farm-working' as you get away from chicago and 'conservative' for 'liberal' as you get closer to chicago and thats a pretty decent summary.

Every state really has their own culture. Maybe you have to be an American to be able to differentiate between a New Yorker, Californian, Texan, Illinoisan, etc but I dont think so. Even when I was living on the East Coast you would think such small states as New Jersey, NY, Delaware, Rhode Island, would kind of culturally blend. In fact it was just the opposite, each state had a very individual culture.

As a college student I can sympathize though, so i'll take yer survey.

 

[Buttercup]

My first reaction was, "I'll email him right away. I'd be happy to help!" But then I read the questions. I'm sorry, but the questions are stupid and unanswerable. I want to help you, but I can't until your teacher gives you a reasonable assignment! If you get some real questions, send me a PM and I'll happily contribute.

 

[Tsyr]

I'm more or less with Buttercup on this one... I've not objection to helping out, but those questions... Most of them aren't answerable in the first place, the ones that I _COULD_ answer would either make me sound stupid or incriminate America as a whole.

 

[Ashtal]

Going with the notion that this is a legit assignment, keeping the questions vague is, I think, an attempt to get the respondent to think about it, and come up with whatever springs to their mind - and thereby indicating patterns and indicating something about themselves.

Take the quetion, "They aren't really ..." This could be answered in many ways, and that's the point. The way you answer will be important to you and your worldview. It could be spun into a comment about American views of the International Community, about whether they eat a particular food, about their education system, or that they really aren't that different from people around the world.

The answers will speak to two things:
1) What the respondent thinks of America, and
2) If there are any patterns there, and of what kind.

The questions are very answerable, IMO. They will just be highly personal. I don't think the point is to see what the general consensus would be, because their won't be. It's to demonstrate the variety in world view among people from a very large and diverse nation and to maybe demonstrate that it's not the single form of begrudged and often degraded caricature that is present in world media and thought.