*Note: I have lived in Spain and Slovakia, and am currently living and working in Poland, hence the particular references to Europe and Europeans as a whole.
Firstly, here are some myths Americans have about themselves and where they travel:
Americans are always approved to receive their study or work papers. False.
It is most certainly true that Americans do not usually need to jump through so many hoops to live abroad as do people seeking to come to the USA, nor do we usually have to put our names on a waiting list. It's practically unheard of. But let there be no mistake, the possibility of rejection is always there. Having an official US passport is a privilege most Americans take for granted, and there's nothing like feeling the mounting anxiety of possible rejection and expulsion from another country to appreciate what it feels like to be anyone else trying to live legally within US borders.
Everyone (Europeans) hates Americans. False.
(Since my own personal experiences are within the European context, I will leave my observations as such). In reality people are curious about our experiences at home and what it is like for us to be living outside the country. Some people can be a bit suspicious or in disagreement with American behavior and politics, but most people find interacting with Americans to be a good experience. In addition, these encounters hold uncounted benefits for Americans to share our real life stories, to talk about our experience being raised in such a culture, what we like and don't like, what changes we'd like to see and what traditions we'd like to preserve. In these moments we can change how others view us. Likewise we can work to break down our own stereotypes by asking, honestly but respectfully, about the other person's own life.
That said, I must note that while people usually don't hate us, it doesn't mean that they are naturally accepting of all foreigners. Europe has a much longer history than that of the US; there are wars, civilizations that rose and fell, traditions and beliefs that were born and still live on which span back for centuries. This shared history of any particular group is what is called the collective narrative. Things which happened centuries ago still define the relationships between whichever groups were involved in that particular occurrence years ago. And just because traveling abroad for a European is not so complicated, does not mean they do. Some don't have the money for it, some are afraid, and some simply have too little interest.
Europeans are the most open-minded people you will ever meet. False.
This myth piggybacks on the myth that Europeans hate Americans because, as I was describing, not everyone is so hateful....to we Americans, but they can be to others. Just ask the Roma/Gypsies, ask the Arabs, ask the people of post-communist countries; there's still a lot of prejudice, a lot of bias, a lot of stubbornness and a lot of poor communication going on on both sides. Many Europeans do believe strongly in progress for their people, the problem is that there tends to be a specific description of who belongs to that group.
This statement may come across as surprising or strange to Americans with little European travel experience, but it is true. As Americans we tend to idealize the European lifestyle. We love their fashion styles, their health care systems, their geographical proximity to other cultural and linguistic communities, and the metaphorical gateway to the Old World from which many of our ancestors descended. There is so much potential and so much culture in which we fantasize linking our current identity with the past. Yet my previous statement is also true. Beauty and bias coexist here in a very real and not so subtle way.
Americans don't need to know other languages in order to travel; everyone else knows English. Depends, but mostly false.
The likelihood of interacting with others in English depends greatly on that city's level of tourist attraction. Notice I say city, not country. While some countries do place English language learning as a high priority in their education curriculum, it is not true for every country. Truthfully though, and I'm about to contradict myself, Europeans who are on vacation to another country and know any level of English or German, will typically attempt English or German with the locals because using English or German as a medium of communication is easier than trying to use a language of which they know nothing or very little. But the expectation is that if you're going to live there, you need to learn the language, no exceptions.
Also, even though you can find others who speak English never think that it's okay to approach just anyone, blab something in English, and then assume they'll understand you. Yes, this means you need to pick up a dictionary and learn some words and phrases. From the day you're born until they day you die your education is continuous. When you travel you just have to try extra hard, but the connections you make will bring you meaning for a lifetime.
On a side note: If someone has or is learning English, it very often tends to be of the British English variety, accents included.
American culture is everyone else's bread and butter. False.
We're more like a topping or extra sauce. A sort of guilty pleasure. The typical person may watch some of our more popular TV series (with subtitles or voice-overs) or fall in love with some American musicians, and we certainly show up in their news, but we're not a staple for the average person's daily life. Don't let yourself be fooled by the amount of American flags or English words you find splashed onto peoples' clothing as it is completely irrelevant to their knowledge of English language or American culture. They just think it looks cool. (I've seen more American flags here in Europe in the past year than I ever have in a single year in the US, not counting the Fourth of July).
To conclude I would like to draw out some important lessons to be learned from these myths and their realities.
What do these myths have to do with what I'm about to tell you? These myths enshroud the American mind in a comfortable lie. It tells us that we can go wherever we want, that we're not the ones with misconceived perceptions, but rather the others that don't understand us. It tells us that because of our nationality we will be simultaneously babied and ripped off.
How about I tell you, no. The world is more complicated than it seems, so don't let your nationality flatten you into a cookie cutter American.
As Americans, let's stop fantasizing about our place in the world. Political power can be obtained and it can be lost, but whether or not it is present as we travel, it should not define what types of travelers and human beings we are to others. Our nationality may protect us, sometimes even target us, but it can never defend us from our own choices.
Not only do we need to learn and to understand this to be good travelers, we need to keep this close to the chest in order to be better US citizens. The United States of America is a kaleidoscope of nationalities and races, and there are plenty of New Americans who need you (long-standing, privileged citizens) to understand what it means to be, be treated, and to feel foreign in a new place. Our nation cannot improve without hitting home the fact that we are a nation of people who carry with them immensely diverse sets of collective narratives, therefore different lenses through which we each understand the present.
Yet it will be the American narrative which will give us a united future. This is the one that says,
Give me your tired, your poor,Today a foreigner, tomorrow an American, and to be an American is to be whoever you are today. The only commonality which we must share in order to be successful is to truly believe that every person we meet deserves a healthy, safe life and the equal opportunity to chase their dreams. No one, no border-crosser, no refugee, no non-Christian, no person of color, no woman, no non-native English speaker, no LGBT person, no impoverished person, no trafficked person should ever feel or be treated as a second class citizen within American borders. All these people and more come to the United States in search of that which they could not achieve in their native country, and very often, though not always, that includes their own basic rights as humans.
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
~Emma Lazarus
This is why Americans need to travel more and to travel conscientiously. We need it to learn discomfort. We need it so we can look someone else in the eye and try to say something in their language. We need it so that their favorite music becomes our favorite music. We need it so that we can ask the hard questions and to be asked the hard questions. We need it so that we will never again take the comfort of home for granted. We need it so that when the trip is over and we come back home, we can look at a new comer in the eye and say, "I know something of what you're going through", and welcome them.
This blog entry has been inspired by the time I spent this past weekend swapping stories with a friend here in Poland and by this TED talk done by Chirmamanda Ngozi Adichie on "The Danger of a Single Story". Please watch:
http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
Krystal
