Hello, everyone!
Thank you so much for your help. Your sincere answers
contributed a lot to the success of my workshop
"Prejudices as a Barrier to Intercultural
Communication".
The target audience was University teachers from all
parts of Ukraine as well as professors from the US and
Moldova (NIS/the former Soviet Union). All of them
were eager to share their knowledge and experience and
mentioned the importance of such cross-cultural
sessions.
QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS
Question 1. What negative stereotypes/prejudices about
people from the US have you heard?
- aggressive
- pushy
- overbearing
- loud/noisy
- brash
- arrogant
- speak "awful" American accent
- love consumers' culture
- hypocritical
- violence-prone
- too self-assured
- eat only fast food
- fat
- untidy/messy
- insensitive to other cultures
- don't know about or not interested in the world
outside the US
- have no "culture"
- very superficial/shallow
- materialistic
- competitive/too ambitious
- seem highbrow
- future or present oriented, disregard the past
- very individualistic/self-centered
- selfish
- career-possessed/business oriented
- obsessed with money
- not keen on sparing money
- think they are the best/superior
- very direct, too open in expressing their opinions
- believe that everybody in the world should know
their language
- too patriotic
- pragmatic
- not romantic
- too independent
- women are obsessed with being feminists
- not generous/stingy
- rude/ill-bred
- don't care about other people's feelings
- don't help their children
- always smile, don't show their real feelings
- don't want to share their knowledge and experience
- they should be always and everywhere welcome and
cared for
- fast to start sexual relationships
The Americans mentioned about themselves:
· fat
· ugly
· loud
· impolite
· impatient
· pushy/rude
· bossy
· ignorant (of world events)
· don't understand irony/ have a sense of humor
· arrogant
· rich
· spend too much money
· racially bigoted
· language-impaired
· self-centered
· overly individualistic
· don't work vary hard
· not on time for any thing
Question 2. Where do these negative ideas come from?
- television, other media
- watching US politics and politicians
- personal experience (experiences people made first
hand with certain individuals)
- either from people who had visited the States or met
too many American tourists
- from people who have never been there, who haven't
even read a book by an American author but tend to
criticize the American society
- perceptions from people of other countries (the
British or other Europeans)
- movies
- books
- historical reasons
- propaganda, e.g. from the former political system
(socialism)
- popular culture (the problem with at once loving and
hating US-popular culture)
- US Constitution
- Ukrainian immigrants
- Americans themselves, e.g. Peace Corps Volunteers
- gossips/anecdotes
Question 3. Have any of your negative attitudes
changed since you came to the US/met Americans in your
country?
One third of people say they have no negative
attitudes towards Americans and judge each individual
by his or her behavior at the time they meet them.
Others answered:
· yes
· somewhat
· no
· too difficult to answer
· I only learned more about how people are different
regardless the country they are from.
Question 4. What country are you from?
I received answers from the UK (including England and
Scotland), Israel, Czechia, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Angola, the Netherlands, Australia, the USA, Moldova
and Ukraine.
Question 5. Have you ever been faced with negative
stereotypes? If yes, how have you responded?
a) with anger at the person
b) with anger at the stereotype
c) with a joke
d) with an explanation of why the stereotype is wrong
f) with silence
f) other
Most people say it depends on the situation:
- with an explanation of why the stereotype is wrong
- with a joke
- with laughter and a comment
- with silence
Some mentioned
- with anger at the stereotype
Very few people answered:
- never with silence
- with anger at the person
6. How can one get rid of negative stereotypes?
Most frequent answers were:
- to spend time with the target group: travel, meet
many people, study American society independently
- learn more about the target culture, by getting more
unprejudiced information
- cultural research, by drawing dimensions with
opposing adjectives at each end; by objectively
analyzing and studying the "other" culture; by
encountering different people and thinking the very
concept of "negativity"
- Teachers in schools, youth leaders and the churches
can do a lot to reduce prejudice among young people,
by explaining that people are different and every
person is unique.
- cross cultural sessions in schools/colleges
- schooling abroad
- use the Interment
- by facing some negative stereotypes about our own
culture
- organize international conferences, workshops,
seminars, summer schools; be involved in intercultural
communication, exchange programs, joint projects etc.
- ensure that media do not propagate negative
stereotypes (by legislation??)
Some people, however, were quite pessimistic:
- I don't know the answer. (I carried out a little
test on our exchange students. Their prejudices are
even stronger than when they arrived.)
- I'm not sure anyone can get rid of stereotypes -
just work towards showing why they are not right.
- Stereotypes change with time, though we cannot
easily change the opinions of older people.
Thank you again for taking the trouble to answer my
questions.
Best regards,
Olha Yashenkova
[log in to unmask]
Kyiv, Ukraine
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