A lot of you are probably busy studying for their
midterms right now (or some lucky people might have already finished them).
Either way, I think it is time for a more humorous post :) On Friday, we had
an English exam for which we also had to study the names and locations of the 50
American states. Last week I came across a survey in which Americans were asked
to fill in countries’ names on a blank European political map. Since I (like most Austrians) had to start
memorizing these countries in primary school, I found some of the responses
hilarious:
"affordable vacation"
Austria is as big as Germany!! Nice try...
However, to be fair, I have to show the other side of
the coin as well… because let’s face it – how many Europeans would succeed in
correctly locating all the American states? If I had not had to study them for
our recent exam, I would not have been able to do so. So let’s take a look at a
survey that tested the Brits' knowledge of US geography:
I hope all of you had a good laugh at one or the other
picture. However, I would like to finish this post by thinking about what the gaps
in the survey-takers’ knowledge actually tell us. They mirror part of our
economical and political reality. While most people, for example, were able to
identify powerful and geographically large countries like Germany or France,
only few could tell apart the former Soviet satellite states. On the other
hand, many British people could locate California or Florida correctly (states
that gained a lot of fame through movies) while the Midwest, or “flyover
country“ as it is called, remained a complete mystery to them. However, I do not
think the smaller countries are any less important.
Come to think of it, I bet neither a lot of Europeans,
nor Americans would succeed in identifying African states. Doesn’t it strike
you as odd that most high school graduates know the Pythagoras’ theorem by
heart but don’t know a lot about the location of countries on other continents?
I mean, those who have to deal with countries on other continents because of
their jobs or for personal reasons, will have to extend their geographical
knowledge sooner or later anyway. Still, I think it would not hurt to be a
little more attentive to what the world actually looks like ;)
Today, on
the 4th Thursday of November, Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving. To
Austrians, this is not a very well known holiday, so I decided to briefly tell
you about its history.
HISTORY
The first
Thanksgiving Day was celebrated in
1621. In 1620, the Pilgrims, a group of
people who had left England mainly for religious reasons, had come to America
on the Mayflower. Initially, they had
intended to sail to the Colony of Virginia, where they had already obtained permission
to settle. However, they were put off course and anchored in today’s Massachusetts.
There, they founded the Colony of Plymouth.
Unfortunately,
the Pilgrims did not have an easy start in this new land where they hoped to find freedom and a new, prosperous life. About half
of the settlers died within the first winter. The other half would probably
have died as well if it had not been for the local Native Americans, who gave
them food and taught them how to hunt, fish and grow food.
So let’s
fast forward to 1621. In honor of their fist successful harvest, the pilgrims invited
the Native Americans to share a meal. This meal probably consisted of birds,
seafood, fruits, grains and vegetables, but the key elements of todays
Thanksgiving Day meal (e.g. turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes) were missing.
After this
feast Thanksgiving was not celebrated for a long time. In 1777, after winning a
battle in the Revolutionary War, George Washington announced November 26th
a “holiday of sincere humble and thanks”. Especially the American Puritans liked this
idea of a holiday on which people give thanks to God for all kinds of
blessings. However, the date on which Thanksgiving Day was celebrated varied
from state to state.
In 1827
Sarah Josepha Hale (the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”) started a campaign,
promoting a nationwide Thanksgiving holiday. In 1863, in the midst of the Civil
War, President Abraham Lincoln realized the unifying potential of such a
holiday and declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday on the 4th
Thursday of November.
NOW
Parades
Nowadays,
Thanksgiving is an extremely popular holiday in the US. Some famous traditions
that have developed throughout the past centuries are the Thanksgiving Day
football games and the Thanksgiving Day parades. The most popular parade is
probably “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade" in New York City. It involves fleets
and giant balloons and is even broadcast on TV and radio.
Turkey Pardon
Another tradition I found particularly interesting is the Presidential Turkey Pardon.
President Kennedy was the first to keep a turkey he was given for Thanksgiving
Day, instead of having it cooked. President Bush senior officially started the
tradition of pardoning a turkey and sending it to a farm where it can live
happily ever after. Yesterday, president Obama pardoned the turkey Popcorn:
Family
Apart from
traditions and entertainment, Thanksgiving Day is most of all about FAMILY.
People reconnect with their loved ones and share a celebratory meal with them.
Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel holidays, since people drive home to
visit their families. The meal are enormous and consists of the staples roast
turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.
Saying "Thank You"
From my
point of view, the concept of Thanksgiving Day is great. I think we all have so
much to be thankful for and especially in today’s hectic world, we often forget
about this. We rush through our daily lives and keep complaining about the
stress, our problems and everything that goes wrong in our society. But since
today is Thanksgiving Day, I would say we should – to coin a phrase – count our
blessings.
In 2011
Austria was ranked 19th in the world for its Human Development
Index. Most people in Austria are wealthier than most people in the world. We
should be thankful for having a safe place to live, not having to worry about
how to provide food for the next day, having the freedom to travel and
basically do whatever we want to do. We have the chance to life our dreams, work for our goals and to actively pursue what makes us happy. We have access to good education, which is the first step
to a wealthy future life. We are healthy and have access to good healthcare. And what I am thankful for the most are the people I love. I am blessed to have met so many great people and I do not know what I would do without my family
and friends.
In my view, consciously
thinking of these blessings and giving thanks for our lives is what Thanksgiving Day is all
about. Or - as President Obama mentioned in his speech -
"We have more to be thankful for than we can ever say
and more to be hopeful for than we can ever imagine!"
Since American
Culture is a big part of my English course at university, I was encouraged to look
for “facts about America that foreigners find hard to believe” on this website:
I have
been to America in summer 2012 (I visited distant relatives in Michigan,
Chicago (IL), Las Vegas (NV) and Toronto and travelled along the West Coast). As a result, I decided to pick five points that were mentioned a lot on this website and that
I personally can relate to and summarize them for you.
1.CARS (nobody
walks)
People go
everywhere by car. This claim was made by many people who commented on the
website I mentioned before. Personally, I noticed too that many
people use their cars for long as well as really short distances and even to get to a nearby
gym (kind of ironic, don’t you think?).
However, what
amazed me even more, were drive-thru pharmacies and banks.
Concerning drive-thru banks, for example, I could not believe that people
actually drive to a pillar (often they cannot even see the teller but can be
watched by him through a camera), have their deposit slips or cheques sucked up
through a tube and get their money or receipt a few seconds later through the
same tube!
In this funny videoclip Nancy shows you how it's done:
2.INTEREST IN
GUNS AND MILITARY
People in the
US can buy guns without much of a background check. Many American citizens are
kind of obsessed with their guns and carry them around, because it makes them feel
safe. However, some people also don’t hesitate to use them and I think this is
where the big problem lies. Every now and then we hear stories about shootings
on the news. Recently, such events triggered some serious discussions
concerning the NRA (National Rifle Association), a nonprofit organization that
is based on the idea that firearm ownership is a civil right and concerning
owning firearms in general.
Also, what surprised me when I visited the US was the public interest in military. In
Austria, military personnel are not treated differently than anybody else, but
in the US they are. When I went to a baseball game, after playing the national
anthem all veterans and people who currently serve at the army were asked to
stand up and were given a flag as a sign of respect. Furthermore, I once
watched a TV show called “Stars Earn Stripes”, in which celebrities accompanied
real soldiers on a simulated fight, in order to show how dangerous and
exhausting the job as a soldier really is.
3.HUGE AMOUNTS OF
EVERYTHING
Everything is just bigger than in Austria
– the stores (e.g. Walmart), the sizes of products sold there (even the cereal
packages ;) ), the cars, the food portions served in restaurants,…
However, this is somehow understandable,
since the US is much bigger than Austria. AND I have to admit that usually
there are smaller sizes and amounts of things available as well, you just need
to know where to find them.
4.FRIENDLINESS
People are super friendly. No matter
where you are or what you are doing, you can be pretty sure you will interact
with at least one nice person a day (at least that was my impression).
Americans like to make small talk and usually their first question is “How are
you?”, followed by a welcoming smile. If, for example, you are wandering
through a city, having a lost expression on your face, there will almost
certainly be somebody who approaches you and offers to help you. Let’s face it
– how often does this happen in Austria?
5.DIVERSITY
One of the things that fascinate me the most about
the US (and Canada for that matter) is the diversity of cultures, climate,
landscape, people, beliefs, … basically everything.
I met a 70-year old man who loves to travel but has never been outside the US,
because he thinks that there is enough to see and experience in all the
different parts of the US. Even though I think every part of the world is worth
visiting, I am sure he will never get bored.
Having
talked about racism in the US in my culture presentation, I have obviously been
dealing with this topic a lot for the last few weeks. And just a few days ago I
came across a very heated discussion that is going on right now in the US -- a
discussion about the new advertisement of the cereal “Cheerios”, in which an
interracial family plays the main part.
Here you can see the advertisement:
The following link leads you to the ad and a short video about three people discussing the negative and racist reactions the commercial sparked on the Internet:
So all in
all it seems that there are much more people supporting the “Cheerios” ad and
interracial couples than criticizing them. What I found awesome was that amount
of positive and supportive responses “Cheerios“ received. I’d like you to watch
the following clip, which can be seen as a parody on the first one and is
definitely a slap in the face for intolerant people.
