Stereotypes and conversations you don't get at home

Mary Beth

In mid-March a colleague from the States was in Amsterdam briefly, so I met up with Mary Beth Oliver and her husband, professors from Penn State, who have been on sabbatical in Germany this semester. Patti Valkenburg joined us, as did Tilo Hartmann. Tilo is a colleague from the VU University in Amsterdam, and he and I got to get to know each other a little better, which was quite enjoyable. Allison Eden, VU faculty member and MSU alum (who I'd visited in February) and her husband Jason joined us also. 

Allison and Tilo

Mary Beth told us about a discussion she'd led, in a course she taught in Mannheim, in which they discussed their stereotypes of one another: Germans' stereotypes of Americans, and American stereotypes of Germans. Mary Beth said everyone found it to be a very revealing and fascinating discussion. The kind you would not get outside of an intercultural encounter such as theirs.

I was fascinated by her observations. I initiated a similar discussion the next week in my course at the University of Amsterdam. I found out that I had confirmed two out of four stereotypes about Americans that my students harbored. First, they pointed out immediately that I had come to class most weeks carrying a extra large cup of coffee. I asked if they thought Americans always drink a lot of coffee, which surprised me since there seems to be more coffee consumption in the Netherlands than back home. They said, no, it wasn't the coffee, it was the huge cup. Americans like big things. Big cups, big cars, big houses, big everything. 

The evidence

The second perfect match I presented to them was that I was wearing trainers, that is, athletic shoes. I thought mine were somewhat stylish, but just the same, they are athletic shoes. I told them that it was not really an American thing as the big letter in on the side of my shoes was for Netherlands. That fooled few of them if any. 

I asked what else they thought was characteristic of Americans. They said I had violated one other stereotype: that Americans were stupid. That Americans had no idea what is happening in the rest of the world nor do they care, and that they are generally dumb. And fourth, that Americans are superficially and insincerely pleasant. I must either be sincerely pleasant, or superficially and insincerely unpleasant, but either way I appeared not to have reinforced their fourth expectation. I made a note to myself not to wish anybody a pleasant day. And to go back to my dress shoes next week.

They asked me what stereotypes I had about them. I said I had been told, mostly by Dutch people I knew, that the Dutch are very free with their opinions. That they can be very blunt in offering their evaluations, negative or positive. Everyone seems to agree that this is a characteristic of the Dutch. But I have not seen it myself, I said. Either I am so much like that that I do not notice it, or people have been deferential to me because I am a visitor and a professor. Or I haven't yet said terribly disagreeable yet, which could be a reflection of deference on my part. But that stereotype has not shown itself, I told them. 

With regard to Germans, I said I found a German train that did not run on time. I was scolded: That stereotype is long gone, I was told. It is not only not true, it is no longer even a stereotype. Apparently my stereotypes are stereotypes.

Shoarma

The other interesting conversation I've had involving stereotypes has been with my shoarma guy. You may have read about my cheese guys, and my meat guys, the socks guy, the nuts guy, etc. I have a shoarma guy, too. I visit him when I'm hungry late at night since his shop stays open. His food is good. I’ve probably been there five or six times. The first time I went in and spoke, he could tell from the way I speak (as can everyone) that I have an American accent. But without my large coffee cup and trainers, you can’t really be too sure. Just the same he asked, “where you from?” I toyed with him and said, from Germany. He smiled. “Good,” he said. “I like all European people. I hate Americans.” It was interesting that he would bait me this way, so I probed. You don’t love Americans, I asked? He said, do you love Hitler? Amazing how quickly he found a button to press. 

After a few moments he clarified: it's not American people, but the American government he hates. He is from Iraq. I waited to see if he would say anything else, but he didn't, as other customers came in. People would ask him, what's the difference between a big Shoarma and a small Shoarma, and he would answer earnestly, “big is big, small is small.” He has a sense of humor, and an opinion. I like people like that. He was busy the rest of the time I was there, and when I left I thanked him and said, “See you in Cincinnati.” To bait him. More about him next time.

I wore my brown leather shoes to the last day of class, and carried in a small cup of coffee. It was very much noticed. Someone asked, “Are you playing against type?” I didn’t expect to hear that expression. 

My students did really well in their end-of-term presentations of their research proposal papers, for the most part. I was surprised, not because of their abilities, but because our 8-week course had been so quick. Several of the proposals were quite do-able research projects, and some would make really nice contributions to knowledge if carried out. I hope they are some day. 

One student's proposal more or less co-opted some research I have conducted with Israeli colleagues on using online communication to reduce inter-ethnic prejudice and stereotypes. The student reviewed the theoretical issues we'd laid out in our articles, and some implementation decisions we'd derived from the theories. Aside from a change in focus to her homeland in Bosnia, I was waiting for a new idea to emerge in her proposal, and I was initially disappointed when not much did. But I've been thinking, for a masters student who knew little to nothing about these theories and methods before, to adapt these ideas and apply them to another nation and culture, is something to be rather proud of. She did a good job with it. I hope she tries it in Bosnia some day. I hope many of the students pursue these ideas some day. 

The students and teacher from Disclosure Processes in Virtual Teams and Online Relations