Study Abroad Advisor

Images of America

Predeparture Preparation for Study Abroad

By Catherine Spaeth

Ideally, in their course work and on their own students prepare themselves for study abroad by learning about the culture, history, customs, and language of the country to which they are headed. Before sending students abroad, colleges usually arm their students with information on culture shock, adjustment, intercultural communication, health issues, ways to remain open-minded, etc. Yet an important component is usually missing in current campus study abroad preparations.

Our students also need be aware of what people in other cultures think about the U.S. and its citizens. It is important to be aware of historical perceptions of U.S. culture around the world, since the perceptions of others will greatly affect students’ experiences and relationships.

We Are “Exceptional”

Many foreign commentators describe the U.S. with images that have more to do with Crèvecoeur’s “new man” and John Winthrop’s “city on a hill” than with the multicultural U.S. of the 1990s. America to many remains a model--a model of the future (to reject or to emulate), of democracy, of capitalism, of entrepreneurship, and of a liberal society.

Since “exceptionalism” has a long and important history outside this country, it is a view that students should be prepared to encounter. We are frequently thought of as a country lacking a sense of history, an empty continent waiting to be inscribed with an individual’s or group’s dreams and hopes, and a superficial society. In short, for others “America” is not only a political or military presence, it is a mythical place. American students need to understand the basis for these mythic perceptions and the often unrealistic and uninformed criticism or praise of the U.S. which follows from them.

American Omnipresence

In addition to studying how others see us, U.S. students also need to be prepared for the omnipresence of various facets of U.S. culture, politics, and economics they will find overseas. They need to become more knowledgeable about U.S. foreign policy, the impact of U.S.-based multinational corporations, the pervasiveness of our popular culture and of our industrial products and services. Knowing, for example, what part American television and Hollywood films play in various countries will enable students abroad to understand more fully host nationals’ reactions and responses to them as individuals and to American culture and society as a whole.

Finally, it is important to discuss with students before they depart how images affect perceptions of reality. For example, how does the stereotype of the loud, impatient American tourist affect the experience of a U.S. citizen living and working in Paris? Sizing up a cultural situation often involves a reliance on images rather than a rational analysis of current evidence. The goal of predeparture attention to these questions is to study their origins and effects.

Since most college-age students want to fit in and try to leave at least some of their “Americanness” behind, presenting them with some common images of U.S. culture and life-style and inviting them to discuss the origins, connotations, and accuracy of foreign perceptions should get them thinking about their own place in U.S. culture and in the non-U.S. world.

International students and study abroad returnees can be key participants in these discussions. Returnees will verify that they were often type-cast as “Americans.” They are also usually eager to analyze their own misperceptions of foreigners. International students can speak about the origins of the images and perceptions they brought to the U.S. and how these compared to what they found.

How the World Sees Us

Useful resources for incorporating images and realities of the U.S. presence around the world into predeparture orientations:

American Studies International, a scholarly journal devoted to international perspectives on American Studies and U.S. culture carries articles written by foreign scholars. America: The View from Europe, J. Martin Evans, San Francisco Book Company, Inc., 1976. Anti-Americanism in Europe, Rob Kroes, ed, Amsterdam: Free Univ. Press, 1986. Cultural Transmissions and Receptions: American Mass Culture in Europe, Edmundo O’Gorman, Amsterdam: VU Univ. Press, 1993. The Invention of America, C. W. Bigsby, Indiana Univ. Press, 1961. Superculture: American Popular Culture and Europe, Allen F. Davis, Bowling Green Univ., 1975. For Better or Worse: The American Influence in the World, Donald W. White, Greenwood Press, 1981. The American Century: The Rise and Decline of the United States as a World Power, L. Robert Kohls, Yale Univ. Press, 1996. Developing Intercultural Awareness: A Cross-Cultural Training Handbook, L. Robert Kohls and John M. Knight, Intercultural Press, 2nd ed., 1994. The Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research, Washington, DC.

CATHERINE SPAETH holds a Ph.D. in American Studies and is currently Faculty Advisor to the 1998 SPAN Study Abroad program to France. She lives in St. Paul, MN.