American Stereotypes

American Stereotypes

As we know, there are many stereotypes of different countries. They are generalized and simplified assumptions about a certain nationality, which are not always right, but they are used by the media, literature or general public opinion. Here are some well-known stereotypes about the citizens of the US:

Some negative stereotypes 👎:

1) Materialism

Some countries may think that Americans are focused on money and they judge many things by their economic values. It may be partially caused by the importance of some popular brands.

2) Obesity

Because of the popularity of fast food in the US, the problem of overweight seems to be a very common stereotype connected with the typical American cuisine.

3) Ignorance

Some people claim that Americans are not interested in other countries - they are focused on their nationality and they lack some basic knowledge and interest in the rest of the world.

4) Supernatural and paranormal

They are also considered as the ones who often believe in some paranormal phenomena like haunted houses, fortunetelling or the existence UFOs.

Some positive stereotypes 👍:

1) Generosity

Americans are known for supporting other countries and being involved in many forms of charity.

2) Optimism

Because of their generally positive approach to life, Americans may seem extremely optimistic - especially to the nationalities, which tend to complain and perceive everything in a negative way.

3) Hard-working

Americans are also perceived as hard-working people - no matter if we talk about their jobs or other spheres in life.

4) Volunteerism

Finally, the Americans are perceived as the people, who are happy to help others. Many of them take part in some charity and they willingly donate their time and money.

TASK 1.
1. What are the reasons for stereotypes? Think about it and discuss it with your friends. Are they always right?

TASK 2.
2. Think about some stereotypes of other countries. Which ones do you agree with?

The movie which fires women's imaginations

~Dirty Dancing~

''That was the summer of 1963, when everybody called me 'Baby' 

and it din't occur to me to mind.''

Baby (Jennifer Grey) is travelling with her family to Kellerman's resort. It appears to be a typical family holiday: boring dinners with family, silly activities.
While dancing, Baby's eyes are drawn to the professional dancer hired to entertain guests: Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze). He is dancing with penny Johnson who also happens to teach dancing in the resort. On the very same day, Baby helps one of the workers carry a watermelon to the emplyees' cabin. She wintesses some bumping and grinding. Not only is this is the moment where Baby's path crosses with Johnny's, but also the story takes off. 

This scene where Baby and Johnny are singing and dancing at the same time, was not supposed to be in the film. Actors were fooling around when the camera was on. The director did commend the scene, that he decided to place it in the film. 

She is like a wind song is performed by Patrick Swayze himself. He wrote it for his beloved wife. 

When in 1987, the film was shown to one of the greatest directors, he said: '' Burn the negative and pick your insurance.'' He thought that it was worthless.

Dirty Dancing is one of the most romantic films of all time.

Task: Watch the film and write a review (300 words). Do yout think that Dirty Dancing is a all time film or a total flop?

How it all started? Brief history of Google.

We all use Google that is the most widely used web-based search engine. There is even a verb to google !

Everything started in Stanford Univeristy with an idea of two students: Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Both Brin and Page were working on the Stanford Digital Library Project (SDLP). The SDLP's goal was “to develop the enabling technologies for a single, integrated and universal digital library". It began with a research project called "BackRub.

The first iteration of Google production servers was built with inexpensive hardware and was designed to be very fault-tolerant.

Do you imagine world and Internet without any crawler? Write a short essay about life without Google.

10 weird things about Americans.

Every nation has its weird customs, traditions and here are ten weird things that you encounter only in the United States:

1. Flags everywhere!

2. Price tags without tax included. “How do you know how much you’re spending until you get to the cashier?”

3. The bread in the U.S. is very sweet.

4. Lawyer advertisements everywhere.

5.  Soda being cheaper than bottled water.

6. Wearing shoes indoors.

7.The lack of annual leave from work and not getting paid maternity/paternity leave.

8.  Laws changing drastically between states.

9. Smiling to strangers.

10. Drive-through everything.

Think of ten werid things that can be encountered in your country!

How it all started? Brief history of Internet.

It all started in United States about 50 years ago when American government was scared of Soviet Union and its potential ability to destroy the whole network of lines and wires that made efficient long-distance communication possible. With this fear into existence came an idea to creat “galactic network” of computers that could talk to one another. It would be used as a back up plan in case of destruction of telephone lines.

In 1969 the first message was send: LO. Why LO? There should be LOG IN but one of the computers crashed from the amount of information. By the end of 1969 only four computer were connected to each other but with a time Internet and its connection was growing fast.

 In 1991 the Internet changed. That year, a computer programmer in Switzerland named Tim Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide Web: an Internet that was not simply a way to send files from one place to another but was itself a “web” of information that anyone on the Internet could retrieve. Berners-Lee created the Internet that we know today.

Imagine world without Internet and write a short essay how would world look like without it.

How cute :)

Flowers