ESL Cultural Pages

Misperceptions

American Misperceptions About Us

Many Americans think that all Chinese have arranged marriages. This is an old-fashioned idea that is not really true anymore. Also, they think that all Chinese know gong fu (kung fu), probably because most Americans have seen Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies. Our peers often think we are aloof but they don't understand that we're just really shy. We'd like to talk to them, but it's difficult for us to start a conversation. People also think all Chinese are very good at math. In general, we learn math concepts at a younger age than American students. Americans think we can do complex problems in our head. Sometimes that's true, but sometimes it's not.


Our Misperceptions About Americans

Before we came to America, we thought it would be so beautiful like the pictures that we saw. However, when we landed in New York City, we couldn't believe how dirty it was. We also thought that all Americans ate unhealthy food and that everything they ate could make them fat. Unfortunately, we learned racial stereotypes in China and we expected them to be true when we came to the U.S. Since China does not have racial diversity, we were ignorant and we did not have any experience with cultural differences. We quickly came to understand that people are the same no matter where they come from. We also thought America was so rich and it was easy to make a lot of money. Now we realize that while there are some rich people in the U.S., there are a lot of poor people too.


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