Sunday, June 1, 2008

American in Paris


To incorporate my trip this past weekend to Paris, I wanted to compare the American products I saw in Paris to those I have seen in Rome. I considered how I thought the French felt about us and guessed that products would be less prevalent. It is funny what I did learn instead.

In Rome, I have not had conversations with Italians to find out their thoughts on Americans, but right away in Paris, I had the opportunity to talk with Frenchmen. The first thing he discussed was how nice and friendly they were to us as Americans. One man, Arthur, asked why I said this. I replied that I had heard Americans were not liked in Paris. Arthur's initial reaction was to say, well you are not rude. He went on to explain that this was the stereotype he had of Americans. He said he felt this way based on the movies he had seen and MTV.

I went right into explaining this blog to him and how I am writing about just that idea. While I had feared the image we were creating for ourselves globally through movies, this conversation confirmed it. It is no wonder people don't like us in other countries if a majority of our movies we send out are shallow and with morals. While we may think they are funny, they are taken as truths on a global level.

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