Written by Katie and Jordan
When we arrived in Nuremberg, all of our clothes smelled like sweat and the U-bahn and it was very clearly time for us to find a laundromat. As we missed the bus that went to the trusted laundromat which the professors had found, we set out in the wrong direction in the cold. We stumbled upon a little place, not fancy but also not crowded and decided to stop. After trying to decipher the German instructions on the wall, we finally figured out how to work the washers by watching someone else. Little did we know that we would walk away not only with fresh clothes, but also with fresh perspectives.
We settled in after depositing our dirty clothes into the machines, claiming a spot on top of the counter to wait for the cycle to finish. To pass the time we were looking through our pictures from the trip on Jordan's phone, when a crusty old man came up to us and started speaking urgently to us in German. At first he tried to buy Jordan's phone for 10 Euro. He made it very clear that he thought it was a great deal. When we refused, noticing from our accents that we were not German, asked where we were from. When we replied that we were American, he then asked us a strange question. How do we find America? Is it a country, or a jungle?
After voicing our confusion, he started to explain what he meant. He said that America was a jungle because he thinks anyone can walk around in the streets with guns. He believes it's crazy that anyone can own a gun and carry it freely. We listened respectfully, occasionally offering a comment, but his opinions started to get a bit more aggressive. He was angry because he feels that Americans always try to intervene in the affairs of other countries, but ignore the issues in the United States. He asked us why Americans are focused on trying to combat the Taliban, when, as he believes, our own police force is itself a terrorist organization. We politely disagreed with his views, said our goodbyes and he was on his way.
While the conversation was a little disconcerting, it made us think a lot about how different his views are from ours and what we know as citizens living in the United States. At the beginning of the conversation, we didn't even know what he meant by country or jungle, we simply thought he was geographically challenged. We weren't expecting to encounter anyone who would so willingly share his strong opinions with us, and we found him to be quite misinformed about the reality of American gun laws and our society in general. We think that it tells a lot about the role of media and American influence in foreign countries. The information that he was basing his arguments off of was obviously incorrect, exaggerated, and to the extreme. Aside from unreliable news sites that spew false information to create big headlines, citizens of other countries create perceptions of the US through what they see and hear in TV and film. Everywhere we've been, we have seen German promotional posters for a new movie, American Sniper. With foreign media constantly making America seem like it's excessively militaristic, and movies coming out of Hollywood that portray violence as a common theme, it's easy to see how this man's impressions of American values could become skewed.
We learned that language is not the only barrier that exists between cultures. The way one country is portrayed by the media and entertainment industry may not be the whole and complete truth. It's sad to think that the only picture that man has of America is a dark, warped opinion of our society when there is really so much more. At the same time, it's important for us to remember to keep an open and critical mind of our own country's reputation and the impressions we give off to the world.
When we arrived in Nuremberg, all of our clothes smelled like sweat and the U-bahn and it was very clearly time for us to find a laundromat. As we missed the bus that went to the trusted laundromat which the professors had found, we set out in the wrong direction in the cold. We stumbled upon a little place, not fancy but also not crowded and decided to stop. After trying to decipher the German instructions on the wall, we finally figured out how to work the washers by watching someone else. Little did we know that we would walk away not only with fresh clothes, but also with fresh perspectives.
We settled in after depositing our dirty clothes into the machines, claiming a spot on top of the counter to wait for the cycle to finish. To pass the time we were looking through our pictures from the trip on Jordan's phone, when a crusty old man came up to us and started speaking urgently to us in German. At first he tried to buy Jordan's phone for 10 Euro. He made it very clear that he thought it was a great deal. When we refused, noticing from our accents that we were not German, asked where we were from. When we replied that we were American, he then asked us a strange question. How do we find America? Is it a country, or a jungle?
After voicing our confusion, he started to explain what he meant. He said that America was a jungle because he thinks anyone can walk around in the streets with guns. He believes it's crazy that anyone can own a gun and carry it freely. We listened respectfully, occasionally offering a comment, but his opinions started to get a bit more aggressive. He was angry because he feels that Americans always try to intervene in the affairs of other countries, but ignore the issues in the United States. He asked us why Americans are focused on trying to combat the Taliban, when, as he believes, our own police force is itself a terrorist organization. We politely disagreed with his views, said our goodbyes and he was on his way.
While the conversation was a little disconcerting, it made us think a lot about how different his views are from ours and what we know as citizens living in the United States. At the beginning of the conversation, we didn't even know what he meant by country or jungle, we simply thought he was geographically challenged. We weren't expecting to encounter anyone who would so willingly share his strong opinions with us, and we found him to be quite misinformed about the reality of American gun laws and our society in general. We think that it tells a lot about the role of media and American influence in foreign countries. The information that he was basing his arguments off of was obviously incorrect, exaggerated, and to the extreme. Aside from unreliable news sites that spew false information to create big headlines, citizens of other countries create perceptions of the US through what they see and hear in TV and film. Everywhere we've been, we have seen German promotional posters for a new movie, American Sniper. With foreign media constantly making America seem like it's excessively militaristic, and movies coming out of Hollywood that portray violence as a common theme, it's easy to see how this man's impressions of American values could become skewed.
We learned that language is not the only barrier that exists between cultures. The way one country is portrayed by the media and entertainment industry may not be the whole and complete truth. It's sad to think that the only picture that man has of America is a dark, warped opinion of our society when there is really so much more. At the same time, it's important for us to remember to keep an open and critical mind of our own country's reputation and the impressions we give off to the world.