English Topics - Misconceptions about America

25,528 views ・ 2015-06-02

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Alisha: Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha.
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I'm joined again in the studio by…
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Michael: Michael. Hello.
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Alisha: And today, we're going to be talking about some misconceptions about America.
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So, let's get right into it.
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Let's start with you, Michael.
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What is your first misconception that you've heard about America?
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Michael: I’m going to have to start with the “arrogant American stereotype.”
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This, I think, maybe in the past had been a little bit more accurate but ever since
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the internet and ever since the 60s, with the Vietnam War and the hippie movement and
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everything going on then, this has really died down a bit.
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I'm proud to be an American, but I'm not one of the stereotypical Americans that, “We’re
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number one.
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We’re the best.”
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This really has died down.
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I hear this a lot on the internet and whatnot.
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Alisha: Yeah, I know what you mean.
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Then the whole number one thing—at least for me, one of the things that...
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I feel like if you say that there's a greatest country in the world.
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I think that's a silly thing to say, that you're the greatest country in the world.
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Not that I don't support America or appreciate all the things that America does for me and
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for people around the world.
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I feel like I'm treading in dangerous waters right now.
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There are plenty of good things about other countries, too.
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I'm going to stop here before I offend anyone.
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Anyway, I'm going to go to my first one.
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My first one is--maybe this is one that you've got as well.
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“Hamburgers are the only American food.”
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This is a misconception that I have heard a lot.
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Hamburgers and variations of hamburgers.
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Cheeseburgers, bacon cheeseburgers, avocado burgers, veggie burgers, whatever.
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Anything burger is not the only American food.
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There are plenty of other American foods.
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Even if you just stick around the fast food ballpark for a while, there are hotdogs, there
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are Philly cheesesteaks, which are delicious.
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If you go to the South, there are all kinds of interesting, like Louisianan food that
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you can try on there.
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You can eat crocodile, you can eat frog legs, which, I mean, probably borrowed to some extent
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from French cuisine.
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There are lots of fresh fish, like salmon from Washington, Oregon.
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Where I'm from, we talked a lot about Tex-Mex and California burrito culture.
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There's so much good stuff to try in America, and it's not just burgers.
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American food is more than just burgers.
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That drives me crazy when people say, “Oh, you're Americans!
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You must love hamburgers, right?”
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Well, they're great, but there's so much other good stuff to try.
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Michael: Yes, likewise just with the hamburger thing, when you think hamburgers, you think
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fast food, right?
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And so, that's the other stereotype.
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Even if you want a good, authentic American hamburger, don't go to one of the fast food
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restaurants.
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That's what they think: “Oh, you're American.
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You can't appreciate the real good, high-quality cheese and blah blah blah.”
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If you have a really good authentic American hamburger, you'll be really happy.
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You'll be really happy.
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It's really good.
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Alisha: Did I miss any key American foods?
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I feel like I had the big ones.
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Just like region-centric foods that are big.
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Michael: That was the first thing I thought of, and you got to it with Louisiana, as far
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as something that people don't usually think about when they think about American food.
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And that's amazing food.
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And I think, to take that a little bit further, while traveling and teaching, people would
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say, “Oh, your name's not a really American name,” because my last name is German.
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But I would tell them that there is no American name.
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A truly American name would be like the Native Americans’ from way back when.
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And one of the beauties of America is that it's the “melting pot,” as you always
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hear.
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And then it's a lot of different cultures, so as you were saying about Louisiana food,
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it's probably borrowed from French, and American food isn't just hamburgers.
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There's a whole wide array, and as we talked about before, the Mexican food.
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So, absolutely, there's a big variety, and it's not just one thing.
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Alisha: Yeah, explore.
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Explore American cuisine.
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There's a lot of it to explore.
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Alright. What's your next misconception?
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Michael: Next misconception is...
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Well, this one's a little bit specific to where I'm from.
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It’s that “everybody skis or snowboards in Colorado.”
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This is something--I think this is natural when you meet somebody from any different
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state, province, whatever, is that you think about the tourist attractions of that place
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and you say, so I meet another American, even within America, they say, “Oh, you're from
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Colorado!
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Do you ski and snowboard?”
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Sometimes, just because I'm from there doesn't mean I'd do it, and to me, I think it's kind
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of a rough analogy, but it'd be like meeting someone from France and be like, “Oh, do
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you go to the Eiffel Tower every day?”
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“Yeah, once when I was a kid.”
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Same thing with America.
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Just as the whole country, it's what the Statue of Liberty and these kinds of things you ever
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get that.
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Alisha: Every once in a while.
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I'm from Oregon, so we have ski and snowboard culture there, but I'm trying to think of
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it.
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There's this one when I say that I was raised in Oregon, if there's something that I usually
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get back and I don't think I do.
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I think California maybe more so.
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If you say you're from California, it might be something like, “Oh, do you surf?
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Or do you go to the beach?”
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I think that it's really easy to kind of make an image of that state or what that state’s
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people might be like and then to ask a question about that, but I don't think that it's necessarily
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out of malice that people say such things.
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I think it's just trying to make a connection like, “Oh, I'm familiar to some degree with
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your state,” or “I know something about your state.
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Maybe this is the way we can have a conversation about it.”
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But yeah, kind of pigeonholing people, like trying to stereotype people based on where
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they're from and what you presume they might like to do, I guess it could come off as a
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little irritating for some.
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Michael: Yeah, I don't mind it because I know that it's good intentions.
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They're just trying to make a connection, and I do the same thing that I think of all
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the musicians or famous actors or actresses from whatever country they're from and I'll
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say that.
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And they’re just trying to make conversation, so it's not a big deal.
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But again, it's a stereotype, and just try to relate it and put yourself in the shoes
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like, “What kind of tourist attractions and stereotypes do I not relate?”
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Alisha: Or saying, “Oh, I've been there to such-and-such attraction before.
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It was really nice,” that kind of...
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I think it isn’t just certainly bad.
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It's just one of those things.
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Next one.
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Let's see the next one that I have.
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I've heard this now and now and then.
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This one that I've heard is “Americans all own guns.”
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I've heard this.
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Michael: Me too.
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Alisha: Samesies.
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Michael: Samesies.
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Alisha: We both have this one, but this is one that I think--maybe it's because of action
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movies, maybe it's because of the news stories that come out about shootings in America,
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which are horribly tragic and unfortunate, but for some reason, some people have this
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image that Americans all own guns.
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I don't own a gun.
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Michael: Me either.
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Alisha: There's one person, two people who do not own guns, and I know that there are
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plenty more.
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There are a lot of people who do not own guns.
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I mean, whether or not you support guns, maybe that's a different issue.
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But this is one point that's always just a little bit confusing to me.
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Maybe this comes from old western movies, where we're cowboys in this gun-toting, gun-loving,
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shoot-them-up sort of country, but I don't think that it's that.
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I don't think that that's America.
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Well, all of America.
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There are parts of America.
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There are some people in America who like guns.
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That's your thing.
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It's just not mine, and it's not some other people's.
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Michael: I think the fact that we both have to stop and hesitate, it is an issue.
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It's a hot topic.
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It's a second amendment right, so people are constantly debating this.
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But I tell people, I can't think of five people in all of my friends and family.
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I can't think of five who own a gun.
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There are some people who are military something, but for private people, that's really not
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common.
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There's only a handful of people I know that own a gun, and they go out shooting.
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It's not a big deal, but it is a hot topic.
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But I hate this, every time I hear, “Oh, America—cowboys, guns, this kind of...”
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No, I'm not a cowboy, don't have guns.
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Have you ever gone shooting though?
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Alisha: My parents had—Do you know clay pigeons?
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Clay pigeon shooting?
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My parents used to do that with their friends.
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They would just go to a small shooting range, and it's just this little disc made of clay,
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and it was just a sport.
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It was just for sport.
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They'd shoot it, they fly—what do you call it?
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Fling?
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Fling, I guess.
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They throw this clay pigeon in the air, and then you'd aim and try to shoot it.
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It was a sport.
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And so, my parents had a couple for that, and then I think they sold them after a while
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because they just didn't do it very often.
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I fired that a couple times, and I really didn't like it.
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It just made me feel really uncomfortable.
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Michael: How old were you?
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Alisha: I was probably 17, 18 or so.
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Michael: About the age you would know if you liked it or you don't.
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Alisha: I suppose, but it just made me really uncomfortable.
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I didn't like it, but I've known people who use them for hunting.
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I knew somebody in high school, in college.
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His dad had one, but he'd go out hunting every year, and he'd go out and kill a deer, and
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then they'd bring it home, and they'd prepare it, and the family would have that to eat
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throughout the winter.
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That was just one of their family's traditions.
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But as far as a handgun, I don't think I've ever met anyone that I know of.
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No, wait I did know one guy.
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He was a little---I'm not going to say anything.
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I'm really uncomfortable on this video.
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I feel like it's getting controversial.
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Michael: Yeah, yeah.
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Alisha: Let's go to the last one because it's not controversial.
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It's going to be the last one.
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My last one is it'll be “quick and easy to see the whole country.”
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No, America is huge!
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Compared to a lot of other countries around the world, America is very, very large.
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I've heard of people saying they're going to visit New York, and then they say, “Okay,
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and then we're going to rent a car, and we're going to drive to California.”
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And the Americans in the room will go, “You know how long it's going to take you, right?
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You have some concept of how far that is?”
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“You know, a few hours or a couple days.”
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“No!”
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It’s far.
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It’s like 5,000 miles across the country so you should plan some time.
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I heard about a guy recently who took like a month to bicycle from New York to California.
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It's crazy.
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He had some people giving him car rides along the way.
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But have you ever run into somebody who has no concept of how large the country is?
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Michael: All the time.
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Alisha: Really?
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Michael: Usually.
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I mean, again we're talking about the--you want to make a connection.
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So, usually, they just name--everyone knows New York, Texas, California, that's pretty
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much it when you think America.
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Even Americans I know, you really don't put it on scale of how big it is unless you look
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at a picture and you place Europe on top and you go, “Wow, this is pretty huge!”
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Generally, though, I haven't met anybody who's planning a trip and going.
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I think when you plan a trip, they make a little more preparations.
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But yeah, same thing.
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They really have no idea, no frame of reference, I guess, because it's kind of its own.
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Alisha: And then if you even want to include Alaska and Hawaii, which are just way out
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there.
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It's quite large.
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Good luck with that.
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Your weeklong trip.
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Alright.
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Those are some common misconceptions about America.
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Anything else you want to add to this or anything else you would like to clear up?
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Michael: Don't you dare say anything about America because it's not true.
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Alisha: My, gosh.
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What just happened?
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Those are some misconceptions about America.
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Maybe we've cleared up a few things about America or maybe we've only intensified a
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few of your misconceptions about America.
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Who knows?
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But thanks very much for joining us this time, and we will see you again when we have another
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fun topic to discuss.
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Bye!
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