9 American Stereotypes: True or False?

Vanessa: I want you to close your eyes for a second  

and picture the typical American. Are they driving  a big truck? Are they wearing a cowboy hat and an  

American flag t-shirt? Are they eating McDonald's?  Hmm. If they are, then you are thinking of some  

stereotypes of Americans who live in the US.  Let's talk about if these are true or false. 

If you haven't opened your  eyes yet, please do that.  

I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com, an  American English speaker. I live here in the US.  

Today, we're going to be talking about some  common stereotypes of Americans. When I talk about  

Americans, I'm talking about the United States of  America. I'm just using Americans as shorthand for  

people who live in the United States, and the  stereotypes about those people, including me.  

We're going to take a look at the stereotypes,  what the data says about those stereotypes,  

and then also my personal opinion. To help you  with today's lesson and to remember everything  

that you've learned, I have created a free PDF  worksheet that you can download, print out, put  

under your pillow as you sleep, to help you take  your English to the next level and never forget  

anything from today's lesson. You can download  this PDF with the link in the description. 

Let's get started with what I think is one of the  most common American stereotypes, and that is, big  

everything. Big stores, big cars, big houses, big  portion sizes at restaurants. Let's talk about  

this. First, grocery stores, or sometimes we call  them supermarkets. It's more common to call them a  

grocery store. But if you want an overwhelming  experience the next time you visit the US,  

go into a Super Walmart. It's huge. Enormous.  You can have your eyes checked while you wait for  

your car to get fixed. You could buy a new baby  stroller, a microwave, a set of golf clubs, a gun,  

and choose from hundreds of boxes of breakfast  cereal. We call these places a one-stop shop  

because you can get everything you need in one  convenient location. For me, this kind of place  

is a bit too overwhelming to go to regularly, but  it is convenient to know that if I need something,  

there's one place where I can go to get it. What about cars and homes? Yes, it is true  

that American cars and homes are typically  larger than in other places in the world.  

Is it cultural? Is it because we have more space?  It's hard to say exactly why, but we've definitely  

traded the historic, beautiful but  smaller homes, in Europe, for example,  

for not historic, not always so beautiful, but  big homes in the US. As for cars, it's true,  

Americans have big cars. But everything in the US  is so spread out that we spend a lot more time in  

our cars. My personal theory is that because  people have bigger and bigger cars in the US,  

it kind of pushes everyone into that direction.  For me, I would love to have a small car, but it's  

dangerous if you are the only person with a small  car on the road. If everyone else has a big truck,  

a big SUV, a big van and you're just the only  one in a little car, that is very dangerous.  

So a lot of people maybe feel some pressure to  get a bigger car socially or for safety reasons. 

All right, let's talk about food now.  Portion sizes. If you've ever visited the  

US and ordered at a restaurant, maybe you have  been shocked at the portion size that you get  

at a restaurant. In fact, it's quite common to get  what we call a doggy bag. This is a takeout bag  

because you can't finish all of the food on your  plate. So it's common to ask the waiter, "Hey, can  

I get a doggy bag? Hey, can I get a box to go?"  You put the rest of your food in a box and take it  

to have for lunch the next day. This is really  common because the portion size is enormous. 

In fact, take a look at this little graph.  It just shows that from the 1950s and '60s,  

portion size in the US has been increasing  dramatically. So overall, yes, things are bigger  

in the US. There could be a lot of reasons for  this. Of course, some places like New York or LA,  

you're more likely going to be living in a small  apartment, but the majority of Americans live  

outside of those big cities. They live in medium  or small size cities around the US. So in general,  

big cars, big houses, big stores, and big portion  sizes. These things are the norm in the US. 

Stereotype number two, Americans are overweight  and eat fast food a lot. Unfortunately,  

this one is true. The data says that two out  of three Americans is overweight, and over  

one-third of adults eats fast food every day.  Ah. Personally, this is not at all like my  

lifestyle. I try really hard to be healthy.  But you know what? The data doesn't lie. Two  

out of three Americans is overweight.  That is what they call an obesity crisis. 

Thankfully, there has been a shift towards  somewhat more healthy eating. Even fast food  

restaurants are trying to have some options  like a wrap or a salad as an option. I think  

overall we're becoming more and more aware  about what it is to be healthy, what kind of  

foods we should eat, what kind of soft drinks  we should avoid, these types of things. But  

in general, unfortunately, this stereotype is  true. That Americans overall are overweight and  

eat fast food a lot. But I have a question for  you. In your country, is going to McDonald's,  

Subway or KFC, is this a common experience? I  think that this is kind of expanding to the rest  

of the world as well. So even though it's true for  Americans, might be true for other countries, too. 

Stereotype number three, everyone has a gun.  What does the data say? Well, this is false.  

Not everyone has a gun, but the data says that  one in three Americans owns a gun. Overall,  

this is more, this is a higher percentage than  in other countries around the world. Guns and gun  

violence are certainly controversial issues to say  the least, but Americans' personal feelings about  

guns really depends on where you live. If you live  in a more rural area, having a gun for hunting,  

for protection, for your lifestyle, this type  of thing is more common. It's less scary because  

people are more comfortable about how they work  and how they're used, and they know the people who  

have a gun. But if you live in a more urban area,  like in the city, guns are associated more with  

violence and it can be a much more scary thing. So  it all depends on your background and where you've  

grown up, how you feel about guns and what kind of  feeling that brings up for you. Overall, not every  

American owns a gun, but it is certainly more  common here than in other places around the world. 

Stereotype number four, Americans never travel.  Well, are we talking about international travel?  

Well, the data says, this is  true. A lot of Americans don't  

even have a passport. But if we're talking about  domestic travel within the US, the answer is  

false. A lot of Americans travel domestically. I  mean, have you seen the size of the US? There are  

so many places to visit. We often visit family  who live in far away places within the US.  

This is just something cultural. I think it's  also pretty tricky to travel internationally  

when you have to cross an ocean to get anywhere. When I lived in Europe, it's just unbelievably  

easy to cross a border and visit another place.  "Ah, this is so convenient." But when you're in  

the US, you have to spend a lot of money to get  to another country. And we don't have as much  

overall vacation time from work. So if you  only have a week and you're going to spend  

so much money to go to another country, well, you  might be more likely to just take your family and  

drive to a local beach. Be able to spend a  less hectic time and more enjoyable time,  

maybe with your family, without having the  hassle of international travel. So there's  

a lot of factors at play here. But overall,  Americans don't travel much internationally,  

but we do travel a lot domestically. Stereotype number five, Americans are  

materialistic. What's the data say about this?  Well, it says that this is somewhat false. Let's  

take two different sides of this. Americans, yes,  in certain places, especially big cities, can be  

very obsessed with brands, labels, expensive  things. We have a term called keeping up with the  

Joneses. The last name Jones is one of the most  common names in the US. Your last name is Jones,  

it's very common. So keeping up with the Joneses  means that you are trying to maintain the same  

type of high quality, high class lifestyle as  the people around you. Maybe your neighbors  

buy a cool new car, you want to buy a cool new  car. You're trying to keep up with the Joneses. 

But on the other hand, the culture of buying  secondhand is huge in the us. I've lived in a lot  

of places around the world where it was almost  impossible to find a secondhand store that was  

cheap. It was all expensive, fancy vintage  clothes. But in the US buying secondhand is  

extremely common. Almost all of my clothes are  secondhand. It's kind of like a treasure hunt.  

This kind of culture of reusing our clothes, or  being willing to buy something that someone else  

wore, and that that's culturally acceptable,  is also pretty common. So overall, I'd say it's  

tough to say exactly if Americans are more  materialistic than other countries with the  

same amount of wealth, but we certainly do like  shopping. Even if it's at a secondhand store. 

Stereotype number six, Americans only speak  English. What does the data say about this? Well,  

it says this is false. There are  over 350 languages spoken in the US,  

making it one of the most linguistically diverse  countries around the world. There are over 40  

million Spanish speakers and 3 million Chinese,  including Mandarin and Cantonese speakers here.  

Now, there is a little catch to this.  If you grew up in a household that  

spoke another language. For example, if your  parents speak Spanish, you are more likely,  

of course, to speak Spanish. But if you grew  up in a household that spoke only English,  

the chance of you as an American successfully  learning a second language, especially to fluency,  

is quite low. So while there are a lot of people  in the US who speak another language, the amount  

of people who learn a second language in school or  just for fun is quite low. But if you're among the  

few who has successfully learned a second language  (comme moi) it can really expand your worldview  

and just add so much fulfillment to your life. Stereotype number seven, Americans are very  

patriotic. What's the data say? Well, it says  this is true. There was a poll and it said 41%  

of Americans think that the US is the best country  in the world. If you come to visit the US around  

the 4th of July, you will see American flags  everywhere. If you visit any kind of professional  

sporting event, you will most likely hear everyone  in the stadium singing the national anthem  

before the sporting game. And if you live  here and your kids go to a public school,  

they will say the Pledge of Allegiance, your  hand over your heart, looking at the flag,  

the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag every morning  before the school day starts. Because I grew up  

saying the Pledge of Allegiance or singing  the national anthem all the time, I thought  

that these things were normal. It wasn't until I  traveled outside the US that I realized that not  

every country is like this. So maybe this goes  back to the majority of Americans not having a  

passport. They've never experienced it otherwise,  so we are just very patriotic. There you have it. 

Stereotype number eight, Americans are positive,  optimistic and smile a lot. Is this true?  

Well, the data says yes. There was actually  a really interesting study that showed  

in countries that have a lot of immigration, like  the US, people relied on nonverbal communication,  

so gestures and facial expressions, more than in  countries that didn't have as much immigration.  

Now, I'm not saying that everyone in the US is  always smiling. No, this is just a stereotype,  

of course, but this study said that people rely  on facial expressions and gestures and smiling to  

build trust with each other more than in countries  that are more homogeneous. Homogeneous means that  

everyone is from a similar ethnic background. What about my personal experience with this?  

I think that, for me, yes, I smile a  lot. So maybe I fit into this stereotype.  

But as for the feeling positive and optimistic  side, I think this is a little bit more nuanced.  

In the US, there is this kind of overall cultural  feeling that if you work hard, you can succeed.  

This idea of a rags to riches story were often  told as kids about famous people who started with  

nothing, and then they invented something really  important. Or, and then they became the president.  

There's all of these rags to riches stories. We call this the American dream. That if you  

work hard, you can succeed. This is really  underlying a feeling of optimism. That,  

"If I work hard. It is up to me. It is my  choice. I am the master of my own destiny. That  

I can do it." So there is a feeling that even if  I come from a really difficult background or home,  

I can still succeed. That feeling of  optimism, "Oh, there's a chance that I can  

do it," is present in American society. Especially  considering that the US is a land of immigrants,  

remember that 350 languages that I talked about,  a lot of people come here to find the American  

dream. They're chasing the American dream. That if  they work hard, they can succeed. So the feeling  

of optimism is kind of present. I'm not saying  it's present on a daily basis for everyone,  

but it is pervasive in American culture. Our final stereotype, stereotype number nine,  

is Americans are creative, innovative, and think  outside the box. What's the data say about this?  

Well, it says it's pretty true. The light bulb,  the telephone, the airplane, the internet,  

all of these things that have revolutionized the  world were invented in the US. When you think  

about new tech inventions, we sometimes think  about Silicon Valley and California. This kind  

of goes along with the last point of the American  dream, that if you can dream it, you can make it. 

What about my personal opinion about this?  Well, as far as creativity or innovation,  

yes, Americans can be those things. I think  a lot of people in other countries of course  

can be those things as well. But when  it comes to thinking outside the box and  

accepting others who are different, this kind of  is expanding the idea of thinking outside the box.  

This is something that I really value in the US.  That you can be different and you can still be  

accepted. Even though this is not perfectly done  across the board, I think that this is a value,  

especially more in our modern times, that  Americans are trying to do more and more. They're  

trying to accept people who are different. Trying  to accept different ideas. And overall, of course,  

we're talking about stereotypes here, this is  something that is a value of Americans. That you  

can be different and you can still be accepted. So what do you think? Do you agree with this  

assessment of American stereotypes? I want to  know. Let me know in the comments, what is a  

type of people from your country? I'd love to  learn more about the stereotypes. And tell me,  

do you think it's true or false what people say  about people from your country? Don't forget to  

download the free PDF worksheet for today's lesson  so that you can review all of the expressions and  

concepts and ideas that we talked about in this  lesson. You can download it with the link in the  

description. Well, thank you so much for learning  English with me. I'll see you again next Friday  

for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download the free PDF  

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Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel  for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.