Patterns of Thought

My experiences in Germany have been very positive; I really cannot ask for better. But I've been thinking lately about misconceptions we often carry with us, the ensuing generated stereotypes, and what our reasons are for them. Some of these mediums are basic falsehoods: the media, entertainment industries, isolated experiences in one's life that certainly don't speak for everything. Living overseas has brought interactions with many foreigners who want to discuss America i.e. what America is like, etc. These discussions have been a valuable tool for me to learn what someone from a different country actually sees of America via the mediums I discussed above. But what has had tremendous impact is how these discussions have caught me subconsciously making generalizations based on what someone has said. In my life, I've not been a very patriotic person. I come from an immigrant family and so I feel just as connected to India as I do America. Actually, a better way to put it is that my parents raised me to be self-sufficient, meaning that they hoped I'd be able to survive anywhere and in any circumstance. I am forever grateful for that instilled value because I think it has made my transition to Germany somewhat easier than other foreigners around me. I am trying so hard just to see people as people, because I am convinced that we are the same wherever we go. Although our faces look different, our food is different, and we speak differently, I believe that there are warm and cold-hearted people anywhere you go. I guess that I just wish everyone else could try and do the same. People aren't obnoxious to me because I am American - there has been nothing of that sort of behavior. I wish they were less surprised, though, after speaking with me: "You're really American? You are not at all like what I thought of Americans...ah, but you're Indian, so you're not REALLY American." Somewhere, that miniature nugget of 'patriotism' gets riled up, but upon further consideration, I think that whether they are talking about America or not is besides the point. I've heard friends say similar things about French people, and just the other day, I received a friendly email saying, "So, Geeta, how is everything in Germany? Are Germans really as rude as everyone says?" With both the French and German incidents, I got equally annoyed, so America itself is negligible here. Perhaps it's just human nature to see something and assume that everything is like it. I do it all the time...constantly, in fact, because it's such a subconscious process. One of my French friends here, Alice, got into a slight argument with me about where riesling wines come from. I said they originate from the Mosel Valley in west Germany because that's what I'd read, and Alice said, "No, it's from Lorraine, in France!" I immediately got annoyed, thinking, "The French always think they are the best and grandest and I just hate it!" Immediately after I thought that, I realized that I was doing exactly what I'd hoped to not be - using an isolated incident to label all of France's people. It is just TOO EASY to do! I came home and looked on wikipedia.com (a godsend of a tool) and found that Mosel (the German word) is Moselle in France, Musel in Luxembourg, and is called Moezel in Dutch. The valley itself spreads across Luxembourg, France, and Germany - so we were, in fact, both correct! It is hard, when people say things to me such as, "You're a nice person but I hate the United States" to not think, "Screw you, Polish person, you're all closed minded ever-present Communists still today." But it's something that I'm trying not to do in order to enrich my experiences here. If I want world peace (and I still wish for it everytime I blow out candles), it's got to start with how I view the world.