.png)
For my first interview I chose to sit down with Ryan Lieberman, and find out what made him decide to embark on the study abroad journey. Ryan is a Junior MSP major at Temple, and I was also surprised to find that we are both from Connecticut! He mentioned a lot of different reasons for wanting to travel, but he said he knew study abroad was for him after he vacationed in Barcelona with his family a few years back, and experienced Europe for the very first time.
Upon arriving in the country, Ryan was surprised to find that the food options in the U.K. were a lot different than in the states. This took some getting used to, but has not stopped him from trying a lot of different restaurants with his friends so far. Ryan also mentioned that he has become much more outgoing since he arrived in London, which has helped him make a lot of friends in FIE and elsewhere around the city. The biggest stereotype than Ryan had considered before he traveled was that everything in London would be expensive! While this stereotype is somewhat true, he has been able to do some grocery shopping and cooking to help save money over the next few months. For the most part, there were no barriers that prevented Ryan from communicating with others on the trip. He mentioned that oftentimes the accent can be confusing, but it is easy to get used to!
For my second interview I spoke with a man who I met at a grunge-rock bar in Soho, named Matthew. Originally I did not set out to interview him for the blog, but our conversation naturally shifted over to American lifestyles and I asked him if I could record some of his ideas.
Matthew is from Great Britain, and has been living in London for the last 11 years since ending University. He actually did a study abroad term in New Jersey for one year, so he felt like he knew the stereotypes of Americans and Brits fairly well. He listed Americans as smart, outgoing people, and felt like they often get labeled for being too loud or obnoxious. Obviously there are some ignorant students who come from the states to travel here, but for the most part he felt that Americans in London are usually quite polite. One of the challenges that Matthew faces when communicating with Americans is that people from different states are very different from one another. He mentioned that the Americans from the West Coast that he knows are nothing like his friends from New Jersey! Overall, I learned a lot from running into Matthew and learning his perspective. I was able to see that both cultures reach far beyond the simple stereotypes that we create for one another. At the end of the day there are plenty of shared experiences that we all have in common
Good job with your post and a lot of people responded.
Great interviews! I definitely agree with Ryan about London being so expensive, it will be interesting to see how prices vary between neighborhoods. You interview with Matthew seemed really nice I can imagine you would be meeting a lot of interesting people in a grunge-rock bar. Matthew has a very interesting perspective, I don't know that many Londoners would classify Americans as "smart". It's great that Matthew had known both the British perspective and the US perspective.
Your interview with Matthew was really interesting. It's funny to hear a non-American give a perspective on Americans accents since our vary by states rather than countries. It's also interesting that he chose to study abroad in New Jersey because I'm from Jersey, and personally I can tell you that there isn't much to do there lol.
-Nenseh Alexis Koneh
Charlie,
I found your interview with Matthew so interesting! I find that when meeting British people, it is very common to talk about the differences in our cultures. Based on my interview, British people have a similar perspective on Americans, especially if they are in contact with them. I think it's so cool that you are actively interacting with British people and used a real world scenario to fulfill this assignment. I can see you're making the most of your experience already. Awesome post!
I liked that Charlie didn't just talk to a Londoner, but a Londoner who has a lot of experience with Americans from living there. As people spend large amounts of time in each country, they find the stereotypes less and less consistent. Ryan, just like virtually everyone else who posted, also pointed out that his stereotypes were proven wrong in even in the short amount of time we've been here. More often than not, cultural differences are exaggerated!