Does your picture look something like this?
If you answered yes, you think along the same lines as many of my students. If you answered no, that's okay, you will have another chance in a little while.
A few weeks ago, I was doing a lesson on family relationships and I showed this picture to my class. In case you have never met my family, the girl on the left is my sister and the boy on the right is my brother. Having seen a couple of my family photos in previous classes, the students already knew who they were. The first comment I heard after displaying this photo was, "Rita, your brother is SO American." I was curious as to what makes makes someone look American, so I asked the student, "Why does he look American?" The response given by several of the students was that he looked just like the people they see in the movies. Apparently my brother is brother is the stereotypical American high school boy. After hearing these responses, I asked if they thought my sister looked American. Expecting an affirmative response, I was surprised when they told me that she did not look American and had a difficult time explaining why.
If your stereotypical American didn't match the picture of my brother, I am going to give you an opportunity to redeem yourself. Do you still have your picture in mind? Good.
To further our discussion, I showed the following picture to the class.
Upon seeing this photo, the students became very animated and exclaimed, "Your dad is very American!" Curious as to how their responses would differ from when asked about my brother, I asked the students what made him so American. One of the students responded with, "The hat, the shirt, and WHITE SOCKS!" Yes, my dad is wearing shorts and white socks, which, unfortunately for him, is not the latest fashion trend. Although somewhat common in areas such as the Pacific Northwest, this fashion trend has not caught on in Europe, and clearly marks you as an American.
When I told this story to my brother, who, if you hadn't noticed, is also wearing shorts and white socks in the picture, he told me "I wear shorts and white socks, but at least their not as tall as Dad's. Besides, everyone wears them." My brother has successfully reinforced the (possibly accurate) stereotype of Americans and white socks with shorts. I'm not sure that everyone wears them, but maybe it's just a thing that typical Americans do. They say that all stereotypes begin with some grain of truth, and apparently this is no exception.
