Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. I’m Conner from polyglossa.com, and you’re listening to Episode 32 of the Listening Time podcast.

I hope you’re all doing well. I hope your listening is improving. I’m sure that you’re finding these episodes useful, especially if you’re using the transcript and you’re trying to actively learn the new words that I’m teaching you. I promise you that this effort will definitely pay off. In English, when we say that something “pays off”, this just means that it gets results. It gives you benefits in the future. So, if you listen to these episodes and use the transcripts and try to learn new words, the words that I’m teaching you in these episodes, I’m sure that this will pay off, and you’ll see your English level grow.

I do a similar type of practice when I learn other languages, and I know that it definitely pays off for me. It might seem a little bit slow or sometimes even a little bit boring if you repeat the same episode or have to listen to the same thing multiple times. But what I’ve found is that I actually capture the new vocabulary, and it actually stays in my mind, and I don’t need to write the new words down on a list and have to review them every day, because if I hear new vocabulary in context and I hear it multiple times in this context, the vocabulary word stays in my mind. It’s really cool.

I hope that you’re experiencing the same thing as well. If you’re using the technique that I’ve explained already… the technique of repeating the same podcast episode multiple times… for example, the first time without the transcript, then the second time with the transcript, then the third time without the transcript again… this is just one way. But you could also do it other ways as well. You could also listen to the episode the first time with the transcript if that helps you more. I’ve done that before as well with other languages. So, you just need to find your method, what works for you.

Alright, so today we’re going to be talking about stereotypes. So, this should be a fun topic. Stereotypes are often a fun topic to talk about, and it’s fun to discuss whether or not they’re true. So, I’m sure this episode will be interesting. Of course, remember to sign up for our one dollar Listening Practice Seminars at polyglossa.com if you want to practice your listening skills even more. And also, remember to share this podcast with anyone who might find it useful, and help this podcast grow. Alright, let’s get started.

Okay, so what are stereotypes? What does the word “stereotype” mean? Well, in my opinion, a stereotype is a thought or an idea that we have about a group of people that might be somewhat true, but it’s too general, and we develop this idea without too much consideration or without thinking deeply about this group of people and how they really are. So, when I use the word “somewhat”, if I say something is “somewhat true”, this means that it is partially true. It is kind of true or it is true to an extent, but not 100% true. So, stereotypes are usually somewhat true, but they’re too general. Right. We make these statements, and we use them to characterize a whole group of people, and oftentimes, it’s not correct to characterize a whole group of people using a stereotype.

So, stereotypes can be positive, and they can be negative. Sometimes we characterize a group of people in a negative way, and we say that they have a certain negative characteristic, a negative trait or behavior, or sometimes they can be positive. Sometimes when we think about a certain group of people, we can think that they have a certain positive trait. We think that everyone in this group has this positive characteristic. So, stereotypes can be positive, and they can be negative. What’s kind of funny is that I’m an English teacher and I have students from all around the world, and I like to talk about stereotypes with my students, and usually, they tell me some very interesting stereotypes about their own countries, things that I had never thought of before.

So, I think that people can also develop stereotypes about their own countries or their own regions, and they can kind of get a sense of how other people view them. In English, when we say “get a sense of”, this means that you can get an idea, or develop a feeling or idea about something. So, a lot of people can get a sense of how they are perceived by other people, and it’s interesting to talk to people about how they think that the world sees them, because oftentimes, the image that they have of themselves isn’t the same as how other people actually view that country. So, this might not line up, or match. So, having said that, I’m going to give you some stereotypes about Americans that I thought of, but maybe you might not have the same ideas that I have or you might not think of the same stereotypes that I think of. So, this should be interesting for all of you, and we’ll see whether or not you agree with these stereotypes, and whether or not I agree with these stereotypes.

I’m just giving you some stereotypes that I assume that other countries have about America. Okay, so the first one that I can think of is that Americans are fat. This is obviously a very general statement. Obviously not everyone is fat, and most of the people in America aren’t fat, but there is a stereotype about Americans being fat because in reality, there are a lot of obese people in the US. The word “obese” is just a more technical or medical term for “fat”. So, if we say that someone is obese, this means that they’re very overweight. When we say someone is overweight, this just means they have more weight than the average person. So, there are many obese people in the US, and I did a little research and I found that in 2017 and 2018, it was found that 42% of adults in the US are obese. So, this is a huge figure, this is a big number, right, 42%. That’s almost half. So, at least, more than half of the adults in the US aren’t obese. I guess that’s a more positive way to think about it, but 42% of adults are considered obese, so that’s obviously not a good thing.

And so this stereotype has a lot of truth to it because we do have a lot of obesity, and this is a very common thing in the US. When we see people who are obese, we don’t immediately look at them and think “wow, look at that person”. Of course we don’t do that because it’s very normal to see this, and usually, these people are normal people, nice people and it just doesn’t seem like that big of an issue to us. So of course, one of the reasons why we have a lot of obesity in the US is because of our food. People in the US… or not everyone, but many people in the US tend to eat a lot of junk food, and they tend to eat a lot of pre-made, packaged, processed food.

So, it’s easy to just go to the store and buy a lot of instant meals, as we say. An “instant meal” is a meal that is frozen and you buy it from the store, and you just heat it up in the microwave, and then eat it. So when we “heat something up”, this just means that we put it in the microwave or we put it on the stove or in the oven, and make it hot, so that we can eat it. So, these meals are very easy. You just need to heat them up. You don’t need to do any type of cooking, so they’re easy. But of course, these meals are not very good for you. Of course, this is not the best option when it comes to food. It’s much better to buy each ingredient and cook your own food. So, many Americans eat instant meals, and many Americans eat fast food. Our food is not the best and so, of course, people gain a lot of weight and have health problems because of this. So, this first stereotype is somewhat true. Obviously, not everyone is fat, and more than half of the adults in America are not fat, thankfully, but we do have a lot of obesity.

Another stereotype that is somewhat related to this is that everything is big in America. So, I’ve actually heard this one a lot. I’ve heard this from several students and I’ve read some comments online that said something similar to this, that everything is big in the US. So, for example: cars. In the US, we have a lot of really big cars, such as these big pickup trucks that people like to buy in the US. I remember when I was in Europe, I practically never saw any of these big pickup trucks. I don’t think I saw any of them, to be honest. But in the US, these types of cars are very common. So, if you drive on the highway, for example, you’ll see many big trucks and many big vans that probably wouldn’t fit on the road in many other countries.

But, in the US, another thing that’s very big is our streets and in particular, our lanes. The word “lane” just refers to your area on a road that you’re driving on. So, the road usually has either one lane or two lanes or three lanes or even more lanes that are going in the same direction. This is that strip of road that you need to stay on. If you want to switch lanes, you have to put your “blinker” on… this little arrow that blinks: it lights up and then goes off and lights up and goes off. This is your blinker, as we say. You have to put your blinker on to switch lanes when you’re driving.

So, lanes in the US are very big compared to lanes in other countries, particularly in Europe, I think. I haven’t been to other continents before, but I saw that in Europe, there are many small streets and narrow lanes. The word “narrow” refers to something that is skinny or thin, but we only use it in certain contexts, like a narrow door or a narrow street, etc. So, these big American trucks would not fit on roads in Europe, I think. So, this is another thing that’s big in the US: the lanes and the streets in general.

And one other thing that’s big in the US is our portions of food. A “portion” of food just refers to an amount of food that you eat. So, when I say that there are big portions of food in America. I’m saying that the single meal that people eat is big. So, their breakfast is big, their lunch is big, their dinner is big. So, if you go to restaurants and you order lunch, for example, you order a meal, you will get a big portion, usually. So, they will serve you a lot of food. And I’ve heard that in other countries, the portions are significantly smaller. And I think I remember that in Europe, the portions were definitely a little smaller than in the US. So, in the US, we expect these big portions of food. We expect to receive a lot of food when we go to restaurants. If they give us a small amount of food, we probably wouldn’t be happy with that. We would probably think that the price is too expensive for such a small amount of food. So, our portions of food are another thing that’s big in the US.

Another stereotype that I can think of is that Americans sue people a lot. So, “to sue someone” means that you take them to court to try to get money from them because they did something wrong or they did some injustice to you. So, for example, people might sue a company because they slipped and fell down when they were walking in the store and they injured themselves. And so, if that happens, they can sue the company and get money from that company for having a wet and slippery floor. And so if the person gets injured, they can receive compensation in that situation. “Compensation” just refers to money, money that you receive.

So, you might’ve heard of cases where people sue McDonald’s because the coffee that they ordered was too hot, and they burned their tongue, and then they tried to sue McDonald’s to get money from them. This is an extreme example, of course. This rarely happens, but when it happens, it’s always funny to read this in the news, and it reinforces this stereotype about Americans that we sue people all the time. Of course, most people have never sued anyone in the US, but it is true that we have this culture of lawsuits that is much stronger than in other countries. Personally, I think that there’s good and bad when it comes to this culture. I like the fact that we can take someone to court and demand justice if they did something wrong to us. I definitely like that. But, of course, I don’t like when people abuse this system and just try to sue people and businesses to get money. Obviously I don’t like that.

So, another stereotype is that Americans are rich. I’ve experienced the results of this stereotype because I live in Mexico, and many times when I go to touristic places here, I can see people looking at me, thinking that I’m a rich tourist and they just want my money. It’s very obvious. I’ve experienced that many times here. And, unfortunately, I’m not rich, and so I can’t give them a ton of money, but they assume that I’m rich because I’m American. So, I think that many Americans have experienced this when they go to countries that aren’t as rich as the US. So, this can be a very negative experience when you’re in this situation. But, of course, in general, the US is a rich country.

So, there is some truth to this stereotype. The US is a wealthy country, and in general, the average wealth of a person there is more than the wealth of a person in another country, on average. So the word “wealth” just refers to the money that you have, how rich you are. So, this one is partially true, but obviously, it’s way too general. Most of us are not very rich. And related to this is that there is a stereotype that Americans are always thinking about money and profit and business, etc. I think that there’s some truth to this as well, because our country is run on business. It operates successfully because of individuals and businesses who are trying to earn money.

But I don’t think that Americans love money more than other countries. I just think that we have a society, a country, that was built on free markets. So, it was built on the idea that anyone can run a business and earn a profit. And so, this type of culture might seem like it’s money-driven in the eyes of other people from other countries. So, I think that there’s some truth to this, but it’s not exactly like other countries think. Okay.

Lastly, I just want to mention something funny… is that certain students of mine from certain countries have the stereotype of Americans that they’re very friendly, and other students from other countries have the stereotype about Americans that they’re very cold and unfriendly. So, I thought this was funny because it just shows that stereotypes about a country can be very different depending on who you ask. Certain regions of the world might have certain stereotypes about a country that are completely different from the stereotypes that another region has about that same country. So, this is pretty interesting to compare different people’s stereotypes about America.

Alright, so we’ll stop there. I hope this episode was interesting for you. I’m sure you probably agree with some of these stereotypes about America, and maybe you disagree with some of them. So, hopefully it was interesting for you, and hopefully it was good practice for your listening. So of course, remember that you can access the transcript for this episode in the Episode Notes. And of course, remember to sign up for our one dollar Listening Practice Seminars at polyglossa.com, and share this podcast with anyone who might find it useful. So, thank you for listening to this episode and I hope you’ll come back for Episode 33 of the Listening Time podcast.