The growing interconnectedness of our
globalized world is helping shape societies in unforeseen ways. Movies, TV shows, and music from the
U.S., are exported all over the world and in Brazil their presence is
practically unavoidable. I hear
more Katy Perry songs and see more Simpsons t-shirts here than I do back
home. And if you go to a typical Brazilian
movie theater on any given day, it’s guaranteed that at least 80% of the films
being shown were produced by Hollywood.
The American media tends to portray some
obvious falsehoods. Some common
ones include the idea that all Americans are rich and beautiful or that the
U.S. is an extremely dangerous place.
However, there are some not so obvious results as well. For instance, a Brazilian once asked me
if it is common for Americans to wait to have their first kiss and then
immediately have sex. Nope, that’s
Hollywood trying to package a love story into an hour and a half time slot, but
now that you mention it that is in a
lot of movies.
Another friend thought that in the
U.S. one could drink alcohol in the street as long as you keep the bottle
covered by a paper bag. In reality
there are less than 7 cities where it is actually legal to consume alcohol in
public places and in those places (New Orleans and Las Vegas to name a few)
nobody makes any attempts to hide their alcohol.
Although it can be frustrating to
have to breakdown stereotypes that the media constantly reinforces, at the same
time, American movies, TV shows, and music can be great teaching
resources. For instance, the show Friends is a better teacher than I could
ever be. I cannot begin to tell
you how many people have told me that they learned English just by watching Friends. Plus it’s the reason why so many South Americans can
pronounce my name properly; thank you Rachel Green!
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