Bonjour,
En comparant les réopnses que nous avons donné concernant le thème "Les américains semblent obsédés par..." je constate qu'une grande partie des étudiants français ont une image des américains comme étant obsédés par la guerre et la lutte contre le terrorisme, alors qu'ici l'opinion publique considère cela comme un problème mineur, et même qu'à la limitre on en entend trop souvent parler. Cependant juste une personne parmi vous a mentionné le terme de guerre dans ses réponses! Alors est-ce que l'image qu'on a de vous est fausse, ou êtes-vous réellement préoccupés par le terrorisme à l'heure actuelle? 

Je trouve ça plutôt normal que vous ne parliez pas spécialement de guerre.

ça serait inquiétant qu'un amércain qui se demande par quoi il est obsédé pense en 1er à la guerre ...

Bref vous voyez ça plus d'un point de vue personnel "par quoi je suis obsédé?" alors qu'on voit plutôt ça d'un point vue de votre pays, et de ce qu'on en voit dans les médias ... c'est à dire assez souvent guerre terrorisme puissance ou autre.

Auriez-vous deviné qu'on allait surtout parler de guerre et de puissance?

Pierre definitely has a point... it seems like most of the MIT responses were things Americans seem to be obsessed with personally, in their day-to-day lives, not things our country/government have earned a reputation for being obsessed with.  However, it's not surprising that the responses from ENSAM mentioned terrorism, war, power, etc. a lot, since that's how the US as a country has been presenting itself to the world.  

That being said, a lot of the ENSAM responses do seem to talk about the US as a country rather than a typical American citizen... are there any stereotypes in France that apply to the average American person rather than the country as a whole?

It does seem that most of the French responses were comments on how America represents itself as a country, as Kate said. I think this is why there is such a difference in responses. Not to overgeneralize, but I think many Americans don't spend too much time watching the news (not that many Americans aren't informed, but watching news doesn't take up a huge segment of one's day) but they do interact with other Americans on a day-to-day basis. So, responses like "other people's lives" make sense for Americans, as I think a lot of people probably spend a lot of time casually gossiping. I think this is why American responses included more personal things, as Kate mentioned, while the French responses were a little more global - it depends on the exposure to Americans (or in the case of the French, America as a whole). How much exposure to Americans do the French get outside of global news reports?

I am not surprised with the French responses because war and terrorism are closely associated with the United States now due to the news. I also agree with Lauren that most students do not reguraly watch the news, but I don't think that is the probelm, most of the students are concerned with what occurs to them on a day to day basis. 

Gilles you are right, the US as a country/government is definately concerned with terrorism and war, but most of us at MIT are so detached from it, that we don't think about it everyday.

I agree with everything everyone has said, specially about the world's view of Americans, not just the French View.  It seems to me that these responses are because of the recent events that have to do with the US current and past foreign affairs.  Like Razaz mentioned, many of us here at MIT are really really detached from it. I feel like I am in a bubble when I am at MIT.  This make us less aware of all the potical events that occur in the world.  I never actively engaged politics and current events on my own before, and at MIT its worse.

This leads me to my question about the French, do you actively engage in current events? Is it something that everyone does normally at L'ENSAM?  Is it hard to keep up with them?

Bounjour à tous!

Les étudiants de l'ENSAM ne sont pas spécialement intéressé par l'information, les nouvelles du monde, ou même de la France. Nous avons des journaux gratuits à disposition dans l'école mais en général on les prend quand on passe à côté, on n'ira pas se déplacer exprès pour le chercher. D'ailleurs en général on ne les lis qu'en diagonal, ou quand on regarde les infos à la télé on ne s'y intéresse pas vraiment, c'est pourquoi je pense que notre vision des évennement aux Etats Unis doit être très schématique.

 Les infos que nous avons de votre pays sont soit celles qui concernent aussi d'autre pays soit celles qui sont vraiment  importantes (par exemple ce qui concerne les possible boulversement de votre système de santé). C'est peut-être pour ça que l'on considère plus les USA comme un tout, plutôt que de penser à l'américain moyen. Mais bon à mon avis la vrai raison est que la phrase disait "ce dont les Etats-Unis..." et non "ce dont les Américains..." ce qui fait une nette différence.

Pour te réponde Kate, il y a plein de stéréotype sur les Américains, dont un en particulier que j'aimerais soulever. On pense les américains comme étant très croyant, et surtout pratiquant. La religion semble être très importantes pour vous, alors que chez nous seul une minorité est pratiquant, voire croyant. Etes vous vraiment si pieux que nous le pensons?

I think the belief in and practice of religion varies pretty widely.  At a school like MIT though, where most people come from reasonably scientific backgrounds, the percentage of devoutly religious people is smaller than it probably is in the rest of the country.  I have friends who identify themselves as Christian, Jewish, Hindu, etc. -- but each of them practices their religion to varying degrees. I personally was born Catholic, and still celebrate major Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas, but have not been to church on a regular basis since I was eight.  

However, I can see how America is stereotyped as being religious as some people are religious to such a degree that it influences political debates here. I know people on both ends of the religious spectrum.  I have a friend here at MIT who thinks that creationism, or the idea that God created the Earth a couple thousand years ago as told in the book of Genesis, should be taught in public schools, and I have friends here who identify as entirely atheist.  

You said that for you those who are religious are a minority -- is that just at your school or is that true generally in France?  

Vraiment en France généralement il me semble

Je suis d'accord avec Alain, nous sommes un peu dans le même cas que ce qu'à décrit Carlos: on est dans une bulle et on ne s'intéresse pas plus que ça à l'actualité (très peu de monde a la télé) et j'ai l'impression qu'il n'y a pas beaucoup de débat sur l'actualité ici!

Mais ça c'est juste le cas chez nous, ou en école d'ingénieur en tout cas.
Ceux qui sont en école de commerce par exemple s'intéressent beaucoup plus à l'actualité (on les oblige presque)...

thats the same case here.. students in business school/finance majors tend to read and follow the new much more. 

As mentioned earlier, it is interesting to see how the US's role in the world affects how it is perceived by students abroad. 

I thought the responses to this were interesting because our responses (American students) seemed very focused on things like food and celebrities.  We readily admitted that we were obsessed with superficial things.  From the perspective of the ENSAM students, Americans are obsessed with war/terrorism, money, and stature in the world.  I think that they had these responses because that is what is reported, as previously said. 

I am curious though, why were we so ready to put down America ourselves?  And if we can identify that we are obsessed (in a bad way) with food and celebrities, why do we not attempt to change this?

Both Alain's response and Pierre's response are very interesting and funny at the same time.  Since all of us are at engineering schools, I find it funny that we do not really follow the current events.  I know I don't.  I also think that it is funny that it seems that people in business follow the current events more. Anyways, to respond to Alain's question, I think that there is a little bit of everything here in the US.  At MIT, like Kate said, there is less people who practice religion.  I find it interesting that this view exists.

I find the whole thing about engineering students not following current events pretty interesting because most of my friends actually do follow the news. Maybe we are the only ones.....

Foot note: I think terrorism is an issue americans are concerned about but not obsessed with. To me, that is the main reason why most american students didn't add terrorism to their list.

I feel that the main reason many MIT students are not following politics actively is due to the amount of work we have.  With such large workloads, we have very little time to actively follow and formulate many opinions about politics in the US. I feel that major events are still noted by students, however due purely to time commitment/management we have to choose what things we can focus on while spending our time at the institute.

Does l'ENSAM consume most of your time? For example, is it common for you or people you know to stay up until 3-4 in the morning working?

Bonjour à tous!

Pour répondre à Kate: quand je dis que peu de personnes sont pratiquantes, voir croyantes, je parle de la France en général. Aucun de mes amis ne va à l'église par exemple, et de toutes les personnes que je connais (et là je n'exagère pas, je dis bien toutes), seule 1 est vraiment croyante et pratiquante.  Pour moi les français sont beaucoup moins portés vers la religion depuis 1 génération, car en général les grands-parents des gens que je connais sont assez croyant (ils ont des croix au-dessus de leur lit, on fait baptisé leurs enfants,...) alors que notre génération me semble détachée de tout ça.

Concernant tout ce qui se rapporte à l'actualité, je rejoins le point de vue de tout le monde en disant que les gens en école de commerce sont beaucoup intéressés par ce sujet que nous. Personnellement je n'ai jamais vraiment été porté sur le sujet, en géné ral c'est une émission humouristique qui me renseignait sur la politique....(il s'agit de l'émission "les guignols de l'info" qui parodie l'actualité française avec des marionnettes, c'est assez populaires en France).

Pour répondre à Michael, l'ENSAM consumme tout notre temps, mais c'est surtout la vie associative plus que le travail scolaire! Se couicher tard pour rendre un devoir, réviser des heures durant, faire pleins d'exercies....ça c'était en prépa, maintenant  on profite beaucoup plus de notre temps libre, d'ailleurs en prépa on avait pas de temps libre en général.... On sort très peu de l'ENSAM, car on a tout à disposition ici. Si on sort c'est pour se divertir: cinéma, bar, boîte de nuit, ou pour faire des courses.

J'ai une question qui porte toujours sur la religion et sur le terrorisme: j'ai l'impression que la religion musulmane est très marginalisée chez vous et que trop souvent le rapprochement musulman=terroriste est fait. Est-ce encore un faux stéréotype ou alors la religion musulmane est-elle vraiment "mal vu" aux Etats unis?

I think that most people are open-minded and dont make the simple connection between Muslims and terrorists, especially in more educated places like MIT and Boston.  In general, I would say that people fear what they do not understand, so it is a way out to blame an easily defined group then to really see who the true people to blame are. 

There are definitely people who believe this, though, and this stereotype was even attempted to be used by the Republicans in the previous presidential election.  President Obama's middle name is "Hussein", so leading up to the election Republicans would often refer to him by his full name, including his middle name, to try to make this connection. Also, if you look on youtube, there are even videos of rallies in the south were people were convinced Obama was a Muslim and that he was a terrorist, etc.  However, obviously Obama won the election so it is not clear how many people actually believe this.

To answer Alain's question:

I am A Muslim American and from my own experience Muslims are not marginalized at a personal level.  Yes, there are people who make ignorant remarks, but like Baris said a lot of people are afraid of what they don't know.  I will say that the year following 9/11 was a tough year to be a Muslim in America because many people unfortuntately did make that association.  In present times though I feel that peple have grown to understand our religion more and understand that not all Muslims are terrorists.

Razaz,

I am a Muslim also, because of my Turkish heritage, but I am white (I dont even have a tan).  Most people don't know I am Muslim, and I am not that religious, but I still associate with the religion.  However, I never felt any tensions because of being a Muslim growing up or even after 9/11, I think mainly because of my appearance; therefore, I think this is more of an ethnic issue.  People stereotype based on appearance, so unless you are wearing some Islamic parafanalia (such as a headscarf), it is not always easy to distinguish between a Muslim and non-Muslim based on appearance. 

I think these types of ignorant associations are made in more close-minded regions of the country, and usually are not as big an issue in metropolitan areas; although, there are obviously exceptions to this.