INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................4
Why people abroad have this frightening image of us? ............................................................................................................ 4
WHAT’S IN A NAME? ..........................................................................................................................6
How was it that our country “stole” the name of the Hemisphere?.....................................................................................6
Who suggested the name “United States of America”? ............................................................................................................. 6
AN ISLAND LANGUAGE .....................................................................................................................10
English is not mutually intelligible with any other language. ............................................................................................. 10
The alienating effects of the word “alien”.....................................................................................................................................10
FOREIGN? IN YOUR OWN HOUSE?....................................................................................................12
The meaning of “foreign”..................................................................................................................................................................... 12
What is and what is not foreign. .......................................................................................................................................................12
THE WAY WE MEASURE THINGS.......................................................................................................14
Two liters cokes....................................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Million, Milliard, Billion ........................................................................................................................................................................14
CONVENTIONS OR CLICHÉS?.............................................................................................................16
TV, movies, and the press specially ................................................................................................................................................ 16
US TV vs. European TV ..........................................................................................................................................................................16
THE CLASSIC CLICHÉS........................................................................................................................18
Ethnic and language clichés ............................................................................................................................................................... 18
Food clichés ................................................................................................................................................................................................18
TELEVISION MORALITY .....................................................................................................................20
Gambling..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20
Sex and the future in science fiction ................................................................................................................................................20
THE FEMALE FACTOR........................................................................................................................22
Other movie and TV clichés................................................................................................................................................................ 22
Gilligan Island, full of them .................................................................................................................................................................22
GETTING OLD AND DUPLICATED.......................................................................................................25
Cloning characters.................................................................................................................................................................................. 25
The alter egos ............................................................................................................................................................................................25
POLITICS...........................................................................................................................................26
Ah, this is a jackpot................................................................................................................................................................................. 26
Reporting from a bar abroad, with dictators’ interpreters ..................................................................................................26
FREEDOM — LIBERTY?......................................................................................................................28
A difference only Anglophones understand................................................................................................................................ 28
Freedom is not free .................................................................................................................................................................................28
RELIGION. TO EACH HIS OWN...........................................................................................................30
Monotheism: totalitarianism............................................................................................................................................................. 30
Polytheism: democracy .........................................................................................................................................................................30
“THÕSE FUNNY LITTLE TH–NGS ON LÉTTERS...” .................................................................................32
They used to take the umlaut from Hägar the Horrible......................................................................................................... 32
And instant coffee Café Français had no accent and no cedilla, no anymore ...............................................................32
