Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

I got the chance to go visit my family in January and am still shocked at some of the misconceptions people have about Latin America. Here are some of them.

No one speaks English. (Some of the Peruvians I�ve met speak better English than many Americans)
Everyone is short, dark-haired and dark-skinned. (There are bond-haired, blue-eyed, tall Peruvians)
Everyone is poor. (There�s heaps of rich people here)
Everyone lives on farms (A quarter of the population live in Lima)
It�s an uncivilised and backwards country. (People here are educated and polite)
Basically, everyone lives like the Andean people that they see in National Geographics. (Some do, but not everyone)

I just don�t understand how people can lump others together. Yes, there are people who live like the people in National Geographics, however, there are others who live like they�re in NY. I guess I�m shocked at the fact that some, not all, Americans couldn�t be bothered with the rest of the world and are content with living in a bubble. My best friend, who is geographically challenged, asked me while we were out for coffee. �Listen this is going to sounds stupid, but Peru is in Asia, right?� Not quite. I tried to explain that it was near Ecuador at Chile. See didn�t know where that was either. Brasil? Nope. Ok, go south of Mexico and then you get to Panama, then south a bit more, and you hit Peru.

After living in China, I was asked if people spoke English. Where I was living, most people didn�t speak English. So then how did I communicate? they wanted to know. I learnt some Chinese I told them. But isn�t it difficult? Anything can be difficult, you just have to learn a bit and not think that it is difficult.

I don�t think that this only holds for Americans, I�m sure that many of you have contact with people back �home�. Family, friends, people you work with, forums. What are some of the misconceptions you�ve run across?

[Guy Courchesne]

I was going to bring up the Chupacabra or La Llorona!

Such myths (stereotypes?) are easy to come up with if one hasn't traveled.

I've heard all of yours Naturegirl, from family, friends, and a good number of people on the forum and in Mexico.

As well, I've heard many a stereotyped opinion from Mexicans about foreigners.

Or even better, the stereotypes we have of ourselves.

The best part of working abroad as we do is to rise above all that crap, though you do have to have your eyes open.

[MamaOaxaca]

Before I went to Chile in 1993, I said to my grandfather, that I had just go some new shoes for my trip to Chile, and he said, "Maybe they don't wear shoes there." Then I was talking with one of my TA's, a graduate student in Political Science at a large American university, and he said, "You're going to Chile!?!?, You're going to be killed there, they shoot people on the street there." I was like ummm, can you say "current events".

But everyone, from all walks of life had the same comment when I came back from Chile. "I bet you got some great Mexican food down there."

[John Hall]

When I first took a trip to Costa Rica (my first Latin American country), my travelling companion suggested that we visit Panama and/or Nicaragua. No way! I was a person well-informed from having read newspapers for years and years! Panama? The bullets had been flying only ten years before when Noriega had been in power! And Nicaragua? Another recently war-torn country ripe for a return to civil war at any moment!

After getting some real information on these countries, I visited both of Costa Rica's neighbors. Then, I even went on to visit more dangerous areas such as Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico.