Maria Braus

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Maria Braus Regino Gymnasium Prüm März 2013 Folie 1 Maria Braus The Image of the United States of America in Germany Regino-Gymnasium Prüm

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Regino-Gymnasium Prüm. The Image of the United States of America in Germany. Maria Braus. Questionnaire for the German students Subject: The image of the Unites States of America in Germany. 1) What do you associate with USA? (Name 5 words!) - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Maria Braus Regino Gymnasium Prüm März 2013 Folie 1

Maria Braus

The Image of the United States of America in Germany

Regino-Gymnasium Prüm

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Questionnaire for the German studentsSubject: The image of the Unites States of America in Germany

1) What do you associate with USA? (Name 5 words!)________________________________________________________________________2) Who is the President of the USA?________________________________________________________________________3) Would you like to visit the USA?________________________________________________________________________4) Name 2 cities! What are they famous for?________________________________________________________________________5) What do you know about the American school system?________________________________________________________________________6) Do you know German companies that produce in the US?________________________________________________________________________7) Which American products do you know?________________________________________________________________________8) What do you think is the USA very good at?________________________________________________________________________9) Do you know American people personally?________________________________________________________________________

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Results of the questionnaire given to students of the Regino-Gymnasium Prüm

http://www.regino-gym.de

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40 students of the following grades were consulted

• grade 8 (aged 13 to 14)

• grade 10 (aged 15 – 16) and

• grade 12 (18 years old)

All students of the three grades have responded willingly and accurately to the questions.

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First of all the students were asked about 5 terms and

definitions which they connect spontaneously to the USA:1. Hollywood - mentioned 22 times

2. New York - 18 x

3. Fast food - 13 x

4. Obama - 10 x

5. nature (desert, mountains, beach) – 8 x

6. big buildings – 7 x

7. Statue of Liberty – 7 x

8. Golden Gate Bridge – 6 x

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Further things which were mentioned:• football

• celebreties

• White House

• Independance

• Police of the World

• 50 states

• American Dream

• Stars and Stripes

• Global Player

But also:

• abuse of weapons

• economic crisis

• offensive foreign policy

• earthquakes

• Ground Zero

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All students know Barak Obama

They were also asked about further current American politicians:

• Mitt Romney was mentioned 19 times

• Hilary Clinton was mentioned 12 times

and Michelle Obama is well-known as First Lady

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• Just 2 of the polled students have been to the USA

up to now

• Altogether 9 students have relatives in the USA

• 7 more students have acquaintances there and they

communicate regularly

• 7 students have e-mail and facebook contacts

to students of the same age

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In contrast to the last decades of the 20th century when a lot of Americans were still on bases in Germany (especially in our region – Prüm, Bitburg, Spangdahlem, Baumholder, Ramstein …) just 2 students communicate with American citizens in their village.

TV, films, internet, commercials and school teaching are the most important sources of information.

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36 of 40 students ( = 90%) would be pleased to visit the USA

they are interested in:

1. in the big cities (New York, Los Angeles with Hollywood) – mentioned 16 times

2. in American culture – 10 x

3. in nature – 6 x

4. in visiting friends and relatives – 5 x

5. in learning the language – 2 x

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We asked the students to mention 5 cities with their special features:

• New York with its different sights and shopping facilities (31 x)

• Los Angeles with Hollywood (29 x)

• San Francisco (23 x), Golden Gate Bridge

• Las Vegas (22 x), casinos, desert town

• Washington DC (15 x), the Nation‘s Capital, seat of government

• Miami (13 x), beach, tornadoes

• Chicago (10 x) cine film series, baseball, basketball

• Houston (2 x), space travel

• Dallas (1 x) Capital of Texas, basketball-teams

• Seattle (1 x) mountains

Cities

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The students know the basic terms (from nursery to university), while the categorization of the different (school)levels is not always accurate.

Further information:

• Well-known is the marking system (A – F)

• sport teams are important

• all-day school

• canteen

• school uniforms

• boards in every corridor

• candy vendors in school buildings

• students walk together to their class room

• students are allowed to make use of their notes in exams

• yellow school bus

• exclusion from instruction up to 10 days is possible

What do you know about the

American school system?

often mentioned

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1. market leader Mc Donalds (25 x)

2. followed by Apple (18 x)

3. Coca-Cola (11 x)

Restaurant Chains:

• Burger King (13x)

• Subway (7x)

• Starbucks (6x)

• KFC (2x)

IT – Branch:

• Google (9x)

• Microsoft (6x)

• Yahoo

• Amazon

Presence of American companies/products in Germany

Fashion:

• Hollister (9x)

• Converse (3x)

• Nike (3x)

• skatebordbrands (2x)

• Hilfiger (2x)

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Presence of American companies/products in Germany

American automobile companies: mentioned 8 times

Additional products which were mentioned:

• cookies (12 x)

• hot dogs (11 x)

• peanut-butter (5 x)

• barbecue-sauce (1 x)

• energy drinks (1 x)

1 student mentioned: military equipment

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Presence of American companies/products in Germany

Here you can draw the conclusion that the students‘ knowledge of American products and companies refer almost completely to consumer goods.

Please note that some fashion brands like H & M, New Yorker and Lush and especially some luxury brands like Armani, Gucci, Prada, Lacoste, Rolex … were misleadingly percepted as American brands.

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Presence of German companies in the USA

The presence of German companies in the USA is of course less known to the students.

They mentioned:

• German automobile companies (22 x)

• Adidas (11 x)

• BASF (1 x)

• Siemens (1 x)

• SAP (1 x)

Local companies acting on the global market were also mentioned:

• Streif• Stihl• Bitburger• Gerolsteiner• Grohmann

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What do you think is the USA very good at?

Without parameters we got the following ranking:

1. making movies and games (21 x)

2. playing American football (20 x)

3. celebreties (13 x) – singing, dancing, acting

4. other sports: baseball (10 x), basketball (7 x), rugby (5 x), golf (3 x)

5. developping software and hardware (8 x)

6. cheerleading (7 x)

7. handling firearms (6 x)

8. merchandising goods (6 x)

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What do you think is the USA very good at?

9. designing fashion (2 x)

10. building muscle cars (2 x)

11. building great towns (2 x)

There were also on the lists:

• fighting out election campaigns

• excessive Christmas decorations

• baking

und

• 4 x American amicability and cheerfulness

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Other pictures of the “Regino”

Cloister

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Questions?