By Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter
Dallas, TX – Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter: Last year, troubled by increasing, global anti-Americanism, advertising executive Keith Reinhard launched an organization called Business for Diplomatic Action, to study and change the negative attitudes. He believes traveling students might be this nation's best ambassadors. In a Southern Methodist University theater filled with students heading abroad, the group's Executive Director, Cari Eggspuehler, talked with them about four root causes of anti-Americanism found by the research, including this one; the collective American personality.
Cari Eggspuehler, Executive Director, Business for Diplomatic Action: Brash, insensitive, overweight. Rich, decadent; that we're faithless, lack morals.
Zeeble: Eggspuehler says the other causes include U.S. government policies, the global reach of U.S. business, and the pervasive spread of our popular culture. These results came in part, from observations of employees in 200 ad offices worldwide.
Eggspuehler: And they said one of the most interesting things: Americans don't listen.
Zeeble: SMU graduate Lisa Coe, who spent a semester in Spain, saw that.
Lisa Coe, SMU graduate: I noticed a lot of loud Americans, a lot of loud students and people acting in ways that made me think, "Oh my gosh, those are Americans and that's how I can see why people think a certain way about us, because of the way my colleagues are acting in public."
Zeeble: Coe and four other SMU advertising students took on the assignment of compiling the findings from BDA, doing their own research, and writing the passport-sized book for traveling students called the World Citizen's Guide. Their teacher, Dr. Patricia Alvey, says it stresses foreign cultures, which is about the last thing found in most tour guides.
Dr. Patricia Alvey, SMU Temerlin Advertising Institute: This says we have an issue. You need to pay attention. Are you willing to listen? We can give you some useful information. That's what this does. It changes conversations.
Zeeble: And the 60-page guide - designed with neutral colors that don't scream red, white and blue - also prompts students to ask questions other guides might not. Like, what sports are popular in the host country? Will I recognize the national anthem? In all, Cari Eggspuehler says there are 50 culture questions.
Eggspuehler: What is the local language and what can I say to open a conversation? What is running in the local papers? What do people care about and are interested in? Instead of going there with an American mindset that "I'm just going to impart what I know about the world."
Zeeble: What's more, Eggspuehler's convinced students will read this guide. It's short. It offers interesting facts, like how touching the top of somebody's head in Indonesia is considered an insult, or that New Zealanders generally don't tip, because wages are the employers' responsibility. But maybe more important, it's written by students, says Dr. Geoffrey Bannister, director of the Forum on Education Abroad in Massachusetts.
Dr. Geoffrey Bannister, Director, Forum on Education Abroad: There's not a lot put out by students themselves. Often they'll listen to advice from peers better than from their parents, guardians and university advisors.
Zeeble: More than 200-thousand of these guides, with an enclosed mini computer disc of information, will be printed and sent free to every college student in the country traveling abroad this year. Business executives, high schools, and the U.S. State Department are also interested in a version of the guide. For KERA 90.1, I'm Bill Zeeble.
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