American teachers abroad. What is the craziest thing your students thought was true about Americans?

When I was teaching in Spain, I introduced myself to the class and told them I'm from Miami.

I hear a kid shout out in Spanish, wow, how is this guy alive? CSI Miami, Dexter, Miami Vice,

and Florida man have really corrupted foreigners' views of my city.

I was presenting an exhibition in Shanghai of about 95% Chinese people, and a young woman came up and asked me where I was from. I am white with brown hair and eyes. When I said I was American, she looked baffled and responded, but don't all Americans

have blue eyes? A lot of people also think that all Americans are fat and tall. It's a bit more

understandable when the person is old. An old man in Shanghai Park asked where I was from, and when I said

the US, he hollered, then how are you so short? I'm just over five foot two. American in South Korea

here have been asked by co-workers if high schools really have vending machines full of birth control

pills. Also, if I know any cowboys, not the football team, and if I have a gun back home. Students

ask me if I know Obama. Same kids yell,

Obama! Anytime they see a black person in their books or in a video. We're working on that.

At my high school, I was the immigrant mediator who would teach newly arrived Russian and

Ukrainian immigrants, and sometimes Jamaican and Hyatian immigrants,

English, and assimilate them into American society. This was in southern Brooklyn, where there were

thousands of Russian immigrants coming in during the early 2000s every year. I was picked for the

Russians, mostly because I was from Chechnya and new Russian. The biggest thing they would ask is

how do they start with dealing drugs, joining gangs,

and where is the nearest gun store?

They came from places with atrocious crime, and often they were criminals, and they

probably heard about America's drug and gang problems, and thought they could make a better

living doing that in America.

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