This is how we do it: learning all over the world

This is my PSA to America: We need to step up our language skills.  I've meet several students from Austria, Germany and Switzerland and they each speak at least 3 languages. I personally think that is awesome. I remember saying I wanted to major in languages: what happened to that I'm not sure. Please believe I'll keep my Mandarin and Italian cds in heavy rotation from here on out. I do, however, have two pet peeves: The "German-Spanish" accent and the "Gringo-Spanish" accent. You wanna know how those sound? I'll happily imitate them for you upon my return to the states. In any case, they make me cringe. 

Today we discussed stereotypes. The girls from Germany were quick to dispel the stereotype that Europeans don't believe in bathing. Apparently, this can only be said of the French. They also added that the French don't use deodorant. The girls explained they housed a French exchange student for a month and the girl neither showered nor applied deodorant. The purpose of this discussion was to evaluate the stereotypes generated about Latin American cultures. Overall we agreed that stereotypes are detrimental because we generalize the actions/attitudes of some to all.