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Show Family Weekly February 2, 1969 What Foreign Visitors Really By FLORA RHETA SCHREIBER visitor people," says a ballerina beating the FROM Germany insisted that his recently travel agent register him at a certain Chicago hotel because "that's where the gangsters stay." A visitor from Japan was deeply insulted when his American host offered him a car seat beside A j the driver. teen-age- A Soviet visitor could not understand why our liquor stores are closed on Sunday. An Indian girl, studying at New York University, said that she felt sorry "for American girls, who not only have to worry about school but also about finding a husband. In my country." she said, "we're so much better off. I'm going home to marry the man my mother chse. Never having seen him, I've had no trouble at all !" As these incidents reveal, it Is not easy for the foreign visitor to appreciate the meaning of what he sees or hears in America. Reared on "B" movies, the German came in quest of gangsters as though gangsters were the whole of America. Having grown up in a tradition totally different from ours, the Indian student could not grasp that her country's courtship and marriage customs were anathema to the very American girls sh, pitied. "European visitors," reports the European Travel Commission, "arrive with erroneous impressions based on Hollywood images." The Department of Commerce's U.S. Travel Service notes : "It is true that a few visitors plan their trips around gangster haunts, but many do look for the palatial homes, the swimming pools, and other evidence of luxury which our films often present as the American way of life.' " These visitors, thinking of us as "ilTe new world," are more impressed, at least at first, with automobile factories in Detroit, skyscrapers in New kitchens evYork, and gadget-fille- d more human our with erywhere than values. The British, 192 years after we declared our independence, still are likely to think of us somewhat patronizingly as one visiting British taxi driver put it, "the colonies." The French expect us to be a little "kookie" and criticize our customs, Family Weekly, February drum against our permissiveness. 'There is no kissing in public in Russia as there is here. American youngsters behave this way because of your tv, which portrays their elders as lacking serious values. And because of your automobiles. The automobile breeds idleness among teenagers. I'm glad we Russians don't have access to cars. We never just go for a drive, doing nothing. Our as well as adults are always occupied with something we consider useful." Others showed dismay that our Federal Government does not exert complete control over all aspects of our life. "Each of your 50 states," one ballerina told me, "has its own laws. Isn't that inconvenient for the nation as a whole?" Even more serious was the rigid noncomprehension by the Russians of the American concept of freedom. "What is freedom to you is not freedom to us," said Gennadi Lediakh, the oldest member of the company on his last tour before retirement. "You have too much freedom." Ballerina Liudmilla Vlasova added, "You have riots and assassinations because you have too much freedom." American movies had prepared these Russian guests for Texas cowboys and sprawling Texas ranches with cattle. Instead, on their first night in Texas, they found themselves at a black-ti- e midnight supper party given by Robert Lynn Batts Tobin, a Texas millionaire and patron of the arts. There were no cowboys and no cattle at Oakwell, the Tobin ranch. Oakwell, on a hillside overlooking a candle-l- it river, was the epitome of sophistication. Tobin, the host, is president of Tobin Sur- - i, 1969 Ballerina Liudmilla Vla&ova mixes history with travel on a visit to the Alamo. yet in the end they manage to love the things they criticize. Visitors from Latin America, Japan, Africa, and the Soviet Union also are likely to have "distorted views about us," says Dr. Bryant M. Wedge, Director of the Institute for the Study of National Behavior, Princeton, N.J. In "Visitors to the United States and How They See Us," based on joint research by the Department of State and the United States Information Service, Doctor Wedge puts the case squarely in focus. "Even conversations with our foreign guests," he states, "often result in misunderstandings on both sides. The American doesn't know what is in the visitor's mind; the visitor cannot read the American's. Both parties bring a bagful of preconceptions to the conversation which makes communication all the face-to-fa- ce somebody would help "himself." The charge of permissiveness even extends to the Federal Government. "Isn't it dangerous to permit local school boards to determine what children will learn?" asked a group of educators from a former French colony in Africa. "Doesn't this lead to complete anarchy? Why doesn't the Federal Government impose standards on the schools? If it is so weak, how can people respect it?" Recently, while spending a week in Texas with members of the Soviet Union's "Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet," I observed many of these attitudes firsthand. "American young people seem more frivolous than Russian young more difficult." To these visitors our way of life seems hopelessly permissive, exploitive of other countries, arc!, in some instances, actually immoral. They're critical of teen-ag- e dating patterns and of parental indulgence. One Latin American visitor was amazed when he saw coins piled on a newsstand. "From what I heard about you Americans," he said, "I woula have thought 585-ac- rs re Members of the Bolshoi company engage Americans in a lively s discussion of rock 'n' roll. |
