I’m partnered with a high school geography class through World Wise Schools, a Peace Corps program that strives to meet the third goal of Peace Corps:  to strengthen Americans’ understanding of the world.  I’ve been communicating with this teacher and his students for more than a year now.  So far, the students have emailed me their questions.  It’s been a good experience for me, as I’ve had to reflect and summarize on my understanding of Georgian politics, culture and life.

A few weeks ago, we decided to partner my organization’s advanced English class with the high school students.  The American kids asked a few questions and the Georgian kids responded with their answers and a few more questions.

I thought the Georgian students’ responses to the American kids’ first round of questions were priceless and wanted to share a few of them here.  (I left in spelling and grammatical mistakes, not to be mean but to show the American students how tough it is to learn a new language.)  My particular favorite is the opinion that we Americans are crazy, fat and dirty.

How popular are cell phones, iPods and other personal electronic devices?
-Everyone has cell phones, some have smart phones.
-Not everyone has I-Pods.
-I-Phones are popular but expensicve, so we prefer the chinese ones.
-Most of the youth has computers.

How do the chores students in Georgia have compare to ours in the US?
-Washing the dishes – girls
-Cooking the bread – girls
-Cutting the wood – boys
-Doing the laundry – girls
-Clean the house – girls
-Picking the fruits – boys and girls

What do students in Georgia think of American / Americans and do they have any desire to visit our country some day?
-Great country.
-Dreams come true there.
-Or they break into pieces.
-People can do everithing.
-Everithing is chep.
-Beautiful nature.
-Everyone eats much.
-They love hamburgers.
-People live a long (time, I assume?)
-Every have car.
-Granparents don’t spend much time with their grandchildren, sons and daughters don’t spend time with their parents.
-Crazy people, fat people, durty people.

Considering that most information about life in the States here is gathered from dubbed episodes Ugly Betty, House, Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl, these descriptions aren’t too far off, eh?