Having recently found myself at a dinner table in Italy with Americans, I find the following article on “The America manual“, for Americans in Italy, quite interesting.

It’s all about trying to deal with conversations about your native country (in this case, America), with a foreigner (in this case, Italian) who purports to know more than you do. I don’t believe this is exclusively an Italian trait, but I do agree it’s highly frustrating when people tell you about your own country.

Anyway, the author has decided to use a “yes, and…” theory to converse when an Italian insists that America is either a worse country, or that he knows more than you do. The conversation would go something like this:

“The following “yes and…” responses should stand you in good stead, no matter what the conversational occasion.

Yes, America is a very young country and, founded in 1776, is almost a century older than Italy, which was founded in 1861.

Yes, American culture and history are young and, like Italian culture and history, they are one of the many tributaries of broader European culture.

Yes, America is an artificial nation and the Founding Fathers modeled it on Periclean Athens.

Yes, you know America well, having seen lots of films, and did you know that many New York movies are shot in Toronto?

Yes, of course you know America well, having visited California and New York, and have you also visited the other 48 states?

Yes, we too have corruption and it is taken care of quickly. In the Watergate scandal, trials and convictions of perpetrators lasted two years from the June 1972 break-in to Richard Nixon’s resignation in August 1974.

Yes, America is a racist country and that’s why it oversaw the birth of the civil rights movement and Affirmative Action.

Yes, America has the world’s highest rates of gun ownership and is 24th in worldwide homicide rates. Brazil’s rate is four times higher.

Yes, America can be a Puritan country, and when deeds do not live up to words — called hypocrisy — hypocrites such as Eliot Spitzer resign.

Yes, American society has extremes of wealth and poverty and the World Bank says Americans have the world’s highest rate of charitable giving; 1.7 percent of GDP and the closest behind is the U.K. with .73 percent. Italy is unranked.

Yes, many Italians did immigrate to America and according to Italian journalist Gian Antonio Stella, author of “L’orda. Quando gli albanesi eravamo noi,” many were not at all brava gente.

Yes, that pasta over there does look good, and if you don’t mind I’m going to help myself to some. It was lovely talking to you.”

Source | The American In Italia

Photo | Flickr

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