Q&A With Erin Granat: On Americans Studying Abroad

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  02.28.08 | 12:00 PM ET

imageAmericans who’ve traveled overseas know well that the U.S. is more loathed than loved in many quarters. But for students traveling abroad for the first time these days—and fortunately, there are many—that realization can be startling and eye-opening. I recently asked Erin Granat a few questions about her experience.

Granat, a Reno/Tahoe-based writer and video blogger, not only spent six months studying in Madrid in 2006, but she also traveled to Australia to conduct research for her honors thesis, Heroes or Hellions: How Americans are Perceived Abroad. I caught up with her during her latest overseas stint in Wellington, New Zealand.

World Hum: How were you received during your study abroad year in Spain?

Erin Granat: I was received just fine—all the Europeans I met were really wonderful, and there were never any huge issues. It was actually something really subtle that sparked my interest in the whole anti-Americanism topic. My first week in Madrid I was wandering down an alley, just taking in the buildings and the essence of my new home, when I came upon “BU$H” spray painted on a wall in red, white and blue. It stopped me in my tracks.

I started wondering if this was how Spaniards viewed America and the American president. Did they think we were just greedy, materialistic people consumed with making money off other nations? Was this how my Spanish roommates Laura and Guadalupe (and their matted cat Agata) saw me?

Over the course of the next six months in Europe I would be confronted with these questions time and again. Americans, it seems, are on everybody’s shit list. I had approached my study abroad time with the assumption that Americans are an idealized nationality. That everywhere I went, Spaniards, Italians and Germans alike would want to shake my hand and congratulate me on a job well done. What I found was the complete opposite.

Did that experience help lead you to your thesis topic?

Absolutely. It made me really want to understand on a human level what it is about America and Americans that inspires such controversy. It made me realize how sheltered we are. Before I studied abroad, I never understood that what we hear on the news isn’t necessarily the truth, it’s an interpretation of the truth.

The study abroad experience made me realize anti-Americanism is a very relevant issue. We’re dominating the world, yet no one likes us. We want the world to back us up on military issues, yet no one agrees with our policies. We plan on continuing to run the world, yet everyone else is itching to oust us. I started doing some research, reading articles and surveys and whatnot, and I found that Spaniards have one of the lowest approval ratings of Americans in the world, and Australians have the highest. So it made sense to me to go to Australia, a pretty neutral country, to try and get some objective answers.

How did what you found in the course of your research mesh with your expectations going in? Any big surprises?

The big surprise is that I didn’t find an answer. As I say in the last chapter:

Everyone I met, from Australia, England, Ireland, France and beyond, has an opinion on America and Americans. They certainly all have nice things to say to go along with the bad, but there’s always the bad. Yet almost all my interview subjects had been to America, or in the very least were eager to go. How can people be so adamantly opposed to a culture, yet so keen so observe it?...In my time here in Australia what I’ve learned is this: anti-Americanism is possibly the most complex, ambiguous issue out there…But there is something we, as Americans, can do about it. When we travel, we can take a few short minutes to learn the basics of the country we’re visiting. We can take the time to explore the media and pop culture of other places. Anti-Americanism is an issue that is not going away any time soon, but if a few of us make an effort when traveling abroad to break the stereotype, we might be better ambassadors for our country. 

Any last thoughts on the benefits of studying abroad?

In a nutshell: I believe studying abroad is the single most beneficial thing you can do in your university career. Even if you think you don’t need the experience for your major, you should still study abroad. Even if you don’t think you’ll graduate, you should still study abroad. The classes you take in the U.S. will finally feel relevant when you’re using math to convert euros to dollars, art history to understand the church in front of you, and comparative economics to strike up a conversation with the sexy waiter in the café. And of course, as with any travel, you will learn about where you come from and where you’re going.

Thanks, Erin.

Photo courtesy of Erin Granat.

Tags: North America, United States

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


3 Comments for Q&A With Erin Granat: On Americans Studying Abroad

Nikita Bleeker 02.29.08 | 2:59 AM ET

I have always wanted to go to Italy. Currently I am in school studying set design at Cal Arts. I think it would be beneficial to me to explore Italy’s landscape. The question that I need to know is how does a student finance such a expensive trip?

Erin Granat 03.13.08 | 1:52 AM ET

Nikita,

Congrats on your interest in studying abroad, I can definitely see how a design student of any kind would benefit from checking out Italy. You’ve got incredible countryside that inspired so many of the great masters, and then their work right there at your fingertips.

There are many ways to finance your trip, and it doesn’t have to be very difficult. All study abroad programs offer a range of scholarships to help worthy students fund their trip, for example, I studied under USAC and they had dozens of scholarships available.

You might want to see if Cal Arts has any exchange programs with universities in Italy, you might get some tuition benefits from being an existing student.

You could also take out a student loan, which is what I did. I took out a Stafford Unsubsidized student loan, which is available to anyone regardless of financial need. Then I petitioned my dad to help me pay for the rest. He was really skeptical at first, he thought it was just an excuse for me to party my way through Europe. So I wrote essays about how it would benefit my education, made a detailed expense sheet, even a PowerPoint presentation on how frugal and studious I would be! He eventually agreed and to this day considers it my biggest university accomplishment.

You can always of course just work your tail off to save up the money, I promise there isn’t a more worthy university expense that studying abroad!

Good luck, you will definitely not regret the effort once you’re eating authentic Italian pizza and studying in the same land Michelangelo called home. :)

-Erin

Student loan consolidation 06.18.08 | 11:45 AM ET

Traveling abroad is what most students want, mostly bright students because they see this as a great motivation. Weren’t we supposed to help students reach this? You said you made a student loan for this and I it doesn’t seem fair. Students should get more support if we want them to succeed in everything they do.

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