Americans Are Friendly to Strangers

Author: Nader Alyousha

I came to the United States one year ago and I had no idea about life in the United States and American traditions, except that life was complicated and people are strange. At the time I arrived at J.F. Kennedy airport, I felt very happy because I am fond of traveling around the world. Coming to America had been one of my dreams, so I could go to Jamaica or any island in the Caribbean. A few minutes later, however, I felt afraid. I asked myself why I had come to this strange world and what I was doing here. The reason for that was what I remembered my friends in Saudi Arabia saying about Americans and how they treat strangers. After I attended college, however, I discovered the opposite of what I had expected. Even though American social relations are complex, hard to form, and hard to maintain, I managed to bridge the gap, and I was able to have close friendships with some Americans. For example, the first semester I attended college, I became friends with one of the American students who used to attend math class with me. We used to study together, go to parties together, and he used to help me a lot with my English. Even though he transferred to another university, we always keep in touch with each other. From my experience, I have come to understand that Americans are generally verbal and long, silent periods are uncomfortable to them. So, when I sit with Americans, I start a conversation with them by talking about the weather, sports, or about teachers' skills in the classroom. I think conversations make a friendly atmosphere among people. The second example that proved to me that I had the wrong idea about Americans was when my wife and I drove across the country from New Orleans to San Diego, When I told my friends that my wife and I were going to drive across the United States and if they wanted to they could join us, they said, "It is dangerous to drive across America. You might get killed by one of the truck drivers or get robbed." However, we didn't pay attention to them because we wanted to find out what America is really like and how people treat strangers. On the way from San Antonio to El Paso, our car stopped because it ran out of fuel. We got out of the car and waited for anyone to give us a ride. Ten minutes later, a truck driver pulled off the road. I approached him carefully and I asked him, "Could you please give us a ride to the nearest gas station?" He asked me why. I said, "Our car ran out of gas and we have to get some." He said, "The nearest station is thirty-five miles away and you might not find anyone who can drive you back to your car." Then he came up with a solution to our problem. He towed our car to the nearest station. When we reached it, I took a fifty dollar bill from my pocket and handed it to him, but he wouldn't accept it. He told me that he helped me because we needed help. In general, Americans are friendly to strangers. From my experience, a person who treats people well will put them in a position where they have to respect him in return, but if he treats them badly they will treat him in the same way. Human beings are born with a good nature and they will not behave badly unless they are forced to. I think a person should judge people by dealing with them, not by listening to his friends. Discuss: 1. What is the thesis statement of this essay? Where does it appear? 2. What is the theme or topic of the essay ? 3. What is the authors idea about the theme? 4. What are the transitions used to turn from one idea to another? 5. Does the author like Americans? 6. What examples does the author give about Americans behavior? 7. What important characteristics of Americans does the author discuss? 8. Is the author American? Where does the author probably come from? 9. Is the author male or female? 10. What places from the United States are mentioned in the essay?