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Project Xpat: What The World Thinks Of America

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"America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room," observed British historian Arnold J. Toynbee. "Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair."

And Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca said, "The only things that the United States has given to the world are skyscrapers, jazz, and cocktails."

Opinions of America are like bellybuttons — everybody's got one.

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As part of Project Xpat — an exploration by NPR — we asked Americans living abroad to tell us in 10 words or less how they would answer the 10-word question: What Do People In Your Host Country Think Of America?

Here are some of the responses:

/ Andrea Eagleman
/
Andrea Eagleman

"Has a limited worldview and is absolutely crazy about guns." — Andrea Eagleman, 33, New Zealand

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"Americans: violent, no culture; but you: humble, kind and different." — Chantal Mpezo, 27, South Korea

**

/ Yasmine Qureshi
/
Yasmine Qureshi

"America, the land of optimism, excess, economic and political decline." — Yasmine Qureshi, 28, England

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/ Brian Blakely
/
Brian Blakely

"Most find America delightful. Tourism dollars help quite a lot." — Brian Blakely, 30, Morocco

**

/ Renee Baker
/
Renee Baker

"Fashion labels, excess money, beauty, USA means beautiful country." — Renee Baker, 37, China

**

/ Thomas Mosley
/
Thomas Mosley

"Full of contradictions: confusingly progressive yet behind the times." — Thomas Mosley, 25, Spain

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/ Holly-Nicole Nwangwa
/
Holly-Nicole Nwangwa

"A place to gasp at, but not to go to." — Holly-Nicole Nwangwa, 23, Japan

**

/ Carly Erickson
/
Carly Erickson

"Americans are very patriotic and all have guns." — Carly Erickson, 25, Italy

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/ Towy Vaughn
/
Towy Vaughn

"Americans are aggressive, paranoid gun-hoarders who don't want social health care." — Towy Vaughn, 38, China

**

/ Brenna Bethancourt
/
Brenna Bethancourt

"Cheap iPhones, rap music and better movies exist in America." — Brenna Bethancourt, 28, Russia

**

/ Anastasia Primbas
/
Anastasia Primbas

"Gun-loving but fun-loving; hard working but spoiled and fat." — Anastasia Primbas, 47, Hungary

**

The Protojournalist: Experimental storytelling for the LURVers – Listeners, Users, Readers, Viewers – of NPR. @NPRtpj

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Linton Weeks
Linton Weeks joined NPR in the summer of 2008, as its national correspondent for Digital News. He immediately hit the campaign trail, covering the Democratic and Republican National Conventions; fact-checking the debates; and exploring the candidates, the issues and the electorate.