This past Saturday I caught the “Gilly – Science Fair” skit on Saturday Night Live with Zach Efron (host of the show) acting as an exchange student from Germany. You can access the skit here.
As I watched the skit I immediately began thinking of past movies and how exchange students were portrayed in film and television in the United States. The first to come to mind for me was Long Duk Dong from Sixteen Candles fame. Long Duk Dong’s most memorable scenes/lines are arguably “What’s Happening Hot Stuff” and “Dong, Where is my Automobile?” (click on scene titles to view videos).
Others that come to mind include:
- Monique, the French exchange student in Better Off Dead
- Üter Zörker from The Simpsons
- Fez from That '70s Show
- Monique, the French exchange student in Better Off Dead
- Üter Zörker from The Simpsons
- Fez from That '70s Show
Most disturbing is that a simple Google search for “exchange students in movies” brought up the “Sex Crazed Exchange Students” DVD for sale on Amazon at #9.
I’m interested in knowing what IHEC Blog readers think about the portrayal of exchange students in film and if they know of other examples (both positive and negative) that they would like to share.
I’m interested in knowing what IHEC Blog readers think about the portrayal of exchange students in film and if they know of other examples (both positive and negative) that they would like to share.
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11 comments:
I think Shannon Elizabeth's character in American Pie is supposed to be an exchange student.
David,
One that pops into my head is a nameless (or at least not prominently named) high school exchange student in the movie Can't Hardly Wait who attends a party wearing an "I Love USA" t-shirt and is goaded by American party-goers into saying things like "I am a sex machine" in his imperfect English. Not a flattering portrayal.
I also recently came across the portrayal of exchange students in advertising--a bus stop ad seen in DC and Baltimore for Nestea that proclaims their new red tea to be "tasty and exotic--like we bottled an exchange student." (More on my blog here: https://digitalcommons.georgetown.edu/blogs/workingworld/2009/04/06/foreign-exchange-students-tasty/). While the ad seems to me to be harmless enough (not racist or objectifying, as others have contended), I suppose taken with unflattering portrayals of exchange students in the movies and media, it's not a trend we want to encourage.
At AFS we were interested to see what the television producers did with "Aliens in America" which featured a US family hosting a Pakistani exchange student. I even sent them a copy of The Exchange Student Survival Kit, hoping for a product placement. Since I don't watch a lot of television, I'm not sure what happened to the show.
I'd love to see the SNL skit, but the link didn't work for me.
@srah, @Mark and @Betsy ~ Thank you all for your comments. Very much appreciated.
@Betsy ~ I think I fixed the link to the SNL skit. Sorry about that.
Sincerely,
David
Not sure that this has to be limited to exchange students in the US. I think you are missing the Klapisch film, L'Auberge Espagnole. It's called Potluck here in Canada or the Spanish Apartment in the US.
He made a follow-up called Les poupées russes (Russian Dolls) which I think shows some interesting elements of reverse culture shock.
Both movies can be watched in their entirety on youtube.
Cheers,
Jeff
@Jeff ~ Thanks for your comments. I guess I focused on U.S. film and TV because we here in the U.S. tend to protray the international education/exchange experience in inappropriate ways while others do not (just a theory)
David - thanks for doing this -- really good. I recall a scene from the 1950s "American in Paris" -- might be one of the oldest screen images of exchange students. Gene Kelly is selling his paintings on the street. A young, obviously American, woman approaches and starts to over-analyze his work in a rather sophomoric manner. One of the other characters ask "Who's she?" Kelly responds, "She's just a third year here is Paris, she doesn't know anything." -- Best, Dimitri
Although I haven't seen it, there's a 1979 film called French Postcards (US students in France). Another terrific film about culture shock (US/Spain and Spain/US) is 'La linea del cielo (Skyline, 1984) about a Spaniard who wants to make it big as a photographer in the US. He meets a Spanish graduate student in NYC, so there is some reference to school, but it's really relevant here mostly in terms of cultural exchange. Happy viewing!
@Dimitri and @Carolyn ~ Thanks to you both for taking the time to comment. In addition to the comments on this post I've received some interesting comments via e-mail as well.
The American in Paris quote is, "Yeah, you know, American college kids. They come over here to take their third year and lap up a little culture... They're officious and dull - always making profound observations they've overheard."
L'Auberge Espagnole is definitely a good one.
Unfortunately I can only think of documentaries, such as God Grew Tired of Us, a film about Sudanese refugees, that even begin to treat exchange students to the United States as anything other than a stereotype.
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