STUMBLE: Are You Smarter than a Spanish Teenager

Today’s post is going to be quick but I’m not sure how easy it will be. As you know from reading my previous post (Second Guessing) every day that I walk into school I am subjected to an incessant string of random questions relating to all things "American". I am constantly amazed by how much my students know about America, and horrified by how little I know about Europe... and the U.S. for that matter sometimes. So, I wanted to let you in on the fun! I’ve provided a few questions that I have been asked below, along with the answers. I would love to hear how you  answered them.


1. List all 5 Great Lakes
2. What year was the FIRST Thanksgiving feast celebrated?
3. Where is Yellowstone National Park located?
4. Where is Justin Bieber from? 
5. Why don’t we call people from Mexico and Canada American too? 




1.  Huron, Erie, Michigan, Ontario, and Superior
2. Most sources agree that the first Thanksgiving feast was held in 1621
3. Yellowstone spans three states:  Wyoming, Montana and Idaho
4. *This one is kinda of a trick question: Justin Bieber was actually born in Ontario, Canada but to three 15yr old Spanish girls... he’s as American as they get. 
5. I have yet to answer this question although I have gotten it more than once.


 I’m not quite sure why people from the United States have a monopoly on the term “American”. Why aren’t we called United Staters or Mid Americans?  I don’t know... but I often find myself thinking about this question. What actually makes me an American; the fact that I was born in the United States or is it more? One student even commented "You are ALL from North America, right?" 
I hadn’t really thought much more about this until I was compared to another Auxiliar in our group. Her parents are Haitian and they came to the United States just long enough for her to be born and receive citizenship, before they returned to Haiti. She was raised in Haiti and came to the U.S. for high school and college. English isn’t her native language and she’s only lived in the U.S. for just over a decade, but she was born in New York so technically she is an American. But the question remained; is she less of an American than I am? What actually makes someone an American? What makes YOU an American?