Croatian Students’ Perception of American Culture

Abstract

The article discusses the results of a study conducted among students of English at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb, Croatia. Although the study might be considered to be a rather limited one (60 participants), the author believes that it could give a general picture about the type of knowledge that young educated Croatians have about American culture. Generally speaking, the students-participants do not seem to be either positively or negatively biased regarding American culture. Their sources of information are mainly some aspects of formal education (school and/or university), complemented by TV and films. On the whole, the students do not think that they have good knowledge of American culture, and a number of them expressed the opinion that what they knew might only be stereotypes. This attitude may mean that at least some of the students-respondents will try to gain better insight into the subject of American culture in the future.