1.  Do Americans still believe in "big is beautiful"? Or have
    such ideas as recycling et c. eaten on that phrase?

2.  Are the means of the mass media the only significant ways of
    spreading popular culture?

3.  Is fatness an indicator (in the sense of stereotypes) of
    one's wealth i.e. that one is not living on social security?

4.  Cartoons like the Simpsons and Beavis & Butt-Head criticize
    American culture; the way of living and social structure. Do
    Americans understand the critisism and (keeping this in mind)
    can they laugh at it?

5.  Soccer is the most widespread and popular game everywhere
    else on the earth, but not in America. Why not?
=================================================================

1.  Film director Martin Scorsese moved from Universal to Disney.
    I've heard that his film about Dalai Lama has been ready for
    some time already, but Disney's afraid to release it because
    of the threats made by China. China has told Disney that it
    will make Disney cartoons unavailable (in legal market,
    anyway) to its people. Do films like that (also Scorsese's
    film about Christ) really believed to have that great an
    effect on American audience? How about others, like the
    movies by Oliver Stone (Nixon, Natural Born Killers...)? How
    much pressure can someone (a political pressure group, or a
    fundamentalist group) put on a producer? And, finally, what
    makes Dalai Lama such a popular hero for a film? (I've heard
    that some other directors are also filming his life-story.)
    It seems like all we really need is his death as a martyr,
    and a Dalai Lama fever is a fact.

2.  What/who is St. Elmo, or rather, St. Elmo's fire? I've heard
    it being referred to both in literature and in movies.

3.  In "The Independence Day" by Richard Ford there is a sequence
    that I don't quite understand. It goes like this:

       "... though I was never involved" (in demonstrations)
       "back then, being a scared-stiff, Dudley Dought frat-rat
       possessor of highly revocable NROTC scholarship."

    I guess Frank meant that he was afraid of getting kicked out
    of the college(?), and/or losing his scholarship(?), but what
    about the Dudley Dought -bit? And what is NROTC?
  
4.  Earlier in the same novel, the "hero" Frank Bascombe and his
    son Paul visit the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield,
    Massachusetts. Frank mentions "murky old Phogg Allen pictures
    and replicas of Bob Lanier's dogs." Dogs and basketball? Bob
    Lanier? And " Phogg Allen?", for that matter.

5.  Why do Americans find all those different Halls of Fame so
    fascinating? What is the strangest Hall of Fame you've
    visited/heard of?
=================================================================

1.  Describe the U.S. political system (congress, governors,
    president, political parties etc.)

2.  What do Americans think in general about military actions USA
    is/was involved with all over the world (the Gulf War etc.)?

3.  Is there any social security system in the USA? Can it be
    compared with the finnish one?

4.  Who are the most popular clothing designers in the USA? Why
    are they so popular?

5.  How does the U.S. school system differ from the finnish one?
=================================================================

1.  An American exchange student told me once, that where she
    came from (Eugene, Oregon), teenagers would get into more
    trouble if they were caught drinking, than they would if they
    were caught smoking pot, for example. Is this true all over
    America, or could it be that she was just trying to show off
    with the 'coolness' of her home country. In the case of the
    latter, she sure failed miserably...

2.  "Male bonding" is a term that has been quite popular for some
    time now. Is this an American invention (at least I think
    I've only heard Americans talk about it), and why is it such
    a big hit?

3.  "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something
    blue." Where are this wedding tradition's origins?

4.  "Poor Little Rich Girl," an article by Charlotte Faltermayer
    (TIME, Jan 27, 1997), mentiones, that Oksana Baiul, Americas
    favorite in the recent success stories, has an "Americanizing
    agent," and that they've been "trying to Americanize her as
    much as possible, and the U.S. public has responded very
    well." This strikes me as a bit odd. Wouldn't the U.S. public
    be responding as well, if they weren't trying to sell her as
    an all-American product?

5.  What is it about the girls' volley ball team -- i.e. the
    fascination American teenage boys seem to have about girls'
    volleyball teams in Highschool. It's been a popular joke in
    American TV shows, that adolescent boys get a fire under
    their tails, when they hear that "the girls' volleyball team"
    is, for example, running track or exercising in the gym...
=================================================================

1.  What exactly is a 'Homecoming Queen'?

2.  Catch-22 as a term -- what does it mean?

3.  Where did the habit of giving children names that sounded
    like traditional ones but were spelled really exotically
    originate? I believe this is 'common' with 'California
    blondes' as well as black athletes.

4.  What is the image of roleplaying games in America nowadays?
    Do the great unwashed masses still link it to satanism and
    suicides?

5.  Are there any mythical figures similar to the Wandering Jew
    or the Flying Dutchman in American mythology? _Is_ there an
    American mythology, apart from the Wild West?
=================================================================

1.  Who is Joe Piscopo? He was sometimes mentioned on 'Married
    with Children'

2.  What is the origins of Thanksgiving?

3.  Why are so many US sports so violent, like rugby and American
    style ice hockey?

4.  Why is ice tea so popular in the USA?

5.  How old is baseball and how was it developed?
=================================================================

1.  Who is the best-known Finn in the US?

2.  What is the American drinking-culture really like? Is it the
    same as in Finland, where people normally use alcohol only to
    get drunk?

3.  How popular is the women's magazine Cosmopolitan in the US?
    What kind of people read it?

4.  Are the Finnish NHL-players (Kurri, Sel„nne, Koivu etc.)
    really so famous and well-known in the US as the Finnish
    media often claims them to be?

5.  How many hours does an average American watch TV daily?
=================================================================

1.  In U.S. do enough people still read books (with all the TV
    programs available) that it can be called popular culture?

2.  Are there things that are forbidden to be used in adds as
    alcohol and tobacco used to be in Finland?

3.  Can the burgers still be considered as the youth's icons or
    is the healthier food stepping in?

4.  Where does the name "Superbowl" come from?

5.  Do Americans subscribe to comic books such as Donald Duck?
=================================================================
1.  My aunt was with her 2-year-old son on the beach in
    California. My cousin didn't have any bathing suit on,
    because he wasn't use to it in Finland. The Americans on the
    beach were terrified, because the child was naked. Why is the
    nakedness such a tabu in America?

2.  Why is America always interfering in other countries'
    affairs, even though they may be situated on the other side
    of the earth?

3.  What is the reason for the large gaps between different
    social classes in the United States?

4.  Almost all trends that have something to do with beauty or
    health come from the United States. What is the origin of the
    current ideal of beauty? Why does everybody have to look like
    Jane Fonda or Pamela Anderson-Lee?

5.  What are the most popular names (or fashionable) for children
    at the moment?
=================================================================

1.  American pancakes are very famous, but how often people
    really make them and eat them? On Sundays?

2.  Why is it that the majority of Americans are so unbeliebably
    conservative?

3.  I found it very annoying and confusing, that on TV no sign is
    given between advertisements and programmes themselves. I
    would think that for children it is impossible to make a
    difference and so advertisements are considered to be a part
    of the programme, which of course is very convenient for the
    advertizisers. Has there be any efforts from the parents's
    side to do something about the matter?

4.  I was surprised to find this "nun-channel" in the American
    TV. All the time there's a nun (occasionally a priest) who
    sits behind a desk and tells about God. If you're really
    unlucky, she's singing with her very own voice...!!! To whom
    is this programme aimed for? Who do you think would actually
    want to watch this kind of a programme?

5.  Is it true that sunbathing topless on a public beach is
    forbidden in the States by law?
=================================================================

1.  I am currently doing a study on The Simpsons. Do you know
    when it was first shown on TV as an independent half an hour
    show? (Not as a part of Tracey Ullman Show.)

2.  There is a popular show called Seinfeld in American TV. What
    is it like?

3.  Are foreign, e.g. European films shown on TV in America? Are
    they subtitled or dubbed? Do people watch them?

4.  Is it just an urban legend that most Americans don't
    know/care what is happening outside their country, and they
    can't place (for example) Europe on the world map?

5.  Are women considered equal with men, or is it still the male
    who is the head of the family? How common is it for mothers
    to go to work?
=================================================================

1.  Concerning bar etiquette: If you smoke in a bar, do you offer
    your cigarettes to the other people in your company? 

2.  Is the habit of buying rounds of drink only restricted to the
    British Isles,or is this sometimes done in the U.S., too?

3.  What do you call the kind of wrestling where you have huge
    men throwing each other around, apparently not restricted by
    any rules,and doing spectacular and violent stunts for the
    benefit of the audience? This seems to have nothing to do
    with athletics as such; the whole business looks extremely
    unconvincing. Do people take it seriously, or is it just fun?

4.  What exactly is an "entree":is it a starter/appetizer or a
    main course? The word seems to be used in both senses, which
    is the official one?

5.  What exactly is the function of bridal showers and baby
    showers? Are they strictly a North American thing, and what
    are their origins?
=================================================================

1.  Advertising is so expensive during the Super Bowl. How about
    the tickets? How expensive are they? How early do you have to
    buy the tickets before the Super Bowl?

2.  Cellular phones are so common in Finland. Is the use of them
    growing in the USA as well? Do Americans know the brand name
    Nokia?

3.  Do high schools and universities in the USA have as good
    internet connections as we do in Finland? Or are the
    computers mainly used at home?

4.  Is Monday Night Football one of the most popular tv programs?
    Is advertising more expensive then than during other shows?
    Is the same game broadcasted all over the country or are the
    games of the local teams shown when ever they play?
=================================================================

1.  What's the most popular sitcom in the U.S. at the moment, and
    what's its audience like?

2.  How big a part does traditional American food play in the
    American food culture today?

3.  The all-American family. What are similarities/differences
    compared with the ideal Finnish family?

4.  How many Americans believe in God, how many believe in UFOs?

5.  How many languages and which languages does the ordinary
    American know besides English?
=================================================================

1.  How important does an American regard the U.S. army? What 
    percentage of youth go to the army? The system is different
    from the  Finnish one (optional); how can it be seen?

2.  Are libraries as important to Americans as they are to Finns?
    How do libraries operate (financially, for example)? Are they
    used by all social classes, like they are in Finland?

3.  Has television significantly lowerede the number of social
    activities?  (I mean activities for young people and
    children: sports, different kinds  of clubs..)

4.  Has the emerging of machines in music affected the employment
    of musicians and other pros in the music business?

5.  Are American girls as practical as Finnish ones? How many
    girls from a high school class would knit a pair of socks
    voluntarily and so she could also wear those socks in public?
    (Let's take a high school in Michigan, not in Florida...)

6.  Where does the 'phobia' of naked people come from? (Looking
    back to news about parents who were taken to court because of
    taking pictures of their children in their bathing suits.)
=================================================================

1.  I have always wanted to ask this. What's the big deal with
    American pro wrestling? How can it be popular in the U.S.? I
    mean, come on, the matches have obviously been set up.

2.  Is Las Vegas the only U.S. city that has legalized gambling?

3.  Are tobacco companies allowed to advertise all over the
    States? What about liquor companies?

4.  I know the Hockey Hall of Fame, but what are equivalents for
    baseball, football and basketball?

5.  Why is it that American TV news concentrate so much on
    national news? Here the ratio is more or less 50% national
    and 50% international.
=================================================================
1.  What are examples of status symbols in the U.S. today?

2.  Who are the most popular people and what are the most popular
    shows on TV in the U.S. today?

3.  Do Americans make movies that represent 'juntti-culture' as
    clearly as our Uuno Turhapuro or Pekko Aikamiespoika?

4.  If people are labeled on the grounds of the products they
    buy, then what is the difference between a Coca-Cola person
    and a Pepsi person?

5.  Do American children believe (or think) that all Disney films
    (animations like Cinderella, Snow White, etc.) were written
    by Disney himself or do they know they are old fairy tales?
=================================================================
(1) Why are guns so important to the citizens of the U.S.?  Why is hand
    gun control so difficult to establish?  Is it again the idea of
    "freedom to do almost anything, because the constitution says so"?

(2) How popular are "extreme sports" like cross-country mountain biking,
    inline skating, base jumping etc. in the U.S.?

(3) Why are the Americans obsessed with statistics in connection with
    sports?  Do they serve any other purpose besides adding an extra
    element of interest in an otherwise insignificant game (for example in
    hockey, the 500th goal of a player etc.)?

(4) In college football the players have some kind of small stickers in
    the back of their helmets.  What do they stand for?  Are they for the
    games they have played or perhaps for the TD's they have scored?

(5) What is the secret of the American chicken soup?  Why, if someone is
    sick, do you feed him chicken soup?  What is the secret ingredient
    that the Finnish chicken soup seems to lack?
    =========================================================================
1.  I once saw a 70's horror film about a girl who was from the Ozark
    mountains and turned out to be a witch.  There was an idea in the
    movie that there was something strange and mystical about that area,
    and some of the characters believed that some people in The Ozarks
    practised witchcraft.  A "professor" even thought they had physical
    features from which they could be identified.  Are there any beliefs
    like this about the Ozark area, or was it made up just for the film?

2.  Recently there has been some articles in newspapers about beauty
    contests arranged in the U.S for little girls. It seems this is
    especially popular in the southern states, but there is also some
    controversy about the issue as some of the girls are as young as five
    or six, but still they are dressed up like adults and wear a full
    make-up.  There also seems to be a lot of money involved.  What is the
    history of this and has there been any studies of whether the girls
    really benefit( having good self-esteem ect.) like their parents
    claim, or does taking part in and preparing for these contests create
    problems for them in the long run?

3.  Are debutante dances still arranged in the U.S?  In other words, are
    upper class or high society girls still introduced to society in a
    formal way?

4.  Is there a gypsy population in the U.S?  If yes, what is their role in
    the society and how does their lifestyle differ from the one they lead
    in Finland?

5.  Do young, unmarried couples live together in the U.S to the same
    extent as they do in Finland? Is this more common among some social or
    ethnic groups than in others?