PERCEPTIONS OF CANADA AND THE USA – AN ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL AWARENESS AMONG ROMANIAN BUSINESS STUDENTS
PERCEPTIONS OF CANADA AND THE USA – AN ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL AWARENESS AMONG ROMANIAN BUSINESS STUDENTS

Summary/Abstract: This paper explores the extent to which American and Canadian values, symbols and cultural traits are perceived as such by Romanian students or whether the two countries’ identity markers have become blurred and are easily confused. The research premise of this article is that given the overemphasized American cultural presence in Romania, students’ perception of Canada is distorted and lacks substance. The study will make use of up-to-date research data on the impact of American culture on Southeast-European countries and it will focus on the need for a clearer, more robust manifestation of Canadian culture in this region. Given the fact that from an economic point of view Canada has been present on the Romanian market for a long time and that from a cultural perspective Romanians have been exposed to Canadian literature, music or film, it becomes unusual to notice that Canadian cultural identity is not as well defined as expected. By means of questionnaires distributed mainly to the Bucharest University of Economic Studies undergraduates as well as to Master students and alumni, we will establish the degree to which Canadianness is perceived as Americanness or vice versa. The data analysis will allow us to determine if there is an actual need to include in our curricula cultural studies courses which might improve the perception of the two North-American cultures. Special attention will be paid to Canada’s visibility in Romanian higher education.

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