The directness of Americans can shy people away and leave people that live outside of the United States closed minded about our actions and our way of life.  they only see our outlandish behaviors on the television, making other countries judge us and our celebrities and want to be celebrities. Which is understandable because comparing America to other European and Asian countries, our directness and openness to other people are superior to theirs’.  Mr. Khols believes that American directness overpowers any other country in the world, which I am in agreement with. The directness, the openness and the honesty of Americans, began in the early days and has evolved into the actions and thoughts we have today.
        The country was born on the society of the Puritans and we are still using many of their traditions today.  For instance, their openness towards their religion.  The Puritans were very direct with The Indians in saying that their religion is the only one that should be followed and they should be against the church of England.  If they decided not to follow their religion, and go against the Puritan beliefs, they were banished from the community, being very direct and honest about their beliefs and how their society is ran.  After the Puritans were here and the country started to grow and expand, the societies changed and began to conform with each other. Even though everyone began to move West for their own space and land, they joined together to move out West making the trip a little bit easier.  If they did not conform and be direct with meeting each other, the country could be different today (Curry).  As the Puritans build our country up on their directness of their religion, Americans learn from them and continue on their traditions.
        American directness and openness is based on the past but is also compared to other European and Asian counties.  Germans are very quiet and almost opposite of the honesty of Americans.  Germans tend to be very uncomfortable in large crowds.  When Americans have a tendency to break the awkwardness and make friends with other people in the crowd.  Germans have a sense of respect when around people they don’t know (“American Openness...Or Is It Just Superficiality With a Smile?”).  Onto another country, the Japanese pride themselves on dishonesty.  These two countries are a huge culture clash according to the author Kiyoko Yokota.  The directness of Americans and the shyness of the Japanese, create an even more of a culture difference.  The Japanese are more concerned with the other person they are with, rather than us Americans telling them too bluntly.  The Japanese hesitate to tell the other person they are with the truth so they aren’t so direct about their feelings (Kiyoko).  The Germans and Japanese aren’t as direct as Americans, and create a larger culture shock between the three countries.
While the Japanese are being dishonest for the right reasons, Americans turn that around and lie and steal for all the wrong reasons. Mr. Khols believes that Americans are over honest and tell people too much that they don’t want to hear.  While my opinion is the opposite.  I believe that Americans are more dishonest because of the theft rate in America and all of the problems today in our society.  14.5% of people believe that sometimes the temptation to steal in the work place or in public can be too hard to resist.  Many business owners think that people try to justify their actions by trying to make themselves believe that they have a good reason to steal from their work place and they try to make themselves think that their actions are justified.  For example, if they steal something from their workplace, they justify their actions by stating that their boss doesn’t treat them right, they think they should be getting paid more for their duties, or there are so many, no one will notice if one or two is gone.  But in reality, they are just lying to themselves and stealing from their workplace.  In America, the current estimates of thefts has cost companies more than $60,000,000,000 a year.  To support these facts, Ohio State College did a test on people in big companies.  12.2% of people admitted to having dishonesty and rationalized behavior in past jobs, 10.7% said they would steal if they knew they were not going to get caught and 11.2% said they would not give the money back to whom ever they stole from; proving the dishonesty of Americans (“How Honest are Americans?”).  Although I don’t agree with Mr. Khols and the over honesty of Americans, there are tests and studies to show that Americans can be extremely dishonest.
America’s dishonesty grows further out from just the work place, and their directness is growing into the younger population.  While parents are trying to tell their young children to never talk to their elders about politics or religion, the media is now trying to change that.  Kayne West spoke out about how George Bush thoughts about African American people, now kids are thinking that is okay and accepted in our society.  Now kids are being taught by the wrong people how to be direct and open about their thoughts.  Starting off at an early age of being direct in America, continues on with this ugly tradition of dishonesty and over directness(Curry).  Continuing with the work place, many people in America are very open with new workers that come in.  Unlike in Germany, when they would be more shy and hesitant to give them a big hand shake, they almost believe that it is too overpowering.  Many Americans open new people with open arms, first a hand shake, then an exchange of names, then taking a tour of the office, then going out for a drink and then before you know it, you’ll be singing karaoke with the boss.  In many countries, this approach is too open and over powering to a new worker.  Other societies believe that people shouldn’t be taking new friends out for drinks so quickly(“How Honest are Americans?”).  I believe they have more respect for the person and Americans have lost a sense of respect for human beings and for themselves. In other countries, people respect more of what other people have to say, think, feel and they always think before what they say, when Americans are very direct and open about what they say and who they say it to.
From the very beginning of our country, the Puritans based their society on directness towards each other.  And now-a-day, American children learn how to be brutally honest through media rather than through the child’s parents.  This showing that Americans always start from the bottom us, keeping the tradition of directness open throughout the years. When compared to other countries, Americans seem to have lost respect and honesty to one another in the work place and in general.  Studies have shown that Americans are dishonest for the wrong reasons when the Japanese are dishonest to care for others.  All in all, Mr. Khols was correct in saying that Americans are more direct, open and honest than many other countries and nationalities.