s/o What is "American" Culture?

[Incognito]

Re:flipside I personally do find the level to which individuality is idealized over the collective good to be negative.

 

Re:American obliviousness of other cultures - Greta, you hit the nail on the head. That is a big part of the negative stereotypes that prevail about Americans.

[mommaduck]

FTR, the job I had this winter dealt with many people traveling from outside of the country. I could pick out a Canadian, particularly the ones from Quebec. Once or twice I was thrown, but there were common traits. I had fun meeting so many from other areas. It made me feel more "at home" than I had felt in awhile.

[lailasmum]

I got an outside view working in a tourist information in a small English town. We went through a phase of having a lot of wealthy American tourists. The stereotype of the brash, loud, demanding, larger than life American did fit them but in hindsight I can see that there was a particular style of tourism at play. It was always older couples wanting high end travel in quaint England, we never got just ordinary families or single travellers through the doors so there wasn't any thing balancing it. From American families I know,  with the exception of one woman ( a family acquaintance who is a nightmare and has now gone back to the US), I haven't found them to be radically louder or much different to the British families I know really. Maybe they are trying to blend in but if they are they keep it up well all of the time. 

[wintermom]

I wouldn't dwell too much on the superficial descriptions of American tourists - it's going to be just that, superficial. Where I notice more deep expressions of Americans is talking with them while they are comfortable in their own homes. That's when I notice the support for their personal freedoms and rights to choose what they do with their money, time, energy. They'd rather not be told what to do or how to do it - they'll decide that on their own. This is evident in their govenment, churches, economics, military and international relations.  I don't believe that it's necessarily a bad thing, if fact it's rather nice to have a country bold enough to do this. They get critics for this all the time, and yet it works, and works pretty well - especially compared to other unions (UN, EU) which are experiencing how impossible it is to try and please everyone.

 

 

[Junie]

What kinds of ideals or traits do you think those are?

 

I'm curious, because things that seem like they should be so obviously American to me, aren't to everyone (ahem, yesterday's ruling). The more diverse viewpoints I hear, the less convinced I am that there are--or ever were--common ideals.

 

I have been teaching a 20th Century America history class to ds14, so I'm thinking primarily in the last 100 or so years, although there are many examples throughout U.S. history.

 

Think of how many things used to be considered taboo/against the norm:

 

Divorce

Living together before marriage

Birth control

Drug use

Bi-racial marriage

Children born out of wedlock

Both parents working

Women in professions other than nursing, teaching, secretarial

Homeschooling ;)

 

 

These used to be things to be whispered about.  Not that they never happened, but they were definitely not desirable in the eyes of most.  Now, many people would not think these to be a big deal.

 

As time progresses, things that were once "counter-culture" have become "culture".

[wintermom]

. 

 

[Chess Dad]

I would say American culture is its diversity. America, as a whole, I believe is more diverse than most other nations. I am happy to be corrected if I am wrong however. The one thing that has always struck me when visiting other places is the lack of diversity. So for me, America is diversity.

 

I agree Btervet!   :iagree:   Diversity is an American Culture.  One example that comes to mind is how many different languages we speak.  With no OFFICIAL language, there are over 300 different languages spoken in the US.  wow...

 

Here's and excerpt from the below referenced article.  Interesting stuff... 

 

Language

There is no official language of the United States, according to the U.S. government. While almost every language in the world is spoken in the United States, Spanish, Chinese, French and German are among the most frequently spoken non-English languages. Ninety percent of the U.S. population speaks and understands at least some English, and most official business is conducted in English.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that more than 300 languages are spoken in the United States. The bureau divides those languages intofour categories: Spanish; other Indo-European languages, which includes German, Yiddish, Swedish, French, Italian, Russian, Polish, Hindi, Punjabi, Greek and several others; Asian and Pacific Island languages, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Tamil and more; and "all other languages," which is a category for languages that didn't fit into the first three categories, such as Hungarian, Arabic, Hebrew, languages of Africa and languages of native people of North, Central and South America.

 

Above is the example I found in this article on American Culture.

 

http://www.livescience.com/28945-american-culture.html

 

Sure there are many cultural traditions in America, I just found this one to be very interesting.

 

God Bless America!  :patriot:

[Luanne]

Culture has lost all meaning.  What the true definition of culture is isn't taken into account anymore.  Now it is just whatever crazy thing the young people choose to come up with and call their "own culture" is what it is. 

[Rosie_0801]

Culture has lost all meaning.  What the true definition of culture is isn't taken into account anymore.  Now it is just whatever crazy thing the young people choose to come up with and call their "own culture" is what it is. 

 

Yeah, yeah. People have been saying that since the dawn of history. Your parents generation said the same about your generation.  :nopity: '

[Word Nerd]

http://blogs.voanews.com/all-about-america/2015/06/24/why-regular-americans-gave-away-358-billion-in-2014/?from=lister

[DawnM]

Americans are very individualistic compared to most cultures.  We also think the world revolves around us, we are the greatest and most powerful county in the world, blah, blah, blah.  We believe if we want it, we can get it.

I remember once being told that the difference between American missionaries and European missionaries is that once an American missionary is introduced to a new gadget or appliance, it instantly becomes a MUST HAVE, where the Europeans see it as a luxury that might not be theres long term and isn't completely necessary.

 

We are materialistic, rude, demanding, and arrogant.

 

These traits are obviously not representative of every American, but they are the perception of us.

[JenniferB]

Rugged Individualism

[MEmama]

I have been teaching a 20th Century America history class to ds14, so I'm thinking primarily in the last 100 or so years, although there are many examples throughout U.S. history.

 

Think of how many things used to be considered taboo/against the norm:

 

Divorce

Living together before marriage

Birth control

Drug use

Bi-racial marriage

Children born out of wedlock

Both parents working

Women in professions other than nursing, teaching, secretarial

Homeschooling ;)

 

 

These used to be things to be whispered about. Not that they never happened, but they were definitely not desirable in the eyes of most. Now, many people would not think these to be a big deal.

 

As time progresses, things that were once "counter-culture" have become "culture".

Hmm. I wouldn't consider any of those as uniquely American ideals; in fact, the US has a tendency to fight to the death before accepting them long after other nations do. I don't see where 2 income families defines American culture?

[wintermom]

Americans are very individualistic compared to most cultures.  We also think the world revolves around us, we are the greatest and most powerful county in the world, blah, blah, blah.  We believe if we want it, we can get it.

I remember once being told that the difference between American missionaries and European missionaries is that once an American missionary is introduced to a new gadget or appliance, it instantly becomes a MUST HAVE, where the Europeans see it as a luxury that might not be theres long term and isn't completely necessary.

 

We are materialistic, rude, demanding, and arrogant.

 

These traits are obviously not representative of every American, but they are the perception of us.

 

I have to disagree. I think the East Asians have had cooler electronics for longer. They make it cheap so that more people can buy them.

 

I do think Americans are a tad "self focused" - believing that they are the first and only to do stuff.  Life has been happening all over the place before the US excisted, and still carries on, dispite the US not realizing this at times.

[Pawz4me]

I hesitate to post, because I haven't traveled internationally that much.  My observations are based mostly on what I've observed at very touristy places here in the U.S. (WDW, the better known national parks, major cities, etc.).  And I hate to judge a culture based on their actions as tourists because really -- it's not a normal situation, you know?

 

But based on what I've observed of other nationalities it always boggles my mind when people describe Americans as loud and pushy.  From what I've observed there are quite a few other nationalities/cultures that have us beat to pieces in those departments.  One tour group from a certain South American country had me almost cringing in fear at WDW once while I was sitting on a bench waiting for DH and the boys to finish a ride.  I felt like I'd been surrounded by a herd of stampeding bison.  And we were once on a tour bus with some Europeans (I won't name countries) and I was praying they would just shut up.  Just for a few seconds.  Their incessant chatter and incredible rudeness in talking over the tour guide almost drove me over the edge.  But again -- I hesitate to judge tourists.  It's kind of natural to be excited when you're vacationing and doing out of the ordinary stuff.  I'd want to live in an area for at least several months before I made any real judgments on the culture.

[DawnM]

I have to disagree. I think the East Asians have had cooler electronics for longer. They make it cheap so that more people can buy them.

 

I do think Americans are a tad "self focused" - believing that they are the first and only to do stuff.  Life has been happening all over the place before the US excisted, and still carries on, dispite the US not realizing this at times.

 

Well, I am basing this on my growing up in Africa, which is different than living in East Asia for sure.  However, when my dad grew up in East Asia this was not the case!  :laugh:

[Junie]

Hmm. I wouldn't consider any of those as uniquely American ideals; in fact, the US has a tendency to fight to the death before accepting them long after other nations do. I don't see where 2 income families defines American culture?

 

I have no experience with other countries.  I spent three weeks in Central America when I was in college, so I can't say that these are specifically American ideals.  These are just traits that I have observed here.

 

As for the two-income families, this is the norm where I live (except among homeschooling families).  It seems that people (in general) believe that they need to "keep up with the Joneses", and so both parents work in order to afford bigger, better, more.  Bigger, better, more seems to me to be a very important part of American culture.

[Luanne]

Yeah, yeah. People have been saying that since the dawn of history. Your parents generation said the same about your generation.  :nopity: '

 

Before assuming I am wrong, try looking up the definition of "culture" in an old dictionary. 

[Bluegoat]

I suppose anything like this is a generalization, but from the other side of the border my feeling is that Americans as a group have a fairly extroverted personality.  So they can be quite friendly - on the other hand they also have a tendency to be - the opposite of private I guess?  I suppose I am seeing that in relation to Canadians who tend to be rather private as a group, or even the British.

 

I would agree with those who said that individualism is very characteristic of Americans, be it in things like music or art, their heroic mythology, or the fact that economically the right dominates so absolutely.

[Guest]

I hesitate to post, because I haven't traveled internationally that much. My observations are based mostly on what I've observed at very touristy places here in the U.S. (WDW, the better known national parks, major cities, etc.). And I hate to judge a culture based on their actions as tourists because really -- it's not a normal situation, you know?

 

But based on what I've observed of other nationalities it always boggles my mind when people describe Americans as loud and pushy. From what I've observed there are quite a few other nationalities/cultures that have us beat to pieces in those departments. One tour group from a certain South American country had me almost cringing in fear at WDW once while I was sitting on a bench waiting for DH and the boys to finish a ride. I felt like I'd been surrounded by a herd of stampeding bison. And we were once on a tour bus with some Europeans (I won't name countries) and I was praying they would just shut up. Just for a few seconds. Their incessant chatter and incredible rudeness in talking over the tour guide almost drove me over the edge. But again -- I hesitate to judge tourists. It's kind of natural to be excited when you're vacationing and doing out of the ordinary stuff. I'd want to live in an area for at least several months before I made any real judgments on the culture.

Were we on the same bus? Sheesh.

[creekland]

But based on what I've observed of other nationalities it always boggles my mind when people describe Americans as loud and pushy.  From what I've observed there are quite a few other nationalities/cultures that have us beat to pieces in those departments.  

 

In my last post I mentioned that American tourists aren't the only nationality stereotyped.  We've also never been the worst when it's come up in conversations we've been part of.

 

We'll have to work at it a bit to take that top spot.  ;)

[mommaduck]

As a non-American, I can't give my view on this question. I'm curious about something though. I've noticed several times that some people use capital letters for the word "brat" in combination with the word "military". Why? Is it also an acronym of sorts, or???? Please enlighten me. :)

 

Yes and no. Children of US military have been call Military BRATs. Sometimes just BRATs. Different people have said that BRAT stands for different things (all positive). The main one I've also known it to stand for is Born, Raised, And Trained. It's a term that we hold dearly and with pride. The dandelion has become our symbol.

[Greta]

Regarding Americans being loud, my daughter and I observed today that the London underground is quieter than our public library!

 

 

[MEmama]

Regarding Americans being loud, my daughter and I observed today that the London underground is quieter than our public library!

Nm