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Getting to Know Americans

nyu.edu

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Re: Getting to Know Americans

#101

Post by gopi »

lallysingh wrote: post #79
loire280 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America isn't the most punctual culture, but there are plenty of cultures that are much more casual about lateness, including some Middle Eastern, South American, and African cultures. Most Americans brush off as much as 15 minutes of tardiness, but in some cultures, 30-60 minutes isn't uncommon. The German student who consistently shows up a few minutes early may be annoyed that fellow students show up a few minutes…

IST: "Indian Standard Time" When a family member invites us over for 7:30, they mean 8:00. If you actually arrive at 7:30, they're still getting ready themselves.

Even Indians in US adhere to the IST...Most indian parties start atleast an hour after the scheduled time!

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#102

Post by bioh42_2 »

microtonal wrote: post #44
arethuza wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, by British standards America appears an irony and sarcasm free zone. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it is very noticeable.

Indeed, but Britain is probably the other extreme. I believe there is only one country that could've produced magnificent material such as Monty Python or Fawlty Towers ;).

You know, unlike English some languages have a sarcastic tense.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#103

Post by timtadh »

jbooth wrote: post #76
jwhitlark wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not surprising when you consider that most people came here to get away from something, (poverty, repression, etc.) For no small number of Americans, the rest of the world is a proxy for "that place my ancestors left because it sucked ". The US was isolationist before it got dragged into the world wars, and has become interventionist not because it's interested in conquest, but because the past century has taught it…

Well, in my experience at least, the people I'm griping about are pretty far from "off the boat". They see themselves as natives, and their ancestors left europe 150 years ago because it was a totally different place then. Not much to do with their current viewpoint on, say, Brazil or China.

You know how people fight over things that happened hundreds of years ago? Its like that. When people who have been here for 100+ years hear about "family history" it often involves stories of say the potato famine in Ireland. While intellectually they understand Ireland is no longer like that (indeed they may even have visited it to get in touch with there roots). Emotionally they have a lasting impression of a America being the promised land. Their ancestors fled elsewhere to come here, thus here must be the best.

The main and important exception to this is of course African American's.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#104

Post by yummyfajitas »

jbooth wrote: post #80
yummyfajitas wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say you maybe don't know that many people from overseas. My Iranian ex girlfriend often liked to point out how Americans are ignorant of other nations and their cultures. Her most common criticism is that Americans didn't know a lot about the occupation of Palestine. Strangely, she seemed more or less unaware of Iran and Iraq's occupation of Kurdistan, and was only peripherally aware…

Careful, that limb might be thin. I live in NYC, remember? Just looked around my immediate office, there are 4 people from 3 different countries within 10 feet of me. (well, one of them's out today, so 3 from 2 countries unless we expand that radius to 30 feet, but you know). They all know the difference between 1st and 3rd world. Most Americans do have quite a slanted and often factually incorrect view on the situat…

Any viewpoint that starts off with "Americans are so much more enlightened than any other nationality" is probably an extremely unenlightened view, is all I'm saying.

I'm not taking this view at all. I'm just pointing out that while the direction of ignorance varies widely, the magnitude varies less.

People are lazy, and ignorance is the result of laziness. I don't think the US is particularly exceptional in this regard.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#105

Post by mrdodge »

jbooth wrote: post #80
yummyfajitas wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say you maybe don't know that many people from overseas. My Iranian ex girlfriend often liked to point out how Americans are ignorant of other nations and their cultures. Her most common criticism is that Americans didn't know a lot about the occupation of Palestine. Strangely, she seemed more or less unaware of Iran and Iraq's occupation of Kurdistan, and was only peripherally aware…

Careful, that limb might be thin. I live in NYC, remember? Just looked around my immediate office, there are 4 people from 3 different countries within 10 feet of me. (well, one of them's out today, so 3 from 2 countries unless we expand that radius to 30 feet, but you know). They all know the difference between 1st and 3rd world. Most Americans do have quite a slanted and often factually incorrect view on the situat…

"(also, on your tu quoque in regards to Iran, there's not a lot to defend about that country but at least they give equal legal status to all people within their borders, kurdish or baluch"

Try being Baha'i in Iran. I know several refugees from Iran who would vehemently disagree with your statement.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#106

Post by invalidOrTaken »

(I'm American and) I'm most curious about the supposed "superficiality" of Americans, particularly w/respect to friendships. Can anyone enlighten me on the reason for this? Are people of other countries accustomed to dealing with people who are less mobile and more likely to stick around for a while, and therefore more willing to invest time in a relationship? Is it an overemphasis on an appearance of independence?

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#107

Post by jbooth »

mrdodge wrote: post #105
jbooth wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful, that limb might be thin. I live in NYC, remember? Just looked around my immediate office, there are 4 people from 3 different countries within 10 feet of me. (well, one of them's out today, so 3 from 2 countries unless we expand that radius to 30 feet, but you know). They all know the difference between 1st and 3rd world. Most Americans do have quite a slanted and often factually incorrect view on the situat…

"(also, on your tu quoque in regards to Iran, there's not a lot to defend about that country but at least they give equal legal status to all people within their borders, kurdish or baluch" Try being Baha'i in Iran. I know several refugees from Iran who would vehemently disagree with your statement.

Baha'i's a religious status, not an ethnic status. Not that I'm defending religious discrimination or anything, but that's orthogonal to the point I was making about treatment of occupied ethnic substates. Points taken that discrimination exists everywhere, is officially sanctioned many places, and certainly that the islamic republic isn't the model state.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#108

Post by grammaton »

dr_ wrote: post #4

"Be patient if Americans are ignorant of some aspect about your home country. Use the opportunity to educate and share, just do so in a polite and brief manner." Citizens of other countries always like to point out how Americans are ignorant of other nations and their cultures, oftentimes failing to realize that within their own nation poverty is rampant and the majority of the population remains illiterate (yes, alt…

Personally I've always found it annoying when my countrymen are taken to task for being 'ignorant' of another country's culture. As I have to constantly point out to people from other countries - you're aware of so much in American politics because, like it or not, we're a (if not the) world super power right now. There's one (or a handful) of us, and hundreds of other countries. I can't be expected to be conversant in the politics and culture of all of them and still live my life. If someone insists on pressing the point, then I just pick a random country off the top of my head and ask them how much they know about it's culture and politics.

Usually that gets the point across. I also like to flip it around and point out to them that we're a nation of 300 million people, more divided and complex than they usually realize - and I almost never have a problem getting that point across pretty quickly. Most people from other countries who think they know a lot about America don't know as much about us as they think they do.

It's not that Americans don't want to learn about other countries - far from it. It's just that there are hundreds of them paying attention to us, and as citizens, we just can't individually return the favor and learn the ins and outs of all of them.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#109

Post by nooneelse »

smanek wrote: post #34
FraaJad wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. My own "disappointment" is not with 'regular joe' Americans, but with educated Americans. Being from a large city in India, I know from personal experience that majority of the people with college education, especially technical education are knowledgeable about things outside their own country at least in a conversational level, if not they want to know more. I cannot assume the same with Americans…

America is special. We're special for a lot of reasons, including 'soft power' (e.g., the most watched movies in the world are from America), 'hard power' (our military is more powerful and more likely to be used than any other plausible combination of nations I can think of), and economic power (our GDP is on par with the entire European Union. It is significantly larger than Brazil, Russia, India, and China's combi…

I think that "country X vs Y" stuff is much of why, when an American is ignorant about facets of another country/culture, they don't default to feeling like they are in some way at fault for that ignorance. That isn't the same thing as being proud of their ignorance (which is around in America, but much less common than one might fear), it is a reasonable position to have.

Any time spent learning about the details of some other culture/country is time not spent on learning about another. Faced with the abundance of sets of details to learn, and with little to make one country/culture's set of details stand out as the one an American might want to learn, lack of self-recrimination is a pretty healthy response. Maybe it would seem more polite if American's made like they were embarrassed about the ignorance when it comes up, but that would go against being honest.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#110

Post by grammaton »

yequalsx wrote: post #72
psykotic wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am Danish but "left" the country 7-8 years ago. The last few months I've been back to prepare for my move to the US, which will be my second time living and working there. It's remarkable how absurd the Danish world-view appears to me now after living abroad in several very different cultures. The social welfare system is more attractive than ever, but the provincialism, the we-are-the-best attitude, and the subtle…

I'm American but grew up in the Canal Zone. I've been in Germany a lot the past two years. My girlfriend is German and lives in Berlin. My impression is that Germans really do believe they are the best. They will never say so publicly but deep down they really believe it. My girlfriend's dad joked about Americans and hamburgers. I offered to make him one since he'd never had one. He emphatically said no. I'm a picky…

> He was in the Wehrmacht

Wait, what?

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