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Getting to Know Americans

nyu.edu

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Re: Getting to Know Americans

#111

Post by autarch »

crasshopper wrote: post #91
paylesworth wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. American humor can be pretty tame by comparison http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2011/01/golden_globes...

It really shows up in British vs American versions of "The Office" television show. The American boss is more likeable than Ricky Gervais, and the show's tone is cheerier.

I think that's also because the American show was intended to last longer. Ricky Gervais' character was truly repellent, and probably wouldn't have been tolerable for 7 seasons.

FWIW, I think both versions have their charms.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#112

Post by grammaton »

jbooth wrote: post #49
billybob wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as an American who has spent time in Mexico, Spain and Ireland, and has traveled to southeast Asia: yes, Americans do sometimes have an arrogant view of the world. On the other hand, knowing about other countries doesn't come as naturally here. If you live in Europe, you can take an overnight train ride to any one of a dozen countries, with whom you share a currency and often a closely-related language. An e…

I think a lot of the beef with "typical Americans" is with your last type. If you get off the coasts you can find a whole bunch of Americans who are seemingly proud of not knowing anything about the rest of the world.

> If you get off the coasts you can find a whole bunch of Americans

No, actually you won't. Most of America's population lives within two hundred miles of it's coastlines. This group of proudly ignorant people is therefore much smaller than they're stereotypically thought of being.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#113

Post by smanek »

nooneelse wrote: post #109
smanek wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My point is that Indians (for example) aren't embarrassed by their ignorance about Brazil (for example), but expect Americans to be embarrassed by their ignorance of India.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#114

Post by grammaton »

jerf wrote: post #46

This seems a bit more accurate for New Yorkers than as a primer for Americans in general. "Observe their focus on themselves, rather on than their families" was particularly a "bwuh?" for me. In a university area (my local one is definitely like that), sure, but not in general.

Yhea, I kind of balked at that as well. I think it would be more accurate to say that Americans just don't use their families as a topic of discussion - to us, family is very important, but it's a private affair. Family is something we only discuss with family, or very close friends.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#115

Post by beej71 »

francoisdevlin wrote: post #22
TillE wrote: post #10

It's hard to tell what perspective this article is written from. There are many subjective qualifiers. For example: > Americans place considerable value on punctuality. From a German perspective, this is wildly untrue.

I think Germans are the ONLY exception to the rule. Of course, someone will provide a counter example, I'm sure :)

Swiss, as others have said. My cousins picked me up at the train station in Interlaken, having driven there from Berne. I saw them drive into the parking lot up the street. Counting the time it took them to walk from the parking lot to the train station entrance, they arrived within 60 seconds of the agreed-upon time.

Not to mention the clockwork nature of their transportation system... And the Alps... gah, what I am doing sitting at this desk?

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#116

Post by ido »

FraaJad wrote: post #95
ido wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know where in India you are, but I've spent 2 months there and have encountered my share of educated Indians who, for example, didn't know where or what Austria is or that Israel has a lot of Jewish people in it (or even what Jews are). Another example off the top of my head was an educated engineer (who went to graduate school) who didn't know what the Roman Empire was. All of these examples or equivalents n…

I'm from Bangalore. I know about Austria (and it's infamous son), Israel and it's formative years and it's current influence on my country and middle east. Also, as a South Indian, I know that Jews have lived in my part of the country for nearly two thousand years. Of course, I may be atypical. My point is that I'm yet to meet atypical people like myself in US even in handfuls after three years of living here and tra…

I am surprised to hear that, since my 2 visits to the US were much briefer than the time you spent there and I have met many such people.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#117

Post by yummyfajitas »

Alex3917 wrote: post #13
mtinkerhess wrote: post #6

> Americans are taught that "all men are created equal." While they continually violate that idea in some aspects of life, in others they adhere to it. Boy, I wish more Americans understood that.

More accurately, Americans mostly adhere to the notion that "all men are equal" when it serves the interests of the top 1%. Voting, the military, taxes, college admissions, etc.

Americans mostly adhere to the notion that "all men are equal" when it serves the interests of the top 1%....taxes...

Really bad example. The US has the most progressive tax system of the entire OECD. The only countries that come close are Australia, Ireland and the Netherlands.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/27134.html

Here is data on the top 1%. Specifically, they earn 20% of income in the US, but pay 38% of taxes.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html

I'm not sure why you believe the military gives preferences to the top 1%. As far as I'm aware, the military is strictly egalitarian (being based on fairly rigid performance criteria) with the sole exception of having racial and sexual preferences.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#118

Post by natnat »

timtadh wrote: post #103
jbooth wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Amer…

And Native Americans.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#119

Post by bwanab »

ido wrote: post #29
iopuy wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japanese.... In Japan being late is seen as seriously wrong.

Austria, Switzerland, all or most of Scandinavia...Probably most or all central/north/north western European societies. IIRC Australia is also the same.

All of your examples are Germanic cultures. Notably, I think this is true in the German speaking part of Switzerland, but not nearly as much in Suisse Romande.

Re: Getting to Know Americans

#120

Post by jff »

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.

My father's side of the family came to America about 100 years ago from Sweden. They settled in North Dakota, one of the dreaded "flyover states". My great-grandfather apparently didn't tell his children anything about the home country, nor did he teach them Swedish. He wanted them to focus on being Americans, rather than trying to be Swedish. These days, we eat lutefisk on Christmas Eve and that's about it.
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