Culture Analysis

I believe a lot of the world sees Americans as people without a lot of culture. I think that is how I have heard America and Americans described the most while I’ve been over here. But when you get right down to it, I think America has just as much culture as Europe. Of course it’s a different type of culture – it’s definitely more modern, and while we are not made up of a lot of small countries, we are instead made up of people from all over the world. Not to mention, our different sections of the country definitely have different cultures…the West coast, New England, The South, The Midwest, Texas, etc. A good friend of mine that grew up in South Carolina moved out to California after graduating college, and it took her a while to get used to the different personalities and ways of life there. Just because we are in the same country, doesn’t mean we don’t have different cultures. It’s the same way Bavaria clashes with the rest of Germany, Belgium consists of French-speaking parts as well as Flemish-speaking, how Spain has many different dialects of Spanish all in the same country, or how Italian cuisine is completely different depending if you are in the North or South.

Look at our food for instance. Yes, we get a bad rap for our unhealthy food choices, and most of the time when I am having a conversation with a European, one of the first things they bring up is our food and how fat everyone is. I think our obese situation is greatly exaggerated in Europeans’ eyes. The good thing about our love (obsession) with food is that I don’t believe there is anywhere in Europe that has as many food choices as we do. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Say I’m in Louisville… I can find pretty much any type of food I want in a 15-mile radius. Maybe even smaller. How is that for culture?

While I’ve been here, I’ve been trying to embrace as many cultures as possible. When I travel to new cities, I try to be as much like the inhabitants as possible in order to try and understand the city as in depth as I can. But it’s hard to really familiarize yourself with cultural differences in a few days’ time. Europe does have a lot of culture… a lot of this is from all of the immigrants. Düsseldorf has the largest Japanese population in all of Europe, and where I live, there is a huge population of Greek people (just as an example). There’s such a mixture of cultures in every city here. Sound familiar? It’s exactly the same way in America. Where you find cities, you find a mixing a culture, traditions and philosophies, with Chinatowns and Little Italys and other neighborhoods filled with immigrants and their cultures’ decorum and atmosphere. The same way we don’t take on the different cultures and change our personalities when we step in Little Italy, Germans don’t take on the personality of the French. That is why we have different cultures, because most people stay tuned to the culture they grew up in. Somehow it is being read that we don’t have much culture. Just because America is not surrounded by other countries and most Americans don’t fluently speak more than one language, doesn’t mean that we aren’t filled with different customs and personalities. We have our own unique culture that is different than any other country.

Today, I went to the British Things Store to get some tea and see what else they had. A very nice British gentleman owns it, and we talked about England and America for a bit. His 15-year-old daughter wants to move to and live permanently in New York oh-so-badly, he told me, to the point where she GoogleMapped it (GoogleMaps can be a verb, right?) the other day in order to look at the street view of Manhattan. He has been to America a few times (mostly California, I believe) and thinks that American people are super nice and friendly and he loves us. Smart guy. I love talking to people about America, whether they’re saying good things or bad things, just to see how the rest of the world views us. It’s really interesting. I just like to see what Europe has picked up about us from TV shows and news. (As a side note, he also asked me how I was seemingly intelligent when all he has heard of the school system in America is that it is horrible (from Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien). That’s the first time someone has brought up that topic with me, and growing up with both parents being teachers, I’ve heard a lot of shall we say, opinions, about the school system throughout my life. I thought about countering by asking him how it was possible that he had nice teeth when all I hear about dentistry in England is how everyone is walking around with yellow, crooked teeth.)

A lot of what I’ve learned here is to throw pre-conceived notions about other cultures out the window and form a fresh opinion. Hopefully I’m showing some people to do the same thing about America.

…and that was a bit of a rant, but all true, so there you go. Also, I apologize for my over-use of the word “culture”, but there is really no good synonym to encase the whole meaning.

Love this video. LEARN embodies culture the most, I think, but so does its two mates: EAT and MOVE (my favorite). Look them up. They'll inspire you.