January 24, 2007
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American Self-regard
Almost all nations differ from almost all other nations, though many share common or similar environments, basic culture, and ethnic background. Europeans, South Americans, and Southeast Asians are members of many different nations and sub-groups but all three cases they seem, at least to an outside observer, to share many of the same values, much of the same culture and religion, and seem to have a similar ethnic background.
This similarity is missing to a great extent in America. The U.S. may have been settled by North Europeans hundreds of years ago, but this group doesn't even make up the majority of Americans any more. Today America is a very diverse collection of immigrants and the descendants of immigrants, all of whom brought their customs, languages, and ethnicity with them. By a sort of common consent, English is the common language, but throughout our history there have always been whole communities of non-english speaking immigrants and their children.
American racial, religious, and cultural diversity is probably greater than any other country, and when you think about it, Americans are recognizable throughout the world because of their peculiar attitude and demeanor which is a result of this diversity.
Because we are a nation of "Cast-offs" who have somehow become the world's dominate power, we tend to think very highly of ourselves and seem to have decided that if we could come so far so fast, we must have the right answers for the entire world.
Our attitude toward language is a good example. Somehow we have decided on English as the "best" language for all these diverse immigrant groups, more or less crammed it down the throats of new arrivals and tend to be very annoyed when anyone anywhere dares to speak some other tongue. Surely such people must be somehow deficient.
Strangely, most of the world humors us here.
I was once briefly in a small elementary school in Southern China and in that small school in the world's most populous nation, the teachers were attempting to teach their very young charges some rudimentary English. I have no idea what use they could put this knowledge to, unless they decided to continue their education in which case it would probably be a necessity.
This social attitude of Americans has recently carried over into our foreign policy and as we now seem to be, at least in the minds of some of our leaders, in the era of "The New World Order" in a position to do real harm to the rest of the world simply through our own self-centered attitudes.
Comments (20)
Still stuck in the '60's I see. I've been reading and hearing and watching the results of the above belly pondering since I was a wee lad. Nothing new. You speak from a "liberal" traditionalist perspective. You remind me of the establishment you rebelled against in the '60's. Now you sound like those old white men with slicked back hair and horned rimmed glasses, "we shouldn't allow them coloreds in these here schools". Those guys thought they were smart too. With all due respect you sound hackneyed.
I truly mean this in a nice way. If over coffee I could elaborate more, polish a bit, be a little more sensitive, but here all I have is a few minutes.
You read my last entry, "Death to Joey".
Sorry Creed. I was TEACHING those young rebels during the sixties and far fro rebelling against the establishment, I WAS the establishment.
In retrospect, I must say, I rather enjoyed that experience but I did not enjoy hearing of my ex-students being killed in VN or their heads beaten in in Chicago, or injured by gas grenades in Boston.
If you have a comment or disagreement about the short essay above, let's hear it and cut out the flaming.
Uhm.... what kind of aspect of culture, religion, ethnic background do we Europeans share with South Americans or SouthEast Asians? With all my respect of everybody's culture, it looks to me that the three groups share almost nothing.
Sorry Dario, I stated that rather clumsily - I meant that from the outside casual observer's viewpoint, Europeans tended to appear to share a common racial, ethnic, and religious background even though there are obvious differences of language, nationality, and attitudes. It's pretty easy to tell a European from a Southeast Asian, for example. The same is true of Latin-Americans - they share a common language, cultural, and religious background even though they also exhibit fundamental local and national differences. Their dominate cultural heritage comes from the Iberian Peninsula, but differs fundamentally from European culture.
I wasn't trying to equate Europeans, South Americans and Southeast Asians.
In the modern U.S. we seem to have a peculiarly diverse cultural mix not seen in most other countries. Part of that is because almost all of us have ancestors who came from somewhere else fairly recently and the myth of the "melting pot" is really a bouillabaisse.
I'm not flaming. I'm sincere. Your perspective is skewed and old ...trite. What next? Bra bruning? The Kennedys?
Do you think it is the "nation of cast-offs" perspective that gives that sense of superiority? I think it may be just the reverse; the same sense of superiority enjoyed by Great Britian when they were the major world leader, and maybe inevitably enjoyed by any 'world power.' I've been reading a bit of Franz Boas, who wrote in the early early 20th century (which I'm sure you knew already, but hey)-- he'll say things like "of course, western man is the ideal to which all other civilizations are striving." He feels like the same "west" as Europe, certainly not like an outcast or particularly "diverse"--and he was a radical progressive for his time.
I've often wondered what effect it has on American identity (self imposed and from outside) that our range for the definition is so much wider than in many other places. Like, the French consider themselves much different culturally than the Spanish or English, but I don't consider myself as a Pennsylvanian particularly different from a Delawarian-- at least not to the same degree with respect to the roughly similar geographical distances. As "American," I am forced to take into account a vast array of people who have a share in the word. Personally, I find that process quite humbling and in itself a reason to try to understand as much about people any/everywhere, and find as many points of harmony with my own perspective, as I can.
Creed: Of course my perspective is skewed and old - I'M skewed and old.
My question is: What exactly do you disagree with? (Please don't say "everything" - be a little more specific - rebut me point by point)
Mandi: You'll note that I claimed that this "nation of cast-offs" has somehow become the world's dominate power. Unlike English of French viewpoints, ours seems to be a viewpoint in search of a reason: How did that ever happen? If we could do it that anyone can and if they haven't , they must be deficient...
I suspect an American's view of himself as an "American" means something different than a Frenchman thinking of himself as French. It seems to be a sort of assumed cloak rather than something you were born to.
Is nationality a state of mind?
Wouldn't you agree that it is much more difficult for an immigrant who can not speak the national language? Do not other countries have a national language? I think if you go to France, you have better learn to speak some French if you want to stay there. How else would you learn the laws of the land, or even order a dinner other than a Bic Mac.
Of course you're right about language - but most other countries don't have as many immigrants and few make much of an attempt to accomodate the non-literate.
Uhm... language...
Language can be considered in two ways:
1) an aspect of culture
2) a way to communicate with each other.
If you go to France and speak English you can manage to survive pretty good. If you go to the butcher maybe he doesn't speak English, but with big probabilities there will be another customer that will be glad to help you with translations.
If you go to Italy, the butcher himself will probably be able to speak english, as it happens for about 80-90 percent of population. My wife, which is American, lives in Italy and she usually speak English, with me, with our neighbors, with the butchers.
Any time i went to America, instead, i spoke Italian mixed with English only once, when i went to an Italian restaurant and spoke with the Italian-American guy that runs it. In america you have to speak english because otherwise, not only they won't try any step to communicate with you, but they also look at you as if you are a dummy, because you don't speak the "superior language" they speak over there.
In america they also demand the right to say that American english is superior than British english, which to me it looks like a contraddiction, since British people actually "invented" English language (that's incidentally why English is named "English")
In italy the average number of language (if we except dialects) pretty much fluently spoken is 2. Usually Italian and English. And there is a lot of people that speak other languages. I, for example can manage also French and some Spanish, not to count about 15-20 italian dialects.
Anyway, the thing is that if an American comes to Italy and speaks English, nobody would treat him without respect just for that.
The thing is that English is a practical language. It is considered the universal language for technology, for obvious reason. So, if i buy... let's say... a japanese TV, i can find in the package the instruction manual in english, and probably i won't find the translation in Italian. So, it's pretty obvious that Italians are in some ways pushed to learn English.
That's why in Italian schools, beginning with 6 years old kids, they have mandatory classes of English, while, i have no doubts that in America they don't teach Italian or any other languages.
Considering language as a cultural fact, instead, i could say that, even if an American learns a fluent Italian (i still have to find one like that!), he doesn't gain the cultural background. Maybe that can be acquired with a deep immersion in Italian culture. And, as far as i see, this is something that Americans living in Italy just refuse to do.
Better chances, i believe, have italians that move to America, since, being America a land of immigration, culture is more open (and more weak) than in a Nation like Italy where culture has a deep historical foundation.
Of course in France you can go to McD and order a BigMac (McDonald's in france is called "McDonald's", and the Big Mac is called "Big Mac"), but the real point is why the hell an American would ever want to go to France to eat a Big Mac at McDonald's?
Americans' attitude toward the use of english is probably due to the steady, large immigration we've had throughout our history.
The fastest way for new immigrants to assimilate or be assimilated was/is to start speaking the "common language" and not speaking english was/is a sure way to differentiate between those "right off the boat" and settled immigrants. Foreign visitors have always been caught up in this attitude.
Curiously enough, there are probably a larger number of americans traveling/visiting out of their country than any other large nation. More than 1% at any given time.
Strange, although i don't have any statistics to show, i thought that Italians were the best (or worst?) travelers. But that is due to the fact that any time i go to holiday outside Italy i always manage to meet some italian
.
I think the reason why Americans speak English with foreigners is because Americans do not know the foreign language, while foreigners usually know some English. That, to me, explains Americans' attitude towards the use of English.
New immigrants simply cannot survive in America if they don't know how to speak english or atleast they don't learn the basics in few days before they get hungry. I think in the past this was something that differentiated those right off the boat immigrants, but now, atleast for Italians, i think there is nobody that touch the soil of the US without knowing English. Think about my parents, for example, that don't speak english at all. How could they manage to pick up a plane, fly to the US, catch a taxi, speak with the guy at the hotel... without speaking english? In all the European airports i ever been, they make any announcement in 3 languages: the local one, the one of the destination of the flight the announcement is for, and English. In America only in English (and they add some Spanish only for no-smoking and anti-terrorist warnings).
Sorry, i know this is out of theme, but this fact of English really makes my fingers itching.
I can understand that English is more practical, with English speaking people or without (it happens i go often to Paris for work, and usually i speak English with them too). I can also understand that there is no need for Americans to learn any other language, although it is the land of immigration and to somebody it could be seen by a foreigner as a very kind thing that they help you with language, especially in the hotels-restaurants... those kind of places where foreigners are usually a lot and supposed to be welcome. I can also understand that in America there may be a lower level of education, so in the schools they don't have time to teach other languages.
But really, when i hear some American complaining because when they travel they cannot communicate in their mother tongue... well... that's too much. I don't think the problem is language. I think the problem is, once again, arrogance.
I remember a visit of a couple of my wife American girl-friends. We went in the center town for a dinner in a Pizzeria.
One of them asked the other to film with one of those portable camera her kissing on the cheek the handsome waiter while he sung "O Sole Mio" carrying a plate of pizza in his hands. The waiter had a tip of 10 dollars (dollars!!!) for doing that.
I was there in the indecision of feeling shame for Italian people, in the person of the waiter, or for Amerian ones, in the person of that friend.
I'll just never forget the look towards us of the people sitting at the next table.
I tried, with no success, to imagine myself to go to a steak house in the States and ask the waiter to wear a cowboy hat and shake a lazo singing Yankee Doodle Dandy for me.
Several years ago, we lived in South Florida and often ate at a rather down-scale BBQ pit. It was owned by the Black cook but catered mostly to red-necks.
A (I guess) rather cheap tourist service that specialized in English tourists visiting Florida, used to bring them in for a cultural experience. Judging from their accents, these were mostly working class and "MIFs" (don't ask) and they were fascinated by the ambiance (lots of cowboy boots and hair) as well as the superior BBQ. They were quite capable of asking all and sundry to pose for pictures and most of us cheerfully agreed.
While visiting Italy many years ago my wife and I went to a Trastevere nightspot where, considering us "live ones" (easy marks), one of the waiter/performers clowned with my wife and a paparazzi photo appeared within minutes. Other people who were with us were much embarrassed by the antics and their disapproval appeared in the photo, which we still treasure.
I think Americans are often wrongly accused of being arrogant and demanding concerning language difficulties. Most of us understand language problems, have had some non-english language training at school and are embarrassed by the slobs who make us all look bad, but I think such slobs are to be found in any culture. The worst case of this I personally ever saw was a Spanish lady who apparently spoke nothing but Spanish and who intended to stay at a rural Japanese inn. She had been part of a tour group with Japanese-English-Spanish guides but they were moving on. I tried (with my very rudimentary Spanish) to interpret for her but she totally ignored me. I wonder how long they put up with her loud ill mannered shouting.
Hello I just wanted to come by and ask if you and your wife were are ok after the tornado? hopefully it missed you.
We, unlike the eastern whooping crane flock (which was totally wiped out), were not in harm's way. Central Florida is a sort magnet for violent weather and trailers should have been banned there long ago. We used to live on a hilltop in southern Indiana and watch the spring tornados ans squall lines on radar - now that was scary.
the "america is the best country in the world" attitude is so deeply rooted in our culture and even our theology that it's not likely to change. even suggesting that other countries might be up to par is considered wildly unpatriotic by many, and will get you the response of "why don't you go live there, then?"
ryc: Dear old dady is trying to write a book at the moment. Apparently, I'm not supposed to notice the correlation between this and his sudden interest in the only one of his kids who can format a document. I might be willing to forgive this were it not for the fact that when I lost my apartment a few years ago, he was perfectly willing to let me sleep on the street. He didn't want my "spiritual issues" (being gay) in his house.
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