Thread: American Culture

And what is American culture to Americans?

Originally Posted by Crocodile

And what is Russian culture to Americans?

Let me guess: vodka, matryoshka, balalaika, ushanka, valenki, Kalashnikov.

Originally Posted by Basil77

Originally Posted by Crocodile

And what is Russian culture to Americans?

Let me guess: vodka, matryoshka, balalaika, ushanka, valenki, Kalashnikov.

Well, American culture also has a lot more to it. Such as jazz, hip-hop, all the computers related stuff .. you name it.

Originally Posted by Оля

And what is American culture to Americans?

That's partly why this thread was started. I'm still trying to figure out what American culture is myself. I suspect that there really isn't much of an American culture but wanted to hear others ideas of what it is to maybe help me find it. If it is from Hollywood then I will be looking for another country of residence.

Scott

Originally Posted by fortheether

If it is from Hollywood then I will be looking for another country of residence.

Well, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. What do we know about the culture of, say, Canada, Australia or New Zealand?

And now the right words are coming: Your culture is what you have in you, not what you have in your country.

Originally Posted by Crocodile

Originally Posted by fortheether

If it is from Hollywood then I will be looking for another country of residence.

Well, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. What do we know about the culture of, say, Canada, Australia or New Zealand?

And now the right words are coming: Your culture is what you have in you, not what you have in your country.

True. I also think there's Mark Twain's cultural influence in small cities throughout the USA. Maybe in other countries too.

scott

Originally Posted by Оля

And what is American culture to Americans?

What is Russian culture to Russians?


Scott

Originally Posted by fortheether

What is Russian culture to Russians?

To me, first of all, it's great art. Great literature, greatest poetry (mostly untranslated and untranslatable), great theatre (the best in the world), great (Soviet) cinema (almost unknown in the rest of the world). I could begin to mention the names, but the list would be endless in this case.
I also think that Russian language itself is very rich. Well, Russian 'мат', then again.
Second, I think we Russians know much about western culture (and history), far more than people in the west know about Russia and Russian culture; this makes our world view more broad.

I also think that Russian people are far more sincere (often in their bad emotions, too) and in general are far more emotional. We are simpler and have less of the conventionalities. Well, another side, as for the culture of service, it's very low. You can easily meet with rudeness from a shop assistant in a supermarket. But I, personally, think that 'culture' and 'culture of service' somehow are not the same. Bad service rather is a product of the Soviet period.

Originally Posted by DDT

I think of American culture as the land of fast food and parking lots and of the segregation of the youth from the rest of society with a ridiculously high drinking age.. I feel that the latter has a large impact on American culture.

I'm in college and when I was a freshman last year, I saw a lot of people getting wasted the first night because it was the first time away from their parents and their first time doing any kind of intense partying with alcohol. Needless to say, it didn't end up well for those people.

For me music is the most important thing about American culture.

Almost all of our music is a mix of traditional white and black music- gospel, the blues, jazz, rock and roll, country, and rap all started in the US. Think about all the music worldwide influenced by those genres. There's also Broadway in New York, and Hollywood. Hollywood isn't always bad, look at the original Star Wars or Citizen Kane.

As for writing, Ernest Hemmingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald are as popular and as influential of writers as Twain, and Herman Melville and Emerson, Throeau, William Llyod Garrison, and Walt Whitman are less famous but still very skilled and important early American writers. Mark Twain's books are still funny and incredibly well written, but at the time he was infamous for using contemporary spoken language instead of the 'correct' written language.

There's the "car culture" where everyone is expected to have their own car and drive it to work each day (this is dying out).

Originally Posted by Fresno

Hollywood isn't always bad, look at the original Star Wars or Citizen Kane.

I saw "Citizen Kane", and I've heard it's one of the best films in the world (if not the best), but it was sooooo very unbearably boring for me! I could hardly watch it till the end.
I, actually, don't mean that there are not old (and some modern) Hollywood movies which are good. There are! I, personally, like Hitchcock very much. And, as for the modern films, I liked "Catch me if you can".

But, to say the truth, I hate how Americans make screen versions of the English classical literature. I saw American "Jane Eyre", it sucked. Recently I've seen "Vanity Fair" (with Reese Witherspoon).... Oh my God! Poor Thackeray!

As for writing, I *love* Eugene O'Neill's play "Beyond the Horizon".
I also like Mark Twain and O. Henry, of course.

100% American-made here.

I see America as "setting the bar" in the entertainment industry. Foreign countries often try to emulate or "American-ize" their films or TV shows from what I've seen.

Other reasons to like America: Harley Davidson, Chevy Camaro, Led Zeppelin, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Wild Bill Hicock, and the other wild West American legends, military technology, iPod, and Star Wars.

I can't comment on Russian culture since I've never been there, but from the Russian and Ukranian immigrants in the states that I've met, they're distant and mostly keep to themselves like other minorities. A lot claim to be Christians but actually get drunk off Stoli every night in the sauna. Until I began to study the Russian language I knew nothing of Russian entertainment. I'd say 99% of Americans no nothing of Soviet cinema or of Cheburashka. It's hard to get an accurate perception of a foreign person because they seem "exotic" but the more you understand their language, they become more normal to you.

Originally Posted by fortheether

For folks who lived else where and then moved to the USA. What is American culture? For folks who have never been here, what do you think American culture is?
Just a curious American,
Scott

William James, great philosopher and psychologist
Henry D. Thoreau
John K. Galbraith
Francis Scott K. Fitzgerald
The Boston Tea Party
F.D. Roosevelt
Elvis Presley
O. Henry
Henry Ford
"Some Like It Hot" Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Joe E. Brown (Osgood Fielding III)
etc.

I think it's great enough.

Originally Posted by jjjiimm

Other reasons to like America: Harley Davidson, Chevy Camaro, Led Zeppelin, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Wild Bill Hicock, and the other wild West American legends, military technology, iPod, and Star Wars.

Err.. Led Zeppelin were English, and they're the only even remotely admirable thing on in your list.

Originally Posted by Оля

I saw "Citizen Kane", and I've heard it's one of the best films in the world (if not the best), but it was sooooo very unbearably boring for me!

Oh Оля, I am so sorry you did not enjoy Citizen Kane. You might be happy to know that when it was first released it the film was a box office flop and at the 1941's Academy Awards it was booed every time one of its nine nominations was announced.

It might be that you need to be a "film" person to really understand the significance of the film and why it is so highly rated on all the best of lists. This was the first film that Orson Wells directed and he had complete autonomy and with that he broke a number of traditional rules for making a motion picture. I believe that is the reason the film is considered so important. You would need to look at the film from the techincal side not as an average viewer, which I admit, would make it VERY boring.

I do agree with you on Hitchcock (love his films), but of course he was born in England so I don't know if he would count as American Culture

Originally Posted by rockzmom

I do agree with you on Hitchcock (love his films), but of course he was born in England so I don't know if he would count as American Culture

Yes, I know he was born in England, but he worked in Hollywood, and American actors played in his films.

Originally Posted by Оля

Yes, I know he was born in England, but he worked in Hollywood, and American actors played in his films.

I am most willing to count Cary Grant as American if you are I wish we had a few men like him nowadays!

Originally Posted by rockzmom

I am most willing to count Cary Grant as American if you are I wish we had a few men like him nowadays!

I actually don't like Cary Grant, you know. And I don't understand how on earth women could be crazy about him. But I do like another favourite Hitchcock's actor - James Stewart.

[quote="Оля
I actually don't like Cary Grant, you know. And I don't understand how on earth women could be crazy about him. But I do like another favourite Hitchcock's actor - James Stewart.[/quote]

Noooooooooooooooo! How can you not understand how a woman could like Cary Grant??? He is what I refer to as a 'total package man.' You cannot dissect him apart. It is all the little things that make him attractive. The same thing about Jimmy Stewart. All of his qualities together make him a better man than your average guy.

Just like Hitchcock's women, Grace Kelly for example. She is a total package female! Please tell me you like her?! She is major American Culture, Philly, PA all the way. Movie start, got married to a Prince. blah, blah, blah.. every little Amrican girl's dream. Well, except the dying in a car crash part.

It is all the little things that make him attractive.

Well, not for me.

P.S. Yes, I like Grace Kelly.