stellauk
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Jaybeee Anyone know why this should be, apart from the reasons above? Culture. But then again culture is just an influence on someone's behaviour, and how it influences someone's behaviour varies between individuals. The more people you have living in one place the more diverse the culture. This explains why culture among people living out in the country, or in rural communities, doesn't vary much wherever you go in the world. Go to any large city and it will have it's own cultures, and even that culture will vary from district to district. Culture exists on any level wherever there is a social group of people, anywhere from a family to a corporation to a society to different societies in the same part of the world. Americans have their own culture. It causes them to have funny accents, use their own words for certain things, always put their right foot forward first when climbing a flight of stairs, read self-help books, revere the 1970's film Grease, and believe God is on their side. But I'd say American TV and movies are about as reliable a guide to American culture as Monty Python is to British culture. Personally I wouldn't claim to know American culture or people until I'd spent some time living in the country, among them, working with them, living with them. I lived in Poland some years and lived among and worked with expat Americans, who make up the third largest group of immigrants in Poland after Russians and Ukrainians. I met three guys called Dean, all from Florida, all ex-marines, all with questionable attitudes towards women - one is today somewhere back in Florida, still wanted by the Polish authorities for about a dozen instances of tax evasion and then there's also 23 kids all with different mothers. Not all Americans are as puritanical as you think. However I doubt that most are anywhere near that promiscuous. These guys were legends. It's important not to generalize. Moreso because American culture is specific. They have Canada to the north, Mexico to the south, an ocean on either side, and a culture developed by waves of immigration. This is why Americans just aren't Americans. No, there's Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, Indian-Americans, Polish-Americans, African-Americans, and apart from the Native Americans, every American will be proud to tell you of their lineage and ancestry. I'd take them at face value. And don't forget about the Grease soundtrack.
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