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Things Most Americans Don’t Know About America

73 points by felipellrocha 14y ago

deleted 14y ago
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degenerate 14y ago
I think this is the first time in my life I laughed out loud at "Error establishing a database connection".
- smcnally 14y ago
  I thought among the first things the titled referred to was "how to do HA dbs;" "how to shard in wp-config"; "how not to get hackernewsed"
enraged_camel 14y ago
As an immigrant, I definitely agree with the "[Americans] Are Poor At Expressing Gratitude And Affection". Every single ex-girlfriend has pointed out to me that I am very affectionate, whereas all I was doing was being myself. I guess this is because where I come from (Turkey), people are expected to show their affection and appreciation with lots of touching and hugging. For example, when you run into a friend, you usually kiss each other on both cheeks as a greeting. In the US though, this would be considered aberrant behavior - might even be perceived as "gay" if it's two guy friends. Instead it's either handshake or fist-bump. Suppressing affection is pretty hard. Often times I find myself with an urge to give people hugs, but refrain from doing so.
- heretohelp 14y ago
  For an enraged camel, you seem rather affectionate. Also, not all Americans are like that.
  - enraged_camel 14y ago
    I've lived in four different states over the past ten years, and found that most people I have met are indeed like that. The difference becomes especially obvious when I hang out with visitors or other immigrants. European women for example are much more comfortable with holding hands or throwing their arms around my waist when walking down the street, and they do it even when we are just friends. Americans are the opposite: they seem to have "touch-phobia".
    - heretohelp 14y ago
      It's a barrier thing. Our public life is less touchy, but when I'm dating someone I am very affectionate.
  - protomyth 14y ago
    Different parts of the US have different customs. Some folks are very personal space (myself and a lot of my family) and some are very - well - "huggy" (my brother's in-laws errr).
- mynameishere 14y ago
  Rote kissing isn't affection.
  - entropy_ 14y ago
    No, indeed not, but to someone in whose culture this is not the norm that's how it seems, overly affectionate. What the OP was saying was that for him, he was acting just normal but people perceived it as very affectionate, and that's exactly the point. He may have not been displaying affection but that's how it got interpreted.
- freehunter 14y ago
  What it sounds like is not that Americans are worse at expressing affection, but rather express affection in different ways. Fist-bumps, handshakes, high fives, even a head bob is a very obvious way to show someone you recognize their existence and are glad to see them. In America, kissing is not a sign of friendly affection, but a sign of romantic affection. It's a small cultural difference, but the feelings expressed are exactly the same. Making the claim that Americans are not affectionate because they don't kiss as a friendly greeting is the same as saying the Germans can't communicate just because I can't understand their language. Insisting on speaking English to a non-English-speaking person would be just as rude and out of place as insisting on kissing an American acquaintance.
- jules 14y ago
  Keep in mind that Turkey is an outlier in this regard, sleeping in the same bed or on a friend's shoulder, kissing, holding hands in the street (though I heard this is changing especially in the cities?). Many peoples are even less affectionate than Americans. I've heard exactly the same complaints from Turks in western europe.
SeanLuke 14y ago
> We did not invent democracy. We didn’t even invent modern democracy. There were parliamentary systems in England and other parts of Europe over a hundred years before we created government. This is a pretty foolish statement from an otherwise reasonable article. Parliament in England was not remotely representative until 1867 by the most generous measure, and more reasonably not until the early 20th century. So far as I know, the only modern government of consequence which could lay claim to being a "democracy" prior to the US is probably San Marino, and its representation is, shall we say, odd. I think that the US can indeed lay claim to being the first modern democracy: its government was absolutely radical at the time, and more importantly it stood as an example to other later movements (starting with the French).
- kloncks 14y ago
  Take the main point and not the details. Here's another example: women/minority voting. Not the first country or culture to allow that, either.
  - protomyth 14y ago
    I'm not sure about the parent commenter, but I believe a main point should be allowed to stand if the details are not correct or well thought out. The great slogan no longer inspires me when the details and thus the follow-up are missing.
- ImprovedSilence 14y ago
  Let's be real, America is a Republic, and Republics came from Rome. Things America doesn't know about america: We are NOT a democracy, we are a REPUBLIC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_democracy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_democracy
  - protomyth 14y ago
    A representative constitutional republic to tell the whole story. The article really lost me on this point. If you look that shallowly at what the Constitution established as a one word description, then yes, there were others before. If you look at the branches and, particularly the division between state and popular representation, the US is much different than what came before. It seems like the typical gloss job we find in high schools these days that really needs to be fixed.
aaronbrethorst 14y ago
Cached: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mv1XfrS9_lMJ:postmasculine.com/america+%3F+http://postmasculine.com/america&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mv1XfrS...
alrs 14y ago
Cached: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CAgQIDAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwebcache.googleusercontent.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3Amv1XfrS9_lMJ%3Apostmasculine.com%2Famerica%2B%26cd%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ei=Rvn9T_uCO8yQqwHtipW6Ag&usg=AFQjCNHZoTJL-wl4m6lwEWmFZDZme7w5QQ http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&#...
deleted 14y ago
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barking 14y ago
My guess is that the people who were insanely friendly lived in areas where they didn't get to meet too many foreigners. Familiarity breeds contempt as they say.
tweiss 14y ago
From my experience (German, studied and worked in the states, traveler) the list is pretty spot on. BUT I think it applies mostly to Joe Sixpack. Most of my friends and people I met are not really like that. Maybe just enough so that you can tell them apart from Canadians ;) Don't beat yourself up about it, it is what it is and you are who you are. And I personally like the American mentality, mostly because I can't take most of it seriously. And Joe Sixpack isn't any better in other countries. So keep on shouting U - S - A, U - S - A, I'll even join in :)
kloncks 14y ago
"If you’re extremely talented or intelligent, the US is probably the best place in the world to live." This is one of the most important points. For the average American HackerNews reader, life is radically different from the rest of America. I am given opportunities, networks, connections and chances that I wouldn't be able to get this easily anywhere else in the World. The genius of America seems to come from a few very key categories that exist to this day. Silicon Valley is one of them; Hollywood or Wall Street might be others. But outside that, our average is a rather poor showing compared to a lot of other countries around the world that more collectively seem to take care of their people. The problem, in my humble opinion, always stems from ignorance. As a culture, we're just not as aware or respectful as we should be. Other countries know more about the World than we do. That leads to more open-ness and respect.
- mbesto 14y ago
  I 100% agree with your quote from the article as well. The US is an absolutely amazing place when you are "the best". You get to live the hyperbole and talk about it too. What better place to do so? For example, the US healthcare doesn't suck, it's actually really good. But it's only good for those who can afford it. I've had to go to the doctor three times now in the UK (eye infection, sports injury and regular checkup) and every time I've had to wait 3+ hours to get diagnosed/treated. In the US, my healthcare meant I was in and out in 30 minutes. The US is a great place when you can afford it. That being said, I happily waited in line for the 3+ hours because I knew that other people are being treated for things they normally can't afford in the US. The problem in America, is that no one can even fathom a system like this. It's so foreign to the way we operate our lives (i.e. our culture) because everything we do is deeply rooted in transferences of goods and services in the form of money. ps- I'm also an American who has lived in the UK, Germany, and been to 30+ countries. I share a lot of the same views as the author.
  - ericd 14y ago
    Yeah, in visiting other countries, my impression is that the average person is way happier with life, regardless of their financial standing. This in turn makes me happier. I'd be happy to pay way more in taxes in the US to support that kind of living environment. It's hard to realize the difference it makes without traveling and meeting lots of people when you do so, though, and the tragedy is that the current system in the US doesn't allow most people the resources to travel and educate themselves, which seems to negatively effect the chances of having a well educated voting populace.
BadassFractal 14y ago
Great article!
hkmurakami 14y ago
>The point is we don’t really get perspective on what’s close to us until we spend time away from it. This is so true for so many aspects of our lives, particularly with respect to culture -- whether it be the "America, Fuck Yeah!" attitude or the "Silicon Valley coolaid".
bluekeybox 14y ago
> We are poor at expressing gratitude and affection This is not exclusively (or even originally) an American thing. The author makes the same mistake he complains about: it's not all about America! (Corollary: do not blame the Americans for what the British are actually responsible!) Apparently we inherited "phatic" conversation from the same people we took our language from. For example, in German, unlike in English, there is no word for "small talk": http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13545386 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13545386
- wheels 14y ago
  "Small talk" is commonly used as a loan phrase in modern German. One might as well say that American English has no word for the first year of school. "Quatschen" is also pretty close to the meaning of "small talk" (with a slightly more negative / playful connotation -- "blabbing"): http://dict.leo.org/?lp=ende&search=quatschen http://dict.leo.org/?lp=ende&search=quatschen
- saraid216 14y ago
  ...he wrote an article exclusively about America... why exactly would he discuss the failings of other countries?
  - bluekeybox 14y ago
    Because it may help to understand where one comes from to understand where one is going.
- andyl 14y ago
  Visit scandanavia, germany, holland, britain. On the warmth/openness scale, they feel similar to America (at least to me). Go a bit farther south (belgium/france/italy/spain) and people open up more. The persians I know are warmer still. I don't see these differences as better/worse - you can be perfectly happy in any of these cultures.
- GFKjunior 14y ago
  That struck me as odd, like the author has not really traveled extensively. I spent some time in Sweden recently and was surprised by the the lack of warmth even by the customer service workers. I've been to several countries that do not "express gratitude and affection" and don't see it as an exclusive US trait. It seems like his only travel experience is with west/southern europe and south america.
tjic 14y ago
> most people in the world don’t really think about us or care about us French newspaper has a front page article about Obamacare http://www.lemonde.fr/ http://www.lemonde.fr/ German newspaper has a front page article about the US election http://www.spiegel.de/ http://www.spiegel.de/ UK paper has videolink of Romney on front page http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Italian newspaper has Romney and Obama on front page http://www.repubblica.it/ http://www.repubblica.it/ For better or worse, the US has a commanding place in the politics, technology, and economics of the planet.
- vacri 14y ago
  The US is a political gorilla, sure, but that doesn't invalidate what the article is talking about.
- peacemaker 14y ago
  Your post just proves that Americans cannot take any criticism of their country without fighting against it somehow. It's built into your nature, like an automatic response. Great, a few European newspapers did stories on US politics. They also did stories on the rest of the world too which is something you don't see much in US newspapers. Don't get me wrong, I love America (and live here, originally from UK) but the country has some serious issues.
  - silvestrov 14y ago
    In addition to this: staying informed is not the same as caring (being emotional involved) about somebody. Europeans just want to know about the rest of the world because the world is connected. What happens all over the world has consequences for Europeans too. You can very well want to know what's going on in America without caring (feeling sorry) if they're going into the shitter.
    - philh 14y ago
      My model of human beings is that we are usually much quicker to get emotionally involved in something than to become informed about it.
powertower 14y ago
> 6. The Rest Of The World Is Not A Slum-Ridden Shithole Compared To Us The author never watched this video... http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-to-liberia-full-length http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-...
3amOpsGuy 14y ago
Haha, a page of comments (well, 3/4, i stopped scrolling, seen enough!) on HN from Americans living up to their stereotypes. Top work guys :-P
abecedarius 14y ago
8. We’re Status-Obsessed And Seek Attention I thought status obsession is a human universal and the cultural variation is in how it's expressed. Am I wrong? (I'm one of those little-traveled Americans.)
xiaoma 14y ago
As an American who has spend over a decade (most my adult life!) abroad, I really can't agree with most of this list. Living in China (and being able to speak and read Chinese) made it abundantly obvious to me that #1 and #2 are completely wrong. I often encountered either nationalist jabs royal treatment from strangers simply due to what was on TV at the time. In quite a few people I encountered both views. Some told me point blank that they thought that the US was the best place in the world and that they didn't understand why I left... only to change gears minutes later and tell me what a dangerous, terrible country America is. A love-hate relationship with America and Americans is very common in China. In Taiwan, where I lived for 7 years, I pretty much only encountered love. In Guatemala, I saw both, but very muted compared to China. I did encounter some serious hate from some Canadians there, though... I spent hours helping them translate and apartment hunt, after which they realized I was American, not Canadian. Amazingly, this was such a big deal to them that they pretty much forgot my kind deed and blew me off! As for affection, I think pretty much everywhere I lived in Asia saw Americans as outgoing and affectionate. In Guatemala, we were seen as reserved. I'd put us at the middle of the continuum, not at the extreme non-affectionate end. Americans aren't that status obsessed. Just look at sales of luxury cars and handbags. Chinese people tend to be status-obsessed. Rich people in the US are surprisingly restrained by comparison. Ditto on unhealthiness. After moving to the US 2 months ago I find there's very little drinking, people never smoke in offices, not many people smoke at all, and I haven't seen a single scuffle outside a restaurant yet. It's certainly not as health-focused as someplace like Japan, and food portions are too big, but there is a culture of exercise. On the whole I'd say Boulder, Colorado is the healthiest place I've ever lived. SF isn't bad. I agree that the health care system leaves a lot to be desired. I do miss Taiwan's quite a bit. It amazed me how it was cheap, high quality and somehow supported by a very low tax rate. I prefer the US system to China's or Guatemala's though. One constant I've found over the past 10 years is that no matter where I live, I encounter American movies at the theaters, news about the US on TV, American restaurants and businesses in the streets, and a lot of people who very much want to understand my home country better. Sometimes it was frustrating when I was looking for total immersion and an experience living someplace completely different from home. My Swedish and Argentinian classmates in Taiwan could go weeks without hearing their mother tongues or seeing anything about their countries in any media, but I could not. Even a single day would be almost impossible because in truth the US is exceptional among countries. In short, I think this list is closer to a European caricature of the US than it is to reality.
Kelliot 14y ago
> most people in the world don’t really think about us or care about us The only times I've glanced an eye across the pond is when something incredible stupid happens. Examples: George bush gets elected, George bush gets elected again, Vote against free health care, Illegal wars for resource grabbing. Gonna be down voted massively for this but its important to understand we don't always pay attention because your doing something right, quite often its the opposite.
marquis 14y ago
> In America, women usually get incredibly nervous and confused when I do this. They’ll make jokes to defuse the situation or sometimes ask me if I’m part of a TV show or something playing a prank. Hm, I see this as largely part of the way the media in the U.S. portrays random communication between strangers: it must be malicious behaviour. When I'm in the U.S. striking up conversations with strangers and my friends there think I'm crazy. I'm just not american, which maybe gives me a buffer (and something to talk about).
vacri 14y ago
One I'd like to add from my travels across the US. 'Freedom' is not just freedom. Less so in the north-east, but in the south and southwest in particular, you can hear the capital F when people say it. It's a political entity that you can either love (with us) or hate (against us). You can't be pro-Freedom if you're not pro-American sort of stuff. Elsewhere 'freedom' is definitely a desirable quality, but it's not a concept that has a life of its own and must be tended to like a pet. 'freedom' isn't something that will stir in your breast and make you fight harder. 'Freedom' seems to be a word that has been incorporated into the US religion of state, and seems to have a tangibly different meaning there.
prawn 14y ago
Could say most of these things about any first-world country's people, IMO. Australian's probably inflate our country's world value, can be fairly unhealthy, strive for status, etc.
rsanchez1 14y ago
Thanks Reddit, now go fuck yourself. Hint: I don't mean I like you.

73 points by felipellrocha 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

degenerate 14y ago

I think this is the first time in my life I laughed out loud at "Error establishing a database connection".

smcnally 14y ago
I thought among the first things the titled referred to was "how to do HA dbs;" "how to shard in wp-config"; "how not to get hackernewsed"

enraged_camel 14y ago

As an immigrant, I definitely agree with the "[Americans] Are Poor At Expressing Gratitude And Affection". Every single ex-girlfriend has pointed out to me that I am very affectionate, whereas all I was doing was being myself. I guess this is because where I come from (Turkey), people are expected to show their affection and appreciation with lots of touching and hugging. For example, when you run into a friend, you usually kiss each other on both cheeks as a greeting. In the US though, this would be considered aberrant behavior - might even be perceived as "gay" if it's two guy friends. Instead it's either handshake or fist-bump. Suppressing affection is pretty hard. Often times I find myself with an urge to give people hugs, but refrain from doing so.

heretohelp 14y ago
For an enraged camel, you seem rather affectionate. Also, not all Americans are like that.
- enraged_camel 14y ago
  I've lived in four different states over the past ten years, and found that most people I have met are indeed like that. The difference becomes especially obvious when I hang out with visitors or other immigrants. European women for example are much more comfortable with holding hands or throwing their arms around my waist when walking down the street, and they do it even when we are just friends. Americans are the opposite: they seem to have "touch-phobia".
  - heretohelp 14y ago
    It's a barrier thing. Our public life is less touchy, but when I'm dating someone I am very affectionate.
- protomyth 14y ago
  Different parts of the US have different customs. Some folks are very personal space (myself and a lot of my family) and some are very - well - "huggy" (my brother's in-laws errr).
mynameishere 14y ago
Rote kissing isn't affection.
- entropy_ 14y ago
  No, indeed not, but to someone in whose culture this is not the norm that's how it seems, overly affectionate. What the OP was saying was that for him, he was acting just normal but people perceived it as very affectionate, and that's exactly the point. He may have not been displaying affection but that's how it got interpreted.
freehunter 14y ago
What it sounds like is not that Americans are worse at expressing affection, but rather express affection in different ways. Fist-bumps, handshakes, high fives, even a head bob is a very obvious way to show someone you recognize their existence and are glad to see them. In America, kissing is not a sign of friendly affection, but a sign of romantic affection. It's a small cultural difference, but the feelings expressed are exactly the same. Making the claim that Americans are not affectionate because they don't kiss as a friendly greeting is the same as saying the Germans can't communicate just because I can't understand their language. Insisting on speaking English to a non-English-speaking person would be just as rude and out of place as insisting on kissing an American acquaintance.
jules 14y ago
Keep in mind that Turkey is an outlier in this regard, sleeping in the same bed or on a friend's shoulder, kissing, holding hands in the street (though I heard this is changing especially in the cities?). Many peoples are even less affectionate than Americans. I've heard exactly the same complaints from Turks in western europe.

SeanLuke 14y ago

> We did not invent democracy. We didn’t even invent modern democracy. There were parliamentary systems in England and other parts of Europe over a hundred years before we created government. This is a pretty foolish statement from an otherwise reasonable article. Parliament in England was not remotely representative until 1867 by the most generous measure, and more reasonably not until the early 20th century. So far as I know, the only modern government of consequence which could lay claim to being a "democracy" prior to the US is probably San Marino, and its representation is, shall we say, odd. I think that the US can indeed lay claim to being the first modern democracy: its government was absolutely radical at the time, and more importantly it stood as an example to other later movements (starting with the French).

kloncks 14y ago
Take the main point and not the details. Here's another example: women/minority voting. Not the first country or culture to allow that, either.
- protomyth 14y ago
  I'm not sure about the parent commenter, but I believe a main point should be allowed to stand if the details are not correct or well thought out. The great slogan no longer inspires me when the details and thus the follow-up are missing.
ImprovedSilence 14y ago
Let's be real, America is a Republic, and Republics came from Rome. Things America doesn't know about america: We are NOT a democracy, we are a REPUBLIC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_democracy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_democracy
- protomyth 14y ago
  A representative constitutional republic to tell the whole story. The article really lost me on this point. If you look that shallowly at what the Constitution established as a one word description, then yes, there were others before. If you look at the branches and, particularly the division between state and popular representation, the US is much different than what came before. It seems like the typical gloss job we find in high schools these days that really needs to be fixed.

aaronbrethorst 14y ago

Cached: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mv1XfrS9_lMJ:postmasculine.com/america+%3F+http://postmasculine.com/america&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mv1XfrS...

alrs 14y ago

Cached: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CAgQIDAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwebcache.googleusercontent.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3Amv1XfrS9_lMJ%3Apostmasculine.com%2Famerica%2B%26cd%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ei=Rvn9T_uCO8yQqwHtipW6Ag&usg=AFQjCNHZoTJL-wl4m6lwEWmFZDZme7w5QQ http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&#...

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

barking 14y ago

My guess is that the people who were insanely friendly lived in areas where they didn't get to meet too many foreigners. Familiarity breeds contempt as they say.

tweiss 14y ago

From my experience (German, studied and worked in the states, traveler) the list is pretty spot on. BUT I think it applies mostly to Joe Sixpack. Most of my friends and people I met are not really like that. Maybe just enough so that you can tell them apart from Canadians ;) Don't beat yourself up about it, it is what it is and you are who you are. And I personally like the American mentality, mostly because I can't take most of it seriously. And Joe Sixpack isn't any better in other countries. So keep on shouting U - S - A, U - S - A, I'll even join in :)

kloncks 14y ago

"If you’re extremely talented or intelligent, the US is probably the best place in the world to live." This is one of the most important points. For the average American HackerNews reader, life is radically different from the rest of America. I am given opportunities, networks, connections and chances that I wouldn't be able to get this easily anywhere else in the World. The genius of America seems to come from a few very key categories that exist to this day. Silicon Valley is one of them; Hollywood or Wall Street might be others. But outside that, our average is a rather poor showing compared to a lot of other countries around the world that more collectively seem to take care of their people. The problem, in my humble opinion, always stems from ignorance. As a culture, we're just not as aware or respectful as we should be. Other countries know more about the World than we do. That leads to more open-ness and respect.

mbesto 14y ago
I 100% agree with your quote from the article as well. The US is an absolutely amazing place when you are "the best". You get to live the hyperbole and talk about it too. What better place to do so? For example, the US healthcare doesn't suck, it's actually really good. But it's only good for those who can afford it. I've had to go to the doctor three times now in the UK (eye infection, sports injury and regular checkup) and every time I've had to wait 3+ hours to get diagnosed/treated. In the US, my healthcare meant I was in and out in 30 minutes. The US is a great place when you can afford it. That being said, I happily waited in line for the 3+ hours because I knew that other people are being treated for things they normally can't afford in the US. The problem in America, is that no one can even fathom a system like this. It's so foreign to the way we operate our lives (i.e. our culture) because everything we do is deeply rooted in transferences of goods and services in the form of money. ps- I'm also an American who has lived in the UK, Germany, and been to 30+ countries. I share a lot of the same views as the author.
- ericd 14y ago
  Yeah, in visiting other countries, my impression is that the average person is way happier with life, regardless of their financial standing. This in turn makes me happier. I'd be happy to pay way more in taxes in the US to support that kind of living environment. It's hard to realize the difference it makes without traveling and meeting lots of people when you do so, though, and the tragedy is that the current system in the US doesn't allow most people the resources to travel and educate themselves, which seems to negatively effect the chances of having a well educated voting populace.

BadassFractal 14y ago

Great article!

hkmurakami 14y ago

>The point is we don’t really get perspective on what’s close to us until we spend time away from it. This is so true for so many aspects of our lives, particularly with respect to culture -- whether it be the "America, Fuck Yeah!" attitude or the "Silicon Valley coolaid".

bluekeybox 14y ago

> We are poor at expressing gratitude and affection This is not exclusively (or even originally) an American thing. The author makes the same mistake he complains about: it's not all about America! (Corollary: do not blame the Americans for what the British are actually responsible!) Apparently we inherited "phatic" conversation from the same people we took our language from. For example, in German, unlike in English, there is no word for "small talk": http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13545386 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13545386

wheels 14y ago
"Small talk" is commonly used as a loan phrase in modern German. One might as well say that American English has no word for the first year of school. "Quatschen" is also pretty close to the meaning of "small talk" (with a slightly more negative / playful connotation -- "blabbing"): http://dict.leo.org/?lp=ende&search=quatschen http://dict.leo.org/?lp=ende&search=quatschen
saraid216 14y ago
...he wrote an article exclusively about America... why exactly would he discuss the failings of other countries?
- bluekeybox 14y ago
  Because it may help to understand where one comes from to understand where one is going.
andyl 14y ago
Visit scandanavia, germany, holland, britain. On the warmth/openness scale, they feel similar to America (at least to me). Go a bit farther south (belgium/france/italy/spain) and people open up more. The persians I know are warmer still. I don't see these differences as better/worse - you can be perfectly happy in any of these cultures.
GFKjunior 14y ago
That struck me as odd, like the author has not really traveled extensively. I spent some time in Sweden recently and was surprised by the the lack of warmth even by the customer service workers. I've been to several countries that do not "express gratitude and affection" and don't see it as an exclusive US trait. It seems like his only travel experience is with west/southern europe and south america.

tjic 14y ago

> most people in the world don’t really think about us or care about us French newspaper has a front page article about Obamacare http://www.lemonde.fr/ http://www.lemonde.fr/ German newspaper has a front page article about the US election http://www.spiegel.de/ http://www.spiegel.de/ UK paper has videolink of Romney on front page http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Italian newspaper has Romney and Obama on front page http://www.repubblica.it/ http://www.repubblica.it/ For better or worse, the US has a commanding place in the politics, technology, and economics of the planet.

vacri 14y ago
The US is a political gorilla, sure, but that doesn't invalidate what the article is talking about.
peacemaker 14y ago
Your post just proves that Americans cannot take any criticism of their country without fighting against it somehow. It's built into your nature, like an automatic response. Great, a few European newspapers did stories on US politics. They also did stories on the rest of the world too which is something you don't see much in US newspapers. Don't get me wrong, I love America (and live here, originally from UK) but the country has some serious issues.
- silvestrov 14y ago
  In addition to this: staying informed is not the same as caring (being emotional involved) about somebody. Europeans just want to know about the rest of the world because the world is connected. What happens all over the world has consequences for Europeans too. You can very well want to know what's going on in America without caring (feeling sorry) if they're going into the shitter.
  - philh 14y ago
    My model of human beings is that we are usually much quicker to get emotionally involved in something than to become informed about it.

powertower 14y ago

> 6. The Rest Of The World Is Not A Slum-Ridden Shithole Compared To Us The author never watched this video... http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-to-liberia-full-length http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-...

3amOpsGuy 14y ago

Haha, a page of comments (well, 3/4, i stopped scrolling, seen enough!) on HN from Americans living up to their stereotypes. Top work guys :-P

abecedarius 14y ago

8. We’re Status-Obsessed And Seek Attention I thought status obsession is a human universal and the cultural variation is in how it's expressed. Am I wrong? (I'm one of those little-traveled Americans.)

xiaoma 14y ago

As an American who has spend over a decade (most my adult life!) abroad, I really can't agree with most of this list. Living in China (and being able to speak and read Chinese) made it abundantly obvious to me that #1 and #2 are completely wrong. I often encountered either nationalist jabs royal treatment from strangers simply due to what was on TV at the time. In quite a few people I encountered both views. Some told me point blank that they thought that the US was the best place in the world and that they didn't understand why I left... only to change gears minutes later and tell me what a dangerous, terrible country America is. A love-hate relationship with America and Americans is very common in China. In Taiwan, where I lived for 7 years, I pretty much only encountered love. In Guatemala, I saw both, but very muted compared to China. I did encounter some serious hate from some Canadians there, though... I spent hours helping them translate and apartment hunt, after which they realized I was American, not Canadian. Amazingly, this was such a big deal to them that they pretty much forgot my kind deed and blew me off! As for affection, I think pretty much everywhere I lived in Asia saw Americans as outgoing and affectionate. In Guatemala, we were seen as reserved. I'd put us at the middle of the continuum, not at the extreme non-affectionate end. Americans aren't that status obsessed. Just look at sales of luxury cars and handbags. Chinese people tend to be status-obsessed. Rich people in the US are surprisingly restrained by comparison. Ditto on unhealthiness. After moving to the US 2 months ago I find there's very little drinking, people never smoke in offices, not many people smoke at all, and I haven't seen a single scuffle outside a restaurant yet. It's certainly not as health-focused as someplace like Japan, and food portions are too big, but there is a culture of exercise. On the whole I'd say Boulder, Colorado is the healthiest place I've ever lived. SF isn't bad. I agree that the health care system leaves a lot to be desired. I do miss Taiwan's quite a bit. It amazed me how it was cheap, high quality and somehow supported by a very low tax rate. I prefer the US system to China's or Guatemala's though. One constant I've found over the past 10 years is that no matter where I live, I encounter American movies at the theaters, news about the US on TV, American restaurants and businesses in the streets, and a lot of people who very much want to understand my home country better. Sometimes it was frustrating when I was looking for total immersion and an experience living someplace completely different from home. My Swedish and Argentinian classmates in Taiwan could go weeks without hearing their mother tongues or seeing anything about their countries in any media, but I could not. Even a single day would be almost impossible because in truth the US is exceptional among countries. In short, I think this list is closer to a European caricature of the US than it is to reality.

Kelliot 14y ago

> most people in the world don’t really think about us or care about us The only times I've glanced an eye across the pond is when something incredible stupid happens. Examples: George bush gets elected, George bush gets elected again, Vote against free health care, Illegal wars for resource grabbing. Gonna be down voted massively for this but its important to understand we don't always pay attention because your doing something right, quite often its the opposite.

marquis 14y ago

> In America, women usually get incredibly nervous and confused when I do this. They’ll make jokes to defuse the situation or sometimes ask me if I’m part of a TV show or something playing a prank. Hm, I see this as largely part of the way the media in the U.S. portrays random communication between strangers: it must be malicious behaviour. When I'm in the U.S. striking up conversations with strangers and my friends there think I'm crazy. I'm just not american, which maybe gives me a buffer (and something to talk about).

vacri 14y ago

One I'd like to add from my travels across the US. 'Freedom' is not just freedom. Less so in the north-east, but in the south and southwest in particular, you can hear the capital F when people say it. It's a political entity that you can either love (with us) or hate (against us). You can't be pro-Freedom if you're not pro-American sort of stuff. Elsewhere 'freedom' is definitely a desirable quality, but it's not a concept that has a life of its own and must be tended to like a pet. 'freedom' isn't something that will stir in your breast and make you fight harder. 'Freedom' seems to be a word that has been incorporated into the US religion of state, and seems to have a tangibly different meaning there.

prawn 14y ago

Could say most of these things about any first-world country's people, IMO. Australian's probably inflate our country's world value, can be fairly unhealthy, strive for status, etc.

rsanchez1 14y ago

Thanks Reddit, now go fuck yourself. Hint: I don't mean I like you.