that Cunt. lowercase t.

miss-wizard

DO NOT LET SOCIAL MEDIA TURN YOU INTO AN AMERICAN

coleblackblood

As an American: Seriously, please don’t

miss-wizard

tags reading "im assuming you mean the stereotyping assholes"

ok well i don't

alatismeni-theitsa

"Americanization" is a real phenomenon, and how non-Americans should be cautious of it is taught in different countries at school. It's taught in Greece and people from other countries told me their elementary or middle school teachers (using the American grades, to make it make sense to the majority on the site) talked to them about it.

It's common sense here, except for USians, so I'll analyze it a bit more for the dominant demographic here. In a globalized setting, the most dominant culture affects the others and sets the trends. The way our language works, how we think, our levels of politeness and intimacy, and our levels of respect. (flash news, they are going down 😂)

I don't want to imply that there is nothing good in the US. There are plenty of positives in the country. It's just that for the rest of the cultures online it's a constant daily fight to not forget our roots, with the degree US media and brands have permeated our lives. In Greece at least we watch more US American media than Greek media nowadays, and many of our shows are rip-offs of USian ones, with little adaptation to Greek reality and culture.

And to demonstrate the amount of this exposure, a 22-year-old Greek asked me the other day "if something happens we call 911, right?" This might have literally cost them their life, in a dangerous situation! Because all the movies and songs they consumed (not an unusual thing for the Greek youth) were what they knew. And I found a similar comment in this comment thread.

pigeondudes

Lots of Americans in the notes failing to understand this post. It's not about not liking the US. It's not about you feeling ashamed or guilty for being American. It's not about you.

It's about American media drowning out native language media all over the world, and workplaces requiring the English language in your repertoire more and more. It's about proper translations and foreign language dubbing of films disappearing because "everyone speaks/should speak English anyway." All of this is leading to the deterioration of native speaker groups of languages worldwide.

In my country, Dutch language courses can't find enough people who want to study the language, while English language courses are overflowing with people who want to study the language. There is even widespread distaste for the Dutch language for being crude or sounding rough or what have you. That's our native language!!! That is our culture in its purest form!!! That is knowledge we inherit from our parents as they did from theirs!!! That is how we learned fairytales and folk stories and myths!!! That is the language that shapes our communication and our way of thinking!!! To hate your native language is to hate yourself at the deepest level.

And yet it's so normalised. Droves of foreigners living in the Netherlands will never learn a word of Dutch, because "everyone speaks English anyway." We are the world's leaders in non-native understanding of English, but it comes at a cost. A grave cost we will continue to pay.

If you're looking to support your non-American friends in any way that is not performatively shouting "I hate being an American" into the void, first of all, unlearn that hatred of yourself and your culture. You are of no help self-flagellating, and there is a difference between holding your country accountable for its issues, and denying yourself your culture because your country is doing and has done bad things.

(I am not going to get into arguments about whether or not US American culture exists. It does, and if you think differently you are welcome to change your mind.)

Secondly, learn about other countries. Learn a bit of Chinese. Take an interest in the Italian political system. Ask your friends about their countries' folklore. Watch documentaries about art from Nigeria. Absorb information that is not fed to you by American media.

And thirdly, quit expecting your non-American friends to communicate in a way that appeals to you. The French and Dutch will always seem rude to you because our way of communicating is far more direct than the way you communicate. People from other cultures may seem vague to you because their way of communicating is far more indirect, and you're not used to that either. Quit being frustrated when you don't get what we mean exactly. Quit assuming we mean the absolute worst thing you could imagine just because you didn't get what we meant the first time. Ask us to explain if you need us to, and learn to accept that we are different from you.

We are already adapting to your culture 100% of the time we are online. It's your responsibility to adapt to us, too. At least do your friends the courtesy of learning about and adapting to them.

captaindibbzy

This is a big problem in other English speaking countries. I live in the UK, in England no less, and there was a point in my childhood where my brain would bring up 911 as the emergency number. And on top of having our culture's stomped on we have people making fun of the way we do things and justifying it as "well you deserve it because you're English" like the backwater underfunded poverty stricken areas people mock have ever had any power. There's an Americanisation of food, and culture, an import of social justice issues as the American understanding of things is superimposed over our own history by kids who mean well but have learned all their vocabulary from Americans. We share many things but these issues are not the same and treating them as the same can be detrimental to the change people want to bring. (For example our most diverse prime minister's have all been Conservative, and the last one to bring up God while in office was "left wing" Labour. Even the colours of left and right political parties are different here.) Poverty is experienced differently. Class is experienced differently. Race is experienced differently. Racism is experienced differently.

And half the time if you even talk about it you have god damn 19 year olds hopping up and down screaming like toddlers because you're not doing it right for their needs.

fierceawakening

If people are jumping to the idea they should call 911 rather than whatever it is in their country, That's A Problem and people should say so.

--An American

socialjusticeissue

We actually have it set up in Australia so that if you forget it's 000 here and dial 911 instead, it will still connect you to the emergency centre. That's how much of a problem if was.

eroticcannibal

I've had to put actual effort into making sure my child, who lives in the UK, learns to speak its own language and not what Americans speak. Its mad I had to put limits on American media consumption. I never had to do that with ANY other countries media. Not even the dominance of RP in English media did as much damage as American media did. As if its not hard enough trying to keep regional dialects alive. Theres kids growing up with American accents ffs! (And yes you could criticise the parents and screen time but this aint happening with other accents. I think that's important to recognise)

And I am forever having to remind people what country they live in whenever politics come up. Its not uncommon for people to *only* know American politics and not even realise it. They have just learned thats "the way things are". And the same with law! Trying to tell their own solicitors to do things the "proper" (american) way! Brits walking around talking about their constitutional rights! First amendment! Its fucking ridiculous! People thinking "oh I know my rights" and woops now you're arrested because you can't actually talk to the police like that and your silence can actually be used against you.

I've seen multiple British poc be torn apart online for discussing their lived experiences, and even other British poc back up that harassment because they've been taught to think about things the American way, so the American racists attacking British poc must be right! Trying to discuss any non-american race politics (for the benefit of the fucking opressed) is always inevitably derailed because how dare we not fit the whole worlds experiences into the tiny boxes americans can relate too. Which in turn just destroys people's ability to educate and give people the vocabulary they need, which then deprives people of the understanding and connection they need to process and deal with their oppression.

Thankfully things have changed in the past few years but there was a time it was almost impossible to find (free) educational resources for BSL because well, why learn that when you can learn ASL?

Even when trying to engage with other languages and cultures, its ruined by American culture. My kid abandoned its language studies for years because it just could not deal with the demand of having to not only learn a new language but also learn American to use apps like duolingo. How discouraging for a young child to be told over and over that they are wrong for using the correct, very common but not American word.

And it just permeates everything. I lost my native dialect to classism and fought so hard to get it back. And yet I have to keep diluting it online so I can just talk about things else everything I post will be derailed by americans cooing over the silly little brit using weird words instead of like. Enaging with what I say in a meaningful way. Or I'll get threatened with doxxing by some bratty teenagers because I used a BRITISH colloquialism that coincidentally occurred in an American dialect and they just can't get their heads round the fact america doesn't own everything.

And yeah the 911 thing is a fucking problem. I've encountered near zero little kids these days who will remember 999 first no matter how much the adults around them try to help them.

girddlepatchilles

So I used to work in schools teaching basic First Aid. Whenever I ran a session there would inevitably be one kid who would shout 911 instead of 000. A handful of times a kid would say 999, but that was because they’d just watched Operation Ouch. Kind of understandable since when I first started at that job Bluey didn’t exist yet and most kids shows were American. I now teach First Aid to adults and the fact that people say “Sometimes you just think 911 because of all the American television we get” absolutely infuriates me on a gutteral level.

I had a friend from uni who had such a thick American accent I swore she was actually American. Turned out she came from a country town and just watched a lot of American TV. My parents would jump on me the minute I started to use the American word for things when I was a kid and now I will use the Australian word instead of the American word because fuck you, you can learn to understand my dialect now. I am so thankful Bluey exists and that Americans are learning Australian words, because seeing the articles and tweets of parents being upset their kids are talking like Australians make me perversely happy. Americanisation is a thing and it is vile and I fucking hate it.

I also spend a lot of time in (non-tumblr) role-playing spaces. You can just tell when a writer is American and hasn’t sought to learn about other cultures and think about how the culture of their character may affect word choices. When I can see a post/app/whatever that’s supposed to be from a character who would not use the same words refer to their mother as “mom” or use other American terms.... I want to scream.

Other cultures exist! Americans do not own everything! You don’t have to be the centre of the universe the whole fucking time!

justarandomgirly

Movies. Lets talk about movies too. USA has a lot of movies that are considered classic and legendary. But so do other countries. Each country has movies that are considered classic in those countries.

If you, an american dont know Kolja, dont freaking be offended or upset that I, a European, dont know Beetlejuice. Dont ask me how come Ive never seen it. Two could play that game.

Dont immediately call me ignorant if I dont know about some race riots that took place in USA in 1950s. Because I highly doubt you'd know who Jan Palach is.

Stop thinking you are the centre of the world. That your country is the only one with political, racial, economical problems or LGBT discrimination.

that Cunt. lowercase t.

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.