DO NOT LET SOCIAL MEDIA TURN YOU INTO AN AMERICAN
As an American: Seriously, please don’t
ok well i don't
"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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
This is going to sound frivolous because it starts with the words “I write fanfiction” so I want you to ignore that bit and look at what I have FOUND OUT this way.
I write fanfiction for properties set predominantly in England and Japan. Because I try to represent the native cultures of the properties as best I can, this means doing a lot of research on things ranging from native weeds to what a typical bedtime routine looks like.
THIS INFORMATION IS GETTING HARDER AND HARDER TO FIND. A few weeks ago I was trying to find out what you might grow in an English garden and no matter what search terms I used I kept getting suggestions for how Americans could decorate for an English-themed “garden party.” Results for “native wildflowers England” were mixed—half the flowers I found were ones I recognize from growing up in Pennsylvania and I have no idea if these were basically sniped from the web on the basis of “it looks like it should be England” or if marigolds really do grow wild there. Searches for the interior of a traditional Japanese home turned up a multitude of websites for American expats who might have to rent a traditional home. A search on English Christmas traditions turned up the information that the traditional Christmas goose has been all but replaced by a CHRISTMAS TURKEY. You know. The intrinsically and distinctly American bird.
It’s literally getting harder and harder to find this information because it’s not being recorded. And that should scare you.
Not that I can combat all misinformation and cultural domination in one post but some things that grow in the various gardens I've spent lots of time in:
My dad has spent the last decade tending to Wisteria growing across the front of the house, now it blooms beautifully. In the garden we also have b.leeding hearts, lily of the valley, poppies, lavender, blackberries, mint, chives, thyme, sage, St John's wort, poenies, and roses (though my dad isn't a fan so not really).
In my grandmothers garden, in a house that no one could afford now, but that wasn't expensive when she and my grandfather bought it, we had an orchard with apples and pears, and cages of berries with red currents, gooseberries, and blackcurrants. She had so many plants i couldn't name them all but i remember being taught about physilis, and another plant that looks just like it but is poisonous. And no one warned us about the foxglove, or the deadly nightshade but they were there. The house is covered in ivy and Virginia creeper. My uncle lives there now and grows clover across the lawns to feed the bees.
In my rented flat we mostly just have a messy lawn that is mostly wildflowers and weeds. But these are thistles, and dandelions, and a pretty yellow plant I haven't worked out yet. In the back corner where the soul is poor grow blackberry brambles, and nettles. I grow roses and strawberries in pots, and out the front we have a dogrose. When I lived in London we had an elderflower, which you could harvest to make cordials and elderflower champagne (which isn't champagne at all)
*a varied but non exhaustive list
I want you to know I was screenshotting this for reference long before I got to your tags saying “probably not relevant to your research anymore.”
It 100% is. And now that I actually HAVE this information you’d best believe I’ll be using it in this fandom as often as I’m reasonably able. I might be American, but I’m also not an asshole about other places and cultures, and I’m an archivist who thinks that to lose any scrap of information is to lose a whole library. Maybe it’s just a fanfic for a smallish fandom but if one person comes out knowing what bleeding heart is and that it grows in England, that’s knowledge shared, which is knowledge saved.
Thank you for taking the time and sharing your knowledge. ❤️❤️❤️
A new study at King's College, Cambridge reveals the striking benefits of letting lawns go wild. But can others be persuaded to break with a
Ooo, also this is also a really good write up of a rewilding process at kings college Cambridge that tells you a lot about East Anglican meadows: https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/kings-wildflower-meadow-a-break-from-the-lawn
Also, they tell you about a company which sells wildflower mixes specific to soil type as different soils (clay, sand, chalk) have very different flowers. (
Emorsgate Seeds is a family business producing wild seeds and seed mixes. Established in 1980 by Donald MacIntyre, and now farming wild seed
I'm glad it was useful! I went to my grandmothers house recently and it was lovely to see new little children discovering the "secret gardens" at the back which we had all played in when we were small too.
