Thank you for the honorable mention IAMDonehere, Annhig and Kleeblat.

I am not an american as you read but have spent many years in America and continue to travel there once or more every year.

Here's some more perspectives:

1. Americans were the ones who adopted psychoanalysis and psychiatry en-masse and still support those professions more than any other peoples.

2. Americans have the best social scientists as a group in the world, have conducted the most meaningful and scientifically correct social science research including political, behavioral, social psychological, economic but they are also the ones who make the least use of these studies and the information gathered in terms of their "Pursuit of Happiness."

3. Americans like to be considered to be individuals but treat their employees as menial robots.

4. As opposed to the work place ethics and practice in most other countries, the higher you get in a corporate or hierarchical organization in America, the more hours and days you are supposed to work. What you earn is not there to give you time to phulosophize, understand and love yourself and others. What you earn is to show to others how much more successful(?) you are than they are even if your success is only measured in money, power and property.

5. Real friendship is not easy between Americans and is possible only if there is no monetary, hierarchical or business relationship; with the concept of hierarchy used in multiple meanings.

6. Americans follow the Islamic or Desert Arab custom or habit of usually preferring to eat with their right hands. Even when they use that hand for holding a knife for cutting, they will switch the implements when eating the piece that was cut. (Eat hand and s...t hand separation?)

7. Americans do not know what to pay someone for small chores when they have asked help. They will usually overpay or overtip and sometimes behave very miserly and act as if that person was required to assist them.

(I asked the doorman in our building in Chicago if he could assist assembling some IKEA stuff I had bought. He did, after work hours. My SIL wanted to pay him $100 for it. I paid him $50 and he was very happy. We became buddies, and I could call on his help again. If my Son-in-law had paid the 100, that would have been the end of that very expensive relationship: bad for both of us.)

Sorry for pitching in as a horrible(!) foreigner :)

Thanks for insighst OC.

99% of Americans do not know the origin of "Pursuit of happiness." It is an Enlightenment concept that means the ability to help others. It has nothing to do with the 20th and 21st concept of personal satisfaction.

I think otherchelebi's observations are so perceptive and interesting! Thank you for sharing them.

This will give you an insight into some segment of the US population.


https://www.yahoo.com/tv/s/jimmy-kim...-sh&soc_trk=fb

<IMDonehere on Oct 14, 15 at 6:06pm
Let's try and stay away from political discussions. Just state your case and move on.>

So everyone except you must avoid talking politics, IMD?

Please ignore Newbe, she is very upset that this thread is both useful and civil.

Interesting observations otherchelebi, as someone who trained as a social scientist it's depressing to think about the policy ramifications of our work.

I found people were very friendly when I met them but it took a longer time than at home to forge profound friendship and I was taken aback by how little many people spoke about their families. I'm not saying this is typical, or American, only my own observation. I think it may have to do with the fact that so many people in Califrornia have moved here. Also it may have to do with my own expectations as my mother is from Ireland where family is inescapable!

NewbE Yes, I agree, there are considerable immigrant populations in middle and small town America, but demographically speaking the coasts and urban areas remain more racially diverse, with higher numbers of foreign born and second language speaking folks, NY, LA, Miami, SF, Chicago come immediately to mind.

Where shall I begin?

Family members are often found living in several different regions or states. I was asked by a young girl in Italy if we all lived in the same town as she had heard about families being located geographically apart. . My family is and we all fly a lot to see each other. It all is due to job transfers.

There are some genuinely hilarious cliches in this thread.

<I>But other people in other parts of the country may never have traveled more then 50 or 100 miles from home or met anyone of another race or religion. </I>

Wow. Just wow.

One thing I would like people to know is that most Americans aren't quite that condescending. And also that many New Yorkers are incredibly provincial and have a remarkably skewed view of the world.

I love this thread! so much in it I will agree with - we are a terribly naive, generous, hope-full people - and we can also be close hearted and intolerant in the extreme. A few other thoughts:
We move around a great deal. I was born in NYC, grew up in Arizona (after a brief stint in Oregon) went to school in Ohio, lived in Boston, graduate school in Philadelphia - settled there for 30 years (whew) and now live in New Mexico. On the other hand, in my community here in the four corners are native peoples (mostly Navajo) whose families have lived here for over a thousand years, and Hispanic families with over 400 years of history in this area.

And although for the most part we say we believe in equality and civil rights, our schools and communities are increasingly segregated and the gap between rich and poor is widening alarmingly with those at the bottom disproportionately people of color. We also have the highest percentage of people in prison of anywhere in the world (also disproportionately people of color). We share the death penalty with Saudi Arabia, Iran, N. Korea and China.

on the other hand - we truly value our freedom of speech and freedom of the press and our court system is truly committed with all its flaws to justice and fair trials (I remain in awe of our jury system). And what always gives me goosebumps (especially following so closely the recent events in Turkey) is that no matter how much we disagree with an election result, we believe in our process and we abide by it knowing that in four years we can try again. And this to me is priceless.

The best part of the USA IMHO is that we are a multiethnic nation of immigrants, and our national parks. If you come for a visit and have limited time - skip the cities, visit the treasures that are Acadia, Yellowstone, the Everglades, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Arches...well I could go on an on - but come on in y'all and we'll make you welcome!

IMD, I feel sorry for you. You can't remain civil on your own thread. I'm outta here. Too bad, because it is a good thread, but it will degenerate because of you.

IMD, I feel sorry for you. You can't remain civil on your own thread. I'm outta here. Too bad, because it is a good thread, but it will degenerate because of you.
__________________________
Promise to leave?

You seem to be the only one with a problem with me. But that is your usual childish passive-agressive behavior. Start a fight and then pretend to be the victim with the hope destroying what is otherwise a useful and insightful topic.

Bye-bye. Maybe when they start Fodor's Junior, you can be the class president.

I'm the childish one? I contributed to your thread, and wish I hadn't. You only started it to pick fights. The Lounge is the place for you, but oh, that's right, you got banned for your rude ways, didn't you?

Now, now.........children!

Brings to mind the all-American phenomenon of youth films and TV series with teens, consumed (hopefully) only by teens.

Another subject for the social scientists?

Never trust any opinion that starts with: "I knew this one person who ..." or any variation thereof.

"looks as if there are as many opinions as there are americans!"



Sometimes even more.

There are exceptions to everything. For every trait described on this thread as being typically American, I can think of plenty of people who are not like that at all. Everything from friendliness, willingness to talk to strangers, relationships with employers and employees, openness to travel and to new ideas. I do not recognize anybody I know in some of these descriptions.

Treating employees as menial robots? Thankfully, nobody I know feels this way.

Eating with our right hands? I don't, I guess because I am left handed. There is no taboo on eating with the left hand. The switching hands thing is a custom that many people were taught, I was not, but it has to do with right handed people being more comfortable both using a knife and holding the fork in their right hand, I would imagine. And I imagine they use their preferred hand for the other tasks, there is no bathroom left hand habit, as far as I know, unless you are left handed.

I feel very safe. Many people I know do not lock their doors. But we don't live in a city, and when I did I felt much less carefree about safety. There are areas where people feel more safe and areas where they feel less safe.

Many, many people believe we spend far too much money on the military.

The influence of sport on people's lives varies but those I know who are quite interested in sports use it as a form of relaxation and recreation.

I don't know why the Kardashians are so popular. But I live in a bubble.

To the topics raised by Kleeblatt (who is also American):

why Americans eat and run: mostly because they have somewhere else to go. At the company I work for in Switzerland, my colleagues spend no more time at lunch than Americans normally do. Americans dining at non-chain restaurants and with no after-dinner plans often spend as much time lingering over their meal as the Swiss and Germans I dine with.

- why they love talking to tourists: Because Americans are friendly. They talk to each too, although on both counts, you may find Southerners more chatty than Vermonters.

- why there are so many kinds of churches and what's their popularity: The U.S. is a land of immigrants and many people belong to the church that their parents, grandparents, etc belonged to. My 18th century ancestors were Moravian; I'm Moravian too. FWIW, I was raised in a church that has always supported education, tolerance, and respect for women. Fra Diavalo, please explain how these beliefs count as "prejudices."

- how do they feel about foreigners. Depends on which American you ask. I have relatives who love learning more about other cultures; I also have a relative who can't stand any foreigners, esp Armenians (and he's from Wyoming, so WTf??).

- how do they feel about tourists: Well-behaved tourists who don't travel with chips on their shoulders about the U.S. are usually welcomed gladly. Of course, where there are large numbers of tourist clumps, you hear the same complaints that you would hear anywhere. But as others have posted, I do think many visitors to the U.S. vastly underestimate our diversity (both geographic and cultural) and the time it takes to get from place to place. Or how wild our weather can be. A French co-worker once witnessed an F3 tornado in Oklahoma. When asked to describe it, he just kept saying: Oh my god. Wow. That was...wow.
-
- how well do they know their neighbours. In villages and small towns, they know them well. In bedroom suburbs and big cities, they don't. Which is no different from our experience living in the UK, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland.

- how safe do they really feel: Most feel quite safe. Contrary to what a surprising number of Europeans believe, Americans are not all hiding behind their triple-locked doors with loaded weapons.

- what current topics are being discussed in their area: The weather. Local sports. Local politics. New businesses coming in. Old businesses leaving. When the road repairs will begin. When they will stop. The weird music kids listen to. (All topics I also hear discussed every morning on the tram I take to work in Basel.)

- why are the Kardashian's so popular? Don't know. Why are the Kardashians so popular on German cable TV?

- the influence of sport on their lives: From none to an excessive amount. You can often see the full range of influence within a single family.

- how do they view the world: Well, the U.S. and Canada are a pretty large chunk of land mass, so the U.S. is their primary focus. If Belgium were the size of the U.S., for example, most Belgians would probably think less about the Netherlands, France and Germany.

- how do they view their military and do they have a problem with the large expense of it: They support service personnel pretty whole-heartedly, partly from guilt about the shabby way too many returning Vietnam vets were treated. From the Americans I talk to regularly, they'd rather that more of the military budget was spent on improving VA hospitals and rather less spent on sending troops into places that have been in conflict for generations and will probably stay in conflict for many generations in the future.

Europeans also should take a break from patting themselves on the back so much for knowing another language or having passports. In the U.S. you can drive for thousands of miles and the official language will still be the one you spoke at home. The Danes, Dutch, Greeks, Italians, etc have no such luck. Also, Americans don't have to leave their homeland to find tropical beaches AND ski resorts AND wine regions AND large cities and museums, all world class. If the Alps, the Mediterranean beaches, and the French and Italian wine regions were all in the UK, for example, you'd see far fewer Brits with passports.

We have lots of different churches,places of worship,chapels
We are a free country.
Freedom
Free to worship whatever religion you
Believe in.
Free to love God.
Free to love our neighbor Even if he is
Different from all we are.

We are free to love without judgement.
God Bless The USA
Whatever God you worship Amen