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What is culture in America?
- Thread starter John H
- Start date
Professor Swag
New member
The best way is to get up and get out. Meet and observe other people. Learn the holidays and traditions. Know the do's and dont's of the country. All you have to do to get this information is talk to other people.
Watch a football game on TV. See how people behave and watch the commercial. Then go watch people at various restaurants and malls. Watch popular TV shows and listen to a variety of radio stations. That will give you a pretty good idea what we are like. Welcome to America, friend! I hope you enjoy your stay!
Whatsoever
New member
The development of the culture of the United States of America—history, holidays, sports, religion, cuisine, literature, poetry, music, dance, visual arts, cinema, and architecture—has been marked by a tension between two strong sources of inspiration: European ideals, especially British, and domestic originality.
American culture encompasses traditions, ideals, customs, beliefs, values, arts, and innovations developed both domestically and imported via colonization and immigration. Prevalent ideas and ideals from the European continent such as democracy, capitalism, various forms of monotheism, and civil liberties are present as well as those which evolved domestically such as important national holidays, uniquely American sports, proud military tradition, innovations in the arts and entertainment, and a strong sense of national pride among the population as a whole.
It includes both conservative and liberal elements, military and scientific competitiveness, political structures, risk taking and free expression, materialist and moral elements.
It also includes elements which evolved from Native Americans, and other ethnic subcultures; most prominently the culture of African-American slave descendents and different cultures from Latin America. Many cultural elements, especially popular culture have been exported across the globe through modern mass media where American culture is sometimes resented. A few of the cultural elements have remained rather exclusive to North America.
Although the country has no official language at the federal level, 30 states have passed legislation making English the official language.
According to the 2007 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 34 million people aged 5 or older[1]. Many live in the border states with Mexico but also significantly in Florida, Illinois, and New York as well as other areas. Additionally, Spanish is co-official next to English in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Bilingual speakers may use both English and Spanish reasonably well but code-switch according to their dialog partner or context. Some refer to this phenomenon as Spanglish.
Native American languages such as Navajo are used in Arizona and New Mexico, while numerous other indigenous languages are spoken on the country’s numerous Indian reservations and Native American cultural events such as Pow wows. There are also numerous minority languages spoken among immigrant populations.
Hawaiian is official next to English in the state of Hawaii. In the US commonwealths of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Chamorro is co-official next to English. The Northern Mariana Islands also recognizes Carolinian in an official capacity. Also, Samoan is co-official in the US commonwealth of American Samoa.
The American variety of English contains numerous loan words from European, Native American, Asian and African languages, that frequently also enter other varieties of English through American English.
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe. Writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the nineteenth century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, would be recognized as America's other essential poet. Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993. Ernest Hemingway, the 1954 Nobel laureate, is often named as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.[2] A work seen as capturing fundamental aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925)—may be dubbed the "Great American Novel". Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction were developed in the United States.
More recently, R.L. Stein, an immensely popular writer of children's and young adults' horror novels, has sold at least 300 million copies of his books.[3] Similarly, K.A. Applegate's Animorphs series (adolescent science fiction) has sold at least 40 million copies.[4] (Note that some of these sales may have been outside of the United States.) These authors were popular with school-age children during the 1990s.
American culture encompasses traditions, ideals, customs, beliefs, values, arts, and innovations developed both domestically and imported via colonization and immigration. Prevalent ideas and ideals from the European continent such as democracy, capitalism, various forms of monotheism, and civil liberties are present as well as those which evolved domestically such as important national holidays, uniquely American sports, proud military tradition, innovations in the arts and entertainment, and a strong sense of national pride among the population as a whole.
It includes both conservative and liberal elements, military and scientific competitiveness, political structures, risk taking and free expression, materialist and moral elements.
It also includes elements which evolved from Native Americans, and other ethnic subcultures; most prominently the culture of African-American slave descendents and different cultures from Latin America. Many cultural elements, especially popular culture have been exported across the globe through modern mass media where American culture is sometimes resented. A few of the cultural elements have remained rather exclusive to North America.
Although the country has no official language at the federal level, 30 states have passed legislation making English the official language.
According to the 2007 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 34 million people aged 5 or older[1]. Many live in the border states with Mexico but also significantly in Florida, Illinois, and New York as well as other areas. Additionally, Spanish is co-official next to English in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Bilingual speakers may use both English and Spanish reasonably well but code-switch according to their dialog partner or context. Some refer to this phenomenon as Spanglish.
Native American languages such as Navajo are used in Arizona and New Mexico, while numerous other indigenous languages are spoken on the country’s numerous Indian reservations and Native American cultural events such as Pow wows. There are also numerous minority languages spoken among immigrant populations.
Hawaiian is official next to English in the state of Hawaii. In the US commonwealths of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Chamorro is co-official next to English. The Northern Mariana Islands also recognizes Carolinian in an official capacity. Also, Samoan is co-official in the US commonwealth of American Samoa.
The American variety of English contains numerous loan words from European, Native American, Asian and African languages, that frequently also enter other varieties of English through American English.
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe. Writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the nineteenth century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, would be recognized as America's other essential poet. Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993. Ernest Hemingway, the 1954 Nobel laureate, is often named as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.[2] A work seen as capturing fundamental aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925)—may be dubbed the "Great American Novel". Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction were developed in the United States.
More recently, R.L. Stein, an immensely popular writer of children's and young adults' horror novels, has sold at least 300 million copies of his books.[3] Similarly, K.A. Applegate's Animorphs series (adolescent science fiction) has sold at least 40 million copies.[4] (Note that some of these sales may have been outside of the United States.) These authors were popular with school-age children during the 1990s.
Whatsoever
New member
The development of the culture of the United States of America—history, holidays, sports, religion, cuisine, literature, poetry, music, dance, visual arts, cinema, and architecture—has been marked by a tension between two strong sources of inspiration: European ideals, especially British, and domestic originality.
American culture encompasses traditions, ideals, customs, beliefs, values, arts, and innovations developed both domestically and imported via colonization and immigration. Prevalent ideas and ideals from the European continent such as democracy, capitalism, various forms of monotheism, and civil liberties are present as well as those which evolved domestically such as important national holidays, uniquely American sports, proud military tradition, innovations in the arts and entertainment, and a strong sense of national pride among the population as a whole.
It includes both conservative and liberal elements, military and scientific competitiveness, political structures, risk taking and free expression, materialist and moral elements.
It also includes elements which evolved from Native Americans, and other ethnic subcultures; most prominently the culture of African-American slave descendents and different cultures from Latin America. Many cultural elements, especially popular culture have been exported across the globe through modern mass media where American culture is sometimes resented. A few of the cultural elements have remained rather exclusive to North America.
Although the country has no official language at the federal level, 30 states have passed legislation making English the official language.
According to the 2007 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 34 million people aged 5 or older[1]. Many live in the border states with Mexico but also significantly in Florida, Illinois, and New York as well as other areas. Additionally, Spanish is co-official next to English in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Bilingual speakers may use both English and Spanish reasonably well but code-switch according to their dialog partner or context. Some refer to this phenomenon as Spanglish.
Native American languages such as Navajo are used in Arizona and New Mexico, while numerous other indigenous languages are spoken on the country’s numerous Indian reservations and Native American cultural events such as Pow wows. There are also numerous minority languages spoken among immigrant populations.
Hawaiian is official next to English in the state of Hawaii. In the US commonwealths of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Chamorro is co-official next to English. The Northern Mariana Islands also recognizes Carolinian in an official capacity. Also, Samoan is co-official in the US commonwealth of American Samoa.
The American variety of English contains numerous loan words from European, Native American, Asian and African languages, that frequently also enter other varieties of English through American English.
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe. Writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the nineteenth century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, would be recognized as America's other essential poet. Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993. Ernest Hemingway, the 1954 Nobel laureate, is often named as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.[2] A work seen as capturing fundamental aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925)—may be dubbed the "Great American Novel". Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction were developed in the United States.
More recently, R.L. Stein, an immensely popular writer of children's and young adults' horror novels, has sold at least 300 million copies of his books.[3] Similarly, K.A. Applegate's Animorphs series (adolescent science fiction) has sold at least 40 million copies.[4] (Note that some of these sales may have been outside of the United States.) These authors were popular with school-age children during the 1990s.
American culture encompasses traditions, ideals, customs, beliefs, values, arts, and innovations developed both domestically and imported via colonization and immigration. Prevalent ideas and ideals from the European continent such as democracy, capitalism, various forms of monotheism, and civil liberties are present as well as those which evolved domestically such as important national holidays, uniquely American sports, proud military tradition, innovations in the arts and entertainment, and a strong sense of national pride among the population as a whole.
It includes both conservative and liberal elements, military and scientific competitiveness, political structures, risk taking and free expression, materialist and moral elements.
It also includes elements which evolved from Native Americans, and other ethnic subcultures; most prominently the culture of African-American slave descendents and different cultures from Latin America. Many cultural elements, especially popular culture have been exported across the globe through modern mass media where American culture is sometimes resented. A few of the cultural elements have remained rather exclusive to North America.
Although the country has no official language at the federal level, 30 states have passed legislation making English the official language.
According to the 2007 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 34 million people aged 5 or older[1]. Many live in the border states with Mexico but also significantly in Florida, Illinois, and New York as well as other areas. Additionally, Spanish is co-official next to English in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Bilingual speakers may use both English and Spanish reasonably well but code-switch according to their dialog partner or context. Some refer to this phenomenon as Spanglish.
Native American languages such as Navajo are used in Arizona and New Mexico, while numerous other indigenous languages are spoken on the country’s numerous Indian reservations and Native American cultural events such as Pow wows. There are also numerous minority languages spoken among immigrant populations.
Hawaiian is official next to English in the state of Hawaii. In the US commonwealths of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Chamorro is co-official next to English. The Northern Mariana Islands also recognizes Carolinian in an official capacity. Also, Samoan is co-official in the US commonwealth of American Samoa.
The American variety of English contains numerous loan words from European, Native American, Asian and African languages, that frequently also enter other varieties of English through American English.
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe. Writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the nineteenth century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, would be recognized as America's other essential poet. Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993. Ernest Hemingway, the 1954 Nobel laureate, is often named as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.[2] A work seen as capturing fundamental aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925)—may be dubbed the "Great American Novel". Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction were developed in the United States.
More recently, R.L. Stein, an immensely popular writer of children's and young adults' horror novels, has sold at least 300 million copies of his books.[3] Similarly, K.A. Applegate's Animorphs series (adolescent science fiction) has sold at least 40 million copies.[4] (Note that some of these sales may have been outside of the United States.) These authors were popular with school-age children during the 1990s.