Hi guys, i'm Belal and i'd like to summerise the lecture we took which was about the American culture American ways. First of all, let's define what's meant by the word culture which each person has different prospect about it.Culture means: traditions, habits, hobbies, history, religion, clothes, architecture, food, education, lifestyle, language, geography, life, and way of life, race, celebration, smell, customs and music. All the nations all over the world have these things. American get married, get children and so on... like any other person around the world but wedding in Jordan is different from the American wedding so it depends on the place you were born in you learn the culture by being in the place for experiencing it by yourself.
It is very hard to understand people's culture unless you travel and interact with people.People have different ways even within the same culture, there is a kind of diversity between people, and every one has his own prospective and they see life from different angles.How do Americans see themselves? Most of the Americans raise American flags either because they are patriot or because they think that they are the best.Brazilians are offended when they hear American say American culture because Brazil is a part of the continent.
The constitution of the United States begins with this phrase "we the people" so that the government is controlled by the people.America is considered the country of the emigrants, because about 13% of the inhabitants don't speak English and also about 40% of the New York university students don't speak English as their first language.
Generalities about the American culture:
1- Individual freedom (self-reliance) in public places you can see DIY which means you can do it yourself.
2- Equality of opportunity, the second person has only one pronoun in English whereas in some other languages it has got more than one pronouns. Abraham Lankan came and was born from very poor family, he had no significant education he was self taught; he fought slavery and exemplified equality.
3- Individual privacy (suspicion of the government) Thomas Jefferson was genius and he was fluent in many languages Greek, Italian, French, Latin, Hebrew, and English. He was the third president of the United States he believed that a wise government should create a safe society and leave them alone the more powerful you are the more corruption you get. The states are united at the front of the outside world and separated in some aspects. For example, you can't get married from your cousin in some states but in other states you may get married and then get back and return to your previous state.
4- Time future-oriented. Time is a resource. Americans are concerned with traveling to the moon more than caring about the hungry or homeless people. So time is money.
5- Not every change is a progress and American assume that this is true. Capitalism is based upon notions of change and improvement.
6- Education: is a quest and trip to learn. Teachers learn from the students as much as students learn from their teachers. The relationship between the teachers and the students is informal.