Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I agree and know all about the diverse make-up of the U.S. population, however culture is about what is in your mind rather than about the blood that runs through your veins.
On this, the poster is absolutely right: the U.S., though obviously not a carbon copy of the U.K., is fundamentally an anglo-based culture.
The same goes with music, all the way from nursery rhymes to modern popular music.
And with movies as well - if an average American has seen a non-American film in his/her lifetime, it is probably a British movie like The Full Monty or Four Weddings and a Funeral, or an Australian film like Mad Max. Few German-Americans will have seen Der Untergang and few Polish-Americans I gather have ever seen (or even heard of) Quo Vadis.
You're making a lot of assumptions about the US and, again (as so many insecure foreign nationals love to do), you deliberately ignore the distinctly American cultural elements that are beloved today. For example, you refuse to acknowledge that the "modern popular music" you mention is an entirely American construct, from the invention of the electric guitar, to the creation of the pop music standard, the invention of a dozen or more foundational genres as a result of the melding of various African and European folkways within the US, and the invention of elements crucial to music like the Wall of Sound, the Power Chord, modern marketing techniques, and institutions like Tin Pan Alley and the Brill Building.
We could talk all day about how American culture produced a cinematic and modern media culture beloved by the world, that influenced the art of filmmaking, the American innovations in dance, political philosophy and economic theory, art, architecture and urban planning, fashion, literature, theater, and technology and innovation...
To assign that to Great Britain is flawed, because many of these cultural elements unique to the US, and influential the world over, arose in the US as the result of cultural mixtures that could not have occured anywhere else. That's the point of culture. Just because something occurs in the English language doesn't mean it's automatically British and not American, not least because American culture was the one instrumental in making English the lingua franca.
You're making a lot of assumptions about the US and, again (as so many insecure foreign nationals love to do), you deliberately ignore the distinctly American cultural elements that are beloved today. For example, you refuse to acknowledge that the "modern popular music" you mention is an entirely American construct, from the invention of the electric guitar, to the creation of the pop music standard, the invention of a dozen or more foundational genres as a result of the melding of various African and European folkways within the US, and the invention of elements crucial to music like the Wall of Sound, the Power Chord, modern marketing techniques, and institutions like Tin Pan Alley and the Brill Building.
We could talk all day about how American culture produced a cinematic and modern media culture beloved by the world, that influenced the art of filmmaking, the American innovations in dance, political philosophy and economic theory, art, architecture and urban planning, fashion, literature, theater, and technology and innovation...
To assign that to Great Britain is flawed, because many of these cultural elements unique to the US, and influential the world over, arose in the US as the result of cultural mixtures that could not have occured anywhere else. That's the point of culture. Just because something occurs in the English language doesn't mean it's automatically British and not American, not least because American culture was the one instrumental in making English the lingua franca.
Hey are you that guy back again? The one thar that claims the US invented everything? :-D Anyway it was all Said in perfect ENGLISH, you know the language the English gave the world through its Empire (that covered a quarter of the globe), countries such as Australia, South Africa.......THE USA! etc. It was the British that spread English across the globe (and that INCLUDES to the US).
not least because American culture was the one instrumental in making English the lingua franca.
What does the US have to do with English spoken in Australia, NZ, Canada, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, a plethora of African countries, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Malta, Cyprus, a bunch of Caribbean islands?
I'll give the US the Philippines and that its economic might contributed but it really just cemented Britain's groundwork before that. Britain was stiill the global power until the 1920s.
What does the US have to do with English spoken in Australia, NZ, Canada, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, a plethora of African countries, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Malta, Cyprus, a bunch of Caribbean islands?
I'll give the US the Philippines and that its economic might contributed but it really just cemented Britain's groundwork before that. Britain was stiill the global power until the 1920s.
Actually Spanish should be the official language in the US of A. These European people’s pre date English and claimed more land in the New World than any other group.
Actually Spanish should be the official language in the US of A. These European people’s pre date English and claimed more land in the New World than any other group.
There were no Spanish in Jamestown or Plymouth or Philadelphia, where the new republic was truly formed. The founding fathers all spoke English so Spanish should be the official language because of what now? A cople of weak unimportant colonies to the Spanish crown.
The independent state was founded by majority British or people of British heritage. Florida & Louisiana were still colonies & peripheral unimportant ones at that. Look at the grandeur of the architecture of Cartagena of Indies and compare it to St. Augustine, Florida to see where the Spanish concenttated their efforts.
There were no Spanish in Jamestown or Plymouth or Philadelphia, where the new republic was truly formed. The founding fathers all spoke English so Spanish should be the official language because of what now? A cople of weak unimportant colonies to the Spanish crown.
The independent state was founded by majority British or people of British heritage. Florida & Louisiana were still colonies & peripheral unimportant ones at that. Look at the grandeur of the architecture of Cartagena of Indies and compare it to St. Augustine, Florida to see where the Spanish concenttated their efforts.
I reference what now today we call the United States.......not only Florida, but the entire west coast....ya Mexico, but before that the area was a part of Spain.
Canada is by far most like the US...one of the reasons the Right leaning folks hate it so.......
All the ethnic peoples that settled here in the US also came to Canada , maybe more so as relates to overall population. In one word or two , Canada is what the US wishes it was , socially liberal , fiscally conserative...it works.
However Canada has very few blacks and Hispanics, and more Asians compared to the US.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK would definitely be the countries most similar to the US. The UK and the US are very different, including the mindset and the fact that the British drive on the left side, but the UK is the country in Europe most similar to the US.
As for #5, I'm tempted to say Ireland since Ireland and the UK are similar.
Argentina and Israel are also countries founded mainly by European immigrants. Argentina is a New World country like the US and known for its wide open spaces and has its own cowboy culture. The majority of Argentina's population is of unmixed European descent including many with Italian, German, English, and Irish ancestry. Israel in some ways has similarities with the US Bible Belt.
Argentina is a New World country like the US and known for its wide open spaces and has its own cowboy culture. The majority of Argentina's population is of unmixed European descent including many with Italian, German, English, and Irish ancestry.
Argentina is far more white than the US. The US is more like Brazil in that regard or maybe halfway between the two. Brazil also has a vast cowboy culture, there's a reason why both these countries are the main exporters of beef in the world.
Also contrary to popular belief the majority of Brazil is white and developed by white European migration and pockets of Asian (same as US) but the fact that black culture wasn't appropriated by whites e.g. Jazz, Rock as in the US means the international media showed the black manifestations of Samba & Capoeira performed mainly by black or mixed people.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
