#same thing goes for smiling - bluntness - the way we talk about states vs. countries - etc

[betty-bourgeoisie]

So many of the reasons people give for why Americans are "rude" "ignorant" or "self centered" are literally just cultural differences or language differences - and often specifically cultural difference that came about due to a long history of immigration - and it's just nuts to me. Like people from outside the U.S. assume they understand American culture from interacting with our media and then when it turns out Disney movies don't capture the whole of the American experience they get mad about it

#I think language is a great example of this #like in European especially what is and isn't considered a language often has more to do with politics than anything else #but in the U.S if you understand each other then congrats! you speak the same language and that's your homie now #which is why Americans will say things like I speak Scandinavian #or call Scotts a Scottish Accent #and Europeans get mad at that because to them it's a sperate language #but to their American diasporas it's absolutely not #and infact insisting that they were separate languages probably would have meant the didn't survive in the U.S. #same thing goes for smiling - bluntness - the way we talk about states vs. countries - etc #and also some of the ways Y'ALL go about addressing these cultural differences #come across as very rude and self centered to us #so you know it goes both ways #*Europe