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The French have more specific ideas of what culture means than Americans do.

Perhaps this is because the French are more willing to participate in culture-related activities or because the French have a more well-defined culture than Americans have.

To the French students: Do you feel like you have a strong sense of cultural identity?

Perhaps this is because the French are more willing to participate in culture-related activities or because the French have a more well-defined culture than Americans have.

The French have more specific ideas of what culture means than Americans do.

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To the French, what do you think American culture is? When you think about the United States, do you think McDonald's and pizza? Football and capitalism? Commercialism and consumerism? Materialism and superficiality? Because that's what I think of when I'm asked to define American culture. It seems like our culture is just defined by one thing: money, and everything follows from that.

En réponse à Cécilia Scott : En France, ou tout du moins à Paris, nous avons la chance de vivre dans une cité historique. Le moindre bâtiment possède sa propre histoire (souvent décrite sur un panneau). L’accès aux musées est facilité par des prix attractifs pour les étudiants ou par des journées portes ouvertes (appelées « journées du patrimoine »). Beaucoup d’efforts sont fais par le maire pour inciter les parisiens à découvrir leur patrimoine. Les français aiment beaucoup entretenir leur passé et s’amusent souvent à recréer des métiers disparus, faire circuler des vieux bus (de façon exceptionnelle !!!) ou retracer des grands faits historiques. L’histoire tient une grande place dans l’éducation et notamment à l’école.
En est t–il de même en Amérique ? Quelle est la place de la culture ? à l’école ? dans la vie quotidienne ?

En réponse à Tiffany Cheng : Il y a 20 ans, à l’époque de nos parents, les USA représentaient un rêve : « The american way of life ». Aujourd’hui je pense que ce concept n’est plus d’actualité. Je m’aperçois, en tentant de répondre à cette question, qu’on ne connaît pas trop la culture américaine. Je ne pense, ou tout du moins j’espère pour vous, qu’elle ne se limite pas au McDonald’s ou à la pizza (qui plus est Italienne). Lorsqu’on est la plus grande puissance mondiale, on est très souvent sujet à des critiques de la part des autres pays, ce qui ternit les aspects positifs de votre culture. Quand on pense aux USA, on a l’impression que tout est neuf, tout est récent, laissant peu de place à l’histoire et à la culture. Mais qu’en est t-il réellement ? quels sont les aspects de votre culture qui vous semblent méconnus du reste du monde ? quand vous parlez de « culture américaine » que pensez-vous ?

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In response to Vincent (what i think the rest of the world ignores/doesn't see in American culture):
I feel like while American culture as a whole may or may not be McDonald's and pizza, there definitely a lot of regional cultures that are very distinct. For example, local Hawaiian culture (not ancient Hawaiian culture, but the everyday culture as seen by someone living in Hawaii) is unlike any other in the world, I think. There is a distinct slang which uses words borrowed and/or modified from Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hawaiian, Samoan, etc. A number of English words are even used differently, and their pronunciations are changed. Just as all these languages have been incorporated into a local dialect, so have the foods been blended together. I can tell you that my daily diet here is not remotely similar to my diet back home, and I'm sure that many other people from different parts of the country would say the same. In effect what i'm saying is that when people think of American culture they can't come up with more than a few universal themes, but if they instead thought of their own local cultures, they could easily identify what makes it unique, what they like about it, etc.

I definitely agree with Ryan. Since the US is such a huge country, we have very significant differences in culture in different regions. I am from the Northwest, and while it's not as different as I am sure Hawaii is, the Northeast has a very different culture.
I've also noticed that we think of culture more like lifestyle/ way of life, (for example, hiking and the outdoors is a huge part of Northwest culture) whereas you have a more sophisticated view of culture, with so much emphasis on history and museums etc. Do you think of culture in that day-to-day sense at all?

In response to Vincent, I think the word "America" carries different meanings with each person. Compared to the old Europeans powers, America's 200 some odd years is very young. I think we are still developing our culture, and trying to find an "identity". In terms of development, I feel the US is currently going through its teenage years, whereas European countries like France are well into their adulthood. There is an immense aggregation of diverse backgrounds in this country, a collection which in my mind still cannot be defined.

In reply to Vincent, perhaps you are right in thinking that all in the United States is new and recent. It is true that the United States is so much younger as an established civilization than France as well as the rest of Europe. The history of our current government spans only a little more than two hundred years, a far contrast from the thousand years of history all of Europe as well a lot of the rest of the world has. However, I like to think that we only look new. Most of our traditions and practices have been adopted from others, and we're lucky that when the United States was in the process of creating its own government, we already had the rest of the world's thousands of years of history to draw on. But for me, this does raise an interesting point. I think a lot of American culture is defined by our form of government, especially the way we have divided our country into the executive, legislative, and judiciary branch. This basis for our government affects all of our lives everyday and is basically built into American culture.

Ce qui est intéressant, c’est que nous plaçons tous les mêmes mots derrière « culture ». Je suis d’accord avec Yi lorsque tu dis que vous êtes entrain de construire votre culture. Je pense que 200 ans c’est encore jeune et nous en France, nous n’avons pas assez de recul sur votre culture. On parle de culture française parce qu’elle est présente depuis plus de 500 ans au moins. Il faut donc laisser le temps au temps. Le problème est qu’en France, on a tendance à mettre le passé en avant (le rayonnement passé sans doute) alors qu’au USA c’est plutôt le présent qui est mis en avant (le rayonnement actuel). Mais il est vrai que nous voyons plus la culture américaine dans son intégralité et non par ses individualités : je ne pense pas qu’on vive de la même façon en Californie, au Kansas ou à New York. Ce sont ces cultures là que je ne peux décrire et qui doivent être les plus intéressantes. Si on compare les Etats-Unis avec l’Europe, on a le même problème : on a pas de culture européenne globale. On voit toujours la culture de chaque pays (France, Italie, Allemagne…) mais pas dans sa globalité alors que l’on regarde la culture américaine dans sa globalité : d’où impossibilité de comparer objectivement. Un jour viendra où l’on verra, sans doute, une Europe avec des Etats (comme aux USA) et non plus des pays et on aura de part et d’autre de l’Atlantique, les Etats-Unis d’Amérique et les Etats-Unis d’Europe. Si ce jour vient, et bien il sera très difficile de parler de culture Européenne et nous serons sans doute confrontés aux mêmes problèmes…

Hi Vincent, I really like your views for the future. I think that it will be interesting to see the "European States" as you are suggesting. You also make a good point by saying that the American culture needs more time in order to form itself. Two hundred years is not a long time for customs and traditions to be developed well. Also, it is a bit harder for the US to have a uniform culture because, as you said, there are many different regions of the country, but also there are people from so many different backgrounds that it is hard to combine them all. However, with the time I think that there will be some general idea of what the American culture is and what people will think of when they think of the US.