When I think of American culture, I mainly think of the American dream. Being abroad, it was surprising to me to see how others view America essentially as a pot of gold. They view it as the land of opportunities. This is mainly because of the vast amount of money to go around the country. This closely relates to the culture of America being big, innovative, bright, fast paced, and diverse. Everything in America is larger. For instance, America has very accessible places all over where we can get food and to go coffee. American culture is always on the go. They do not sit at restaurants for very long and servers and workers work as fast as they can to please their customers. American’s drive fast, talk fast, walk fast, it is overall a very fast paced country. I think this is one of the cultures that stand out to me the most beyond the rest of them.
I think that with American’s being so fast paced they do not get the time to truly enjoy their surroundings and the people around them. They are also a very money hungry country and this can lead to employees working so much that it has taken over their life and they do not have anything else to enjoy. The culture is merely addictive and the rest of the population picks up on the energy of this.
Someone outside of the United States may think that this culture is peculiar and strange. I feel this is a natural feeling for any individual who is not adjusted to the culture. Those being immersed in other cultures will first come as a shock. However, just as anyone being immersed into a different culture, it will be embraced and enjoyed. It will be hard to adjust at first, but I think they would understand the joys that do come with American culture and the fast paced society and environment that comes with it.
I am currently writing this already abroad. I feel as if writing about American culture and thinking about how Italians would adjust to it, I have a leg up because I can compare it to my first initial feelings to Italian culture. Italian culture is very slow and they take their time almost everywhere they go. Thinking about how Italians would adjust to American culture, actually encourages me to be open minded about Italian culture. This is because every culture is different and it should be fully embraced, even if it can be uncomfortable sometimes.