Am I a Competitive, Informal, Private, Hardworking, Assertive, Individual American?
I always knew that American culture was seen as weird and in a sense, frowned upon by other cultures. However, I never really viewed my lifestyle as an American individual to be something weird. After reading Gary Althen's "American Values and Assumptions", I began thinking to myself..."wow, am I really this typical?". Eventually, I answered my question with a definite "YES". I easily related to Althen's values of individualism, competition, and privacy, as they have guided my life as a typical person of American society.
Primarily, Althen describes Americans as "devoted to individualism and responsible for their own situations". He supports this claim as he presents his own personal experience in which a mother explained to her son that he did not have enough money to afford an Orange Julius. Unlike other cultures where parents generously support their children financially for most of their life, American parents refrain from doing so. Instead of paying the remaining cost for her son's Orange Julius drink, the mother began suggesting other items that her son could afford with his own money. Althen explains that "when Americans hear this story, they usually understand it perfectly well", and I sure did! Not only have I experienced such individualism in my own home, but I have also seen it in the home of my cousins. For example, my cousins have been wanting to go to Disneyland for quite some time now, but tickets are rather expensive. Therefore, my Aunt and Uncle encourage them to do chores to earn money, and also to save their money that they receive as a gift from holidays or birthdays. I could definitely see how other cultures would deem this situation ridiculous: how could a 5 year old possibly save up to $115?!?! But in American culture, this is the norm. Parents must begin enlightening their children at a young age with tips a tricks to save money and develop a sense of responsibility, to prepare them for their journey through adulthood.
Additionally, I have often seen aspects of Althen's value of competition throughout my own life. He notes that "Americans naturally see themselves as being in competition with others". In such an individualistic culture, competition is inevitable. I often hear people recite "if you're not with me, you're against me", meaning that an expressed difference in goals or ideals essentially signals competition with that opposing person. My experience with competition has come from the last 12 years of my life in which I played club and high school soccer. My coaches would sometimes say "just go out there and have fun", but in my and my teammates minds, we knew our goal was to beat our opponent. I believe that competition is not a value unique to American culture; however, I believe competitiveness can be seen in any culture. Nobody likes to be wrong, feel inferior, or lose, therefore we all behold a sense of competitiveness. Our environment determines whether such competitiveness is expressed or not.
Finally, I definitely see Althen's described value of privacy throughout my life every day. He includes that "Americans assume that people 'need some time to themselves' or 'some alone time'", which is definitely correct. Living in the dorms here at SDSU has been significantly detrimental to my "privacy bubble". It is extremely difficult to have any sense of privacy or alone time when there is another person 5 feet from you at all times, eating your food and chatting on the phone while you are trying to do homework. I don't think I've ever been so excited to be home for Thanksgiving and Winter Break! Although Americans desire much privacy, it is not meant to come off as rude. We simply need a break and time to recoup, or as Althen put it, "time to recover our spent psychological energy".
Overall, I found Althen's chapter to be extremely intriguing, as he easily pinpointed some of the most salient aspects of American Values and Assumptions. Even though we may try to stray away from such values, these values will more than likely remain with us over time.
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ReplyDeleteSimilarly to what you mentioned within your blog, I did not think anything different or weird about American values versus the rest of the world. Of course I have heard rumors about citizens of other countries disliking American tourists and Americans in general, but I never understood why. I did not realize that our values are so different from those of other cultures prior to reading this article because I have never been out of the country nor lived anywhere else. I don’t have anything to compare these values to, but now reading this article made me understand why we might be looked strangely upon by other countries who cannot understand the reasoning behind our values. Some of these values mentioned, like individualism, I did not see as typical American values before it was presented right in front of me. Now I can see how working for your own money from a very young age in some way or another and making decisions on how to spend it can be seen as neglect in foreign eyes, but it is a normality and a lesson here.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see how you completely agree wit althen. I am from Mexico so my view is little different , however i was raised in the United States for the majority of my life so I still have many of those American Values that althen describes.The difference is, that to me it was not difficult to observe the characteristics because I have different lenses to which I see American Culture.I like how you mention in the conclusion that those are values that will stick to American culture even if we try to depart. That is very true, Because it is not a value that Americans can Identify. They dont know they are that way therefore the possibility of change is not a possibility.
ReplyDeleteI used to get so annoyed when my parents would tell me to save up my money, I definitely encountered that individualism as well. I had a lot of friends who had parents who bought them whatever they wanted, whenever. I saw that and thought it was totally unfair, but looking back on it, I am so thankful that they did that. My independence stems from their teachings when I was a kid, and little did I know then, they were helping me, not punishing me. And as for privacy, I don't think any of us were ready for our invasion of personal space in college. I didn't realize how much I valued my "me time" until I got to college. Love how you pointed that out!
ReplyDeleteSimilar to Pablo, I am French, I come from an entirely French family, went to a bilingual school until middle school, but I have lived in the United States my entire life. Due to this, I could easily see some of the differences that Althen mentions in this chapter, however I did find some aspects that I found to either overlap with my French culture or to not be true. For example, until reading this, I did not realize that me not “need[ing] some time to [myself]?” or “some time alone” was in fact not from American culture. I guess I just assumed that it was a weird characteristic, because I am a dependent person, I knew this, however I never realized that the French culture is very much not like this. I also did not realize that Americans may think of me negatively as “weak or dependent” because I do not need to spend time with others 24/7. Another difference is when you mention that Americans are taught to be individualistic and save their own money. I found this to be completely true. Americans are always taught to assess their outcomes before making a decision. This differs from the French who would gladly spend that Orange Julius for their child. However, I found that Americans tend to be taught to look at other ways of spending their money, however the French are about how to budget and save their money for items they may want or need much more later on.
ReplyDeleteI agree that parents making their kids pay for certain things can seem strange to people from other cultures. When I was growing up my parents usually would have paid for things that I wanted but they would still make me do chores around the house. When I did the chores I would not be paid for them because I thought it was something that I was supposed to do. My parents would think it would be weird to pay me for doing chores since it seems like something kids are supposed to do around the house to help the parents. Also, the idea of having alone time does not seem that strange to most people. I think that everybody needs their own alone time if they are stressed. Before reading this article I did not know that needing privacy or alone time was considered a American thing to do because I never heard of people in other cultures not needing their time to be on their own.
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