10 Jun 2010 New York, United States of America
Category: Western culture
I have last year already written a little bit about how we experience America and its people. We were noticing in that time and now again, how everything here is in extremes. There are either XXXL soda cans or non-fat frozen yoghurts which are eaten instead of ice-cream. You are either at the metro station where you are sweating and where it is really hot or you are in the metro where it is freezing cold because they have the air conditioning set on very cold.
Naturally these extremes also show in their language. Everything is either best or worst. Whenever you listen to a story told, you hear about the slowest car or the fastest one. You are told about the poorest and the richest people. No matter to whom you talk, everybody tells his stories in this way. It sounds great and those stories are often really nice to listen to. Unfortunately the truth is of course also often a little bit different. But any personal experience cannot be judged with right or wrong, if your friend says it was the most amazing day in his life, you cannot say anything against that!
There is nothing wrong with this, it is just a habit or a cultural difference. The only problem that I can see with this is that you might contradict yourself. One day you are saying that something is awesome and the next day, after a less beautiful experience, that same thing is horrible. That could give a funny impression on those who are listening, don’t you think?
We are laughing a little bit about this but we also like it because it shows enthusiasm.
Tags:: Western culture, Truth, America, Culture, Experience, Horrible
3 Comments
Posted By Swami Balendu
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Haha this is true. One reason for it is that our marketing system has to appeal to one extreme or the other: the person who is trying to lose weight or the person who is trying to indulge and splurge. There is no money to be made by advertising to the happy people in the middle who aren't desperate to change and don't really need your product anyway. And we are a culture of exaggeration so we like to describe things in the most extreme way possible!
Reply By Emily on October 27, 2011 03:00
Hahaha Swami Ji it is so true! I am an American anthropology student and have studied multiple aspects of the place where I come from. It is harder to get a birds eye view of your own culture maybe. But wow I have never noticed this before! Your the greatest (how very American of me)!
Reply By Suanice on October 22, 2010 04:16
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