A Look Through Us

A Look Through the United States Culture


Each country has a different culture and it is reflected in so many different ways. Culture is all the beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a group, and the features of every day existence shared by the people in a place or time (Merriam- Webster, 2012). Sometimes we cannot understand other cultures because we all have different ideas, wehave our own ideas and we expected them to have the same ones, and on several occasions, we find it very difficult to agree with them because of the same reason, that is when we have conflicts because we are not open minded to think that everyone can have their own beliefs and ideas. In this essay will be discuss one of the most influential cultures, the culture of the United States, and we wouldhave an idea of how different is this culture to the one we have.
To understand the United States Culture it is required to start with this key aspects. The first one is the people behavior. In their weekends almost for all Americans they mean shopping, watching TV, going out with friends, outdoor activities, or watching a football game in a stadium. Talking about their behavior in the society,what it recommended is to do not try to be too friendly or personal with them, this is because they value their privacy a lot. For example, in Mexico when you want to visit a friend, you just go to his home, on the contrary in the United States, that is seen bad, even if they say “come over at any time”, you have to make a cell phone before to appear in their house. Another characteristic of theAmericans behavior is that they get easily frustrated, they are impatient, but disciplined. If anyone bump with you, the first thing that you will hear is an: excuse me. Other thing and not least important is that the Life in the United States is generally fast-paced and busy; it is all about making money. This is what can be said about the behavior of the society. The second aspect is their valuesand beliefs. The values that are easy to see in United States is the individual freedom, the choice in education, for example they decide their major field, and Americans have the belief of “to be all what you can be”, and they try to improve themselves. Another value is the privacy, as it has been said before, they are slightly open. So the values are reflected in their beliefs and also in thebehavior of the society. The third aspects are the elements of non-material culture as the language, thirty states of the United States have made the English the official language and it is also consider a national language. A census that was made in 2000 says that more than 97% of Americans speak English well, and for 81% it is the language spoken at home, but also there are more than 300 languagesbesides the English. The national dialect is known as American English, and there four major regional dialects in the country: northeastern, south, inland north, and the Midwest which is actually considered the standard accent in the United States. Religion is also a non-material element, the most practiced religion is the Christian covering 80.2% of the population, but also there are a lot ofdifferent religions in the country. The Americans says that the religion played a very important role in their lives like in Latin America. Also the symbols are a part of non-material culture. Every culture has its own symbols that have a meaning to them, and the most important symbols of United States are The Lincoln Memorial, the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, the Statue of Liberty, theWashington Monument, and the White House, each one represent a different thing and they are part of their history. And the last aspect is the influence that United States has from other countries and the cultural diversity that exists in the country. The United States is the most diverse country in the world. We can appreciate these things primarily in the education, with the rise of ethnic studies...