The American standards: Arrogance, ignorance, forgetfulness, or asocial?

[ArcadianTrance]

A counterquestion: Why do British people on these boards assume that everyone knows what a chav is?

It's simple slang/lingo logic. We use the words in our daily speech and subconsciously expect others to understand them. If they don't, we regard them strangely because they, by proving their lack of knowledge, have shown that they are not "with" the crowd. Therefore, they are strange. The human mind therefore classifies them under "Mystery", which invariably includes the subheading "Danger".

I want it to be clear I'm not dangerous when I say this, but what
is a "chav" exactly? A friend?

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I want it to be clear I'm not dangerous when I say this, but what
is a "chav" exactly? A friend?

A rebellious teen or young adult I believe. I'm not British so I don't know exactly. "Punk" is probably the closest American slang.

 

[murphy7801]

A counterquestion: Why do British people on these boards assume that everyone knows what a chav is?

It's simple slang/lingo logic. We use the words in our daily speech and subconsciously expect others to understand them. If they don't, we regard them strangely because they, by proving their lack of knowledge, have shown that they are not "with" the crowd. Therefore, they are strange. The human mind therefore classifies them under "Mystery", which invariably includes the subheading "Danger".

I could not have said it better myself.

Really don't know anyone who thinks all Americans talk like this. Also we have some similar sub species dialect its called chavish.

 

[hippykiller]

Fuck America and its EVIL,LIBERAL WAYS!

 

[Pendragon9]

Looks like America is the Playstation of this generation.

 

[Leorex]

the other day a guy was asking what a parliament was. am i to assume that was because some arrogant guy said something about a parliament.

no, its because some one didnt know what a parliament was.

 

[Mstrswrd]

I would just like to say that by calling us Ignorant, you yourself havew shown your willing ignorance. I will now explain. We may assume that others udnerstand us, this is undoubtadly true. However, others do the same. By ascribing to us 1 of 4 possibilities, with no exceptions, you willingly state, perhaps with meaning too, "I do not care that I am stereotyping, or even care enough to ask what a word means." That shows willing ignorance, which is also a form of arrogant.

So which are you? Ignorant, arrogant, or both? Or are you, perhaps, neither, and you made a mistake? Os maybe even something else entirely?

See what I did there? I offered am extra option, and than an open ended option. Remember to put those. It's a good idea when creating a topic that will likely be rife with debate.

 

[Nargleblarg]

YES I'm american and now I'm the center of attention finally I'm cool and special.

Ok onto the standards

Ok on the subject I will say you have us americans as arrogant and ignorant (although I think the more appropriate word of both is just ignorant not arrogant) it is true we do for some reason assume everyone knows of the inner workings of america. Even I stand accused of doing this but I try not to and I don't even know why we do this we just do.

Second I'm not sure what kind of language everyone is seeing on the escapist. I mean everyone here speaks english right? And any american on the escapist probably doesn't use slang words alot...and probably don't get dates much either if you non-americans don't understand words just start a thread or something and ask I don't think we would ignore your cries for a definition.

The last paragraph of standard didn't make much sense to me but whatever I just skimmed through it anyway. And as a American I didn't find any of it to be anti-american. Although one last thing I have to say is other then informing us americans on our habits I don't exactly understand the point of this thread but whatever.

 

[Motiv_]

Have you thought that perhaps some terms are used outside of America as well, and that since the world is coming closer and the free flow of information that such American terms would be either common place or the meaning easily discovered?

Or that, perhaps some of us went to America and discovered the America vocabulary?

Or is it something that is so entirely different from your points you've made?

Or is it, at the end of the day, we don't use these terms?

I'm an American. Born and bred. My biological father is a Belgian and I've spent half my life in the States, a year in Belgium and now I'm in Ireland. I don't use American terms such as dog and hood

Perhaps you're concentrating on a minority rather then a majority?

This

People tend to hate america for various reasons. Very very funny sometimes, and I can usually argue with a clear conscience, because I am not a full american.

.......what the hell are you talking about?

This thread has nothing to do with the reasons as to why people hate America. Did you just see that this thread is about America and automatically assumed it was about hating it? Did you then feel the need to point out that you are not American, as if that somehow makes me value your opinion more?

First things first, I apologize. When I posted, your thread was not clear what it was about, and I assumed it was one of those "OMG AMERICA CAN SUK A COK" kinda threads. Secondly, what I originally meant was that people seem to for whatever reason hate america, I don't know why, I really couldn't care less. I mentioned that I was not american because most people assume I am, and I just wanted to clear that up. I am sorry that I hurt your feelings. Now, feel free to continue the discussion at hand.

 

[la-le-lu-li-lo]

Political jargon, for example. But since most American political discussions are made between Americans, I fail to see the issue here. Not to mention that Australians, Britons and so on are just as guilty. Not to mention that if you're going to discuss the politics of a foreign country with someone from that country, the onus is on you to understand their political terms, not on them to explain the terms.

i completely agree with this point.

if you're going to discuss something, whether it be american educational / political system, or cantonese cuisine, you should know what you're talking about. it's each person's responsibility to understand what they're talking about if they plan to bring something worthwhile to the table.

 

[la-le-lu-li-lo]

and i think in any situation where one is a part of a majority, he or she will assume that everyone understands the general rules of that very majority.

afterall, they're the majority.

though, as many of us know, the escapist community is vast and varies, so one should not assume that everyone knows about the ins and outs of your particular country or culture.

take the time to explain. it makes for a better discussion. though i suppose in the end it depends on the discussion.

 

[VanityGirl]

/bored.

Americans do travel outside of our country, so to say we're completely ignorant is a statement that has no scientific evidence.
I, for instance, have been to... *inhale* Canada, Germany, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Italy, Singapore (lived there), Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and the Bahamas... Just to name a few. (I'm forgetting a few ><" )

I've taken time to learn some slang from the good ol Brits. Why? Cause I have British friends.
So when I heard that someone wants take a fag break, I think someone wants to go smoke.

And in Singapore.. well.. lol. The slangs a lot different there.

But why can't we all just try to learn about one another?
Is it because people think America's so full of itself that we don't want to learn?

BTW:
mentor07825 rules this thread. he's right.

 

[OuroborosChoked]

Disclaimer: This is not a rant about America or anything related to it.

A trend is appearing on internet forums. Undeniably, Americans are notable on forums that contains international communities, such as The Escapist. In a recent poll, Americans make up 31,7 % of this forum. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.109602#1892120] Seeing as they basically are a minority, one would think that they would have to explain their country. Yet, there are many posts in which many American terms are taken for granted. And since the population of this forum also consists of many young people, high school and college stories are abundant. Being European, many of these institutions are not understood, yet Americans use the words as if everyone understands. Rarely, although never is a more appropriate word, do these words get explained. Educational systems vary a lot from country to country, but the American educational system goes without explanation. Why is this?

One hypothesis, which is entirely unscientific, is the fact that Americans are somewhat arrogant. They assume that everyone is well-aware of how America works both in regards to educational system, but also how things such as politics and life in America work. America is one of the most prominent nations in the world, if not the most prominent. Consequently, Americans assume that everyone has knowledge about America and is interested in America. If people don't know about workings in America, it's their own job to find out and read on the subject. Thus, they don't have to explain anything when they are talking on forums. If people don't understand what they're talking about, it's their own fault.

Another completely unscientific hypothesis is based on ignorance. While it's somewhat similar to arrogance, they just falsely assume people know about America and how things work in America because of the before mentioned prominent position it has. The difference, though, is that they don't regard people that don't understand America as badly-informed, but they just have false assumptions on outsiders' knowledge. If they're confronted on a forum by a person that doesn't understand a term or institution, they'll have no problems with explaining it.

The next-last group of people that will be struck down upon is the forgetful/lazy people. While there are a plethora of reasons to be lazy or forgetful, these people are well-aware of the fact that some of the terms they toss out on a forum, many of them won't be understood by outsiders. Yet, they forget or are too lazy to explain it, effectively leaving out many people of a discussion. Sometimes, they would have no problem explaining terms to wondering people, but there is always someone who is better articulated that can do the work.

Lastly, a group which is somewhat similar to the arrogant crown is the asocial crowd. They don't need to explain themselves. If somebody doesn't understand a post, it's not much of a loss to these people. The majority of people are American so they understand. The need to befriend a Frenchman isn't particularly huge, especially if he doesn't understand the workings of America. Sticking with your American mates is completely legitimate and there are more than enough Americans to keep a discussion running.

What are your thoughts?

In ending this, I'd just like to underline that this is no way meant as an anti-American post, at all. If it comes across like that, I'm sorry.

Sounds like someone said something that got stuck in your craw and you decided to make a whole post about it making generalizations all along the way...

Not anti-American? Please. You characterize ALL Americans as ignorant, arrogant, lazy, asocial, or forgetful based on your own limited experiences... with NO OTHER OPTIONS.

Here's an option: if you have a problem or a question, ASK. Don't make a whole post throwing negative generalizations around because your curiosity wasn't immediately satisfied a couple of times and you didn't bother ASKING, or what a lot of us Americans do: LOOK IT UP.

And we're supposedly the lazy ones... give me a break...

Where did I put my tiny violin...?

EDIT: FYI, I took a look at that "poll" thread you linked to... If you're the largest group of several other groups, you're still the majority... even if the largest group is only 31% of the total population. That's pretty much the definition of "majority" - the largest group of a given population. You don't have to be over 50% to be a majority. I mean, unless you're just lumping everyone as either "American" or "Not American"... which ISN'T what that poll does.

 

[DeadpanLunatic]

I have removed my words from this site.

 

[Jitterbug]

Fuck America and its EVIL,LIBERAL WAYS!

See, I think it's this way of thinking that prevents the world from truly uniting Star Trek style. What a wonderful world it would be if we could all just be happy being human together.

Don't complain at us. You're on the internet and you're complaining about a lack of information. If you don't have a Google searchbar on your browser then tell me otherwise.

Logic always wins.

 

[MasterSqueak]

I never use American terms, partly because I don't know what is considered an American term.

This.

I doubt people will get confused if I say armor instead of armour.

 

[Nickolai77]

Brit here
Americans are the largest "group" on the English-speaking internet simply because there are a lot of American's- So when discussing stuff on forums like this it is not a foolish assumption to make that the OP, or someone you replying to or quoting from, is also American.

Furthere, America is not exactly poles apart with the rest of the world- I mean most people here probably know the difference between Republicans and Democrats, what an Elementry School is, what a bathroom is to Americans. Also, if someone does not know an American term or a American not know a Brit term like "Chav" then there is alwats urbandictonary.com, google, even wikipedia. If thee are any Tv shows that someone hasnt heard of there is always YouTube- thats how I know what TV shows such as "deadlist warrior" and "who's line is it anyway" are, and have been able tp talk about such shows to Americans.

The English language is argubly the worlds most sucessful language, being so widespread it is a truely international language, like Latin used to be. It is not suprising therefore that there are vocab differences between the hundeds of millions of English speaking peoples across the world. This is not a problem, and what it shows is the richness, variety and the sucess of the English Language.

 

[Fallswhale]

So an ex-girlfriend of mine married a londoner and they moved back to the Dakotas(about as an insular community you can find)
Befriending him, I brought him along to our Sunday fundays to witness and explain american football as they were great times drinkin' around here. Then the world cup came and I hung with him and picked his lingo and the stories. Now it took a while to understand each other and there were a couple of phrases that I picked up, but most are lost to me now as my friend moved to the east coast.
The overwhelming thought I found was that universely we enjoy alot of the same things, everyone had that bully, if you can figure out what is going on sports are awesome to witness together, everyone is looking for their other half, and quarts of beer are great things to share.

Edit: Additionally after reviewing the poll I guess I could say that USA residents are less prevelant than those that bow to the queen and that Europeans outnumber North Americans. Surprisingly I have never had many problems understanding Yahtze(although I can't see why anybody would want to be named after a kids dice game). If anybody takes that wrong I will be lmao.