hmm....I have to go off...but I'll PM you some basic words tommorrow...fine?(And btw, understanding what Namaste stands for is imp too, it stands for a lot of stuff)
India sounds wonderful. It's a place that I've always wanted to travel to. Many people where I'm from get irritated with other cultures. To be honest, I think that they simply don't understand it so they dismiss it as inferior or make fun of 'how ridiculous' it sounds to them. I always enjoy listening to them try to pronounce foreign words with blatant American accents. "Itch lybe ditch." (Ich liebe dich) Why do you guys call your language "douche"? (Deutsch) Though I myself am American, I enjoy immersing myself in other cultures and I don't understand why everyone is so afraid of it. "If you talk to me, you have to know English! God forbid I expand my mind by learning another language!"
i'm a grecophile from way back, leaka, so i'm terribly sad to hear that my favorite country in all the world has become so americanized... though i still wish i could live out my last years on mykonos, or a 'simpler' island, i guess i'm lucky to not have been able to get back there for a dozen or more years, so i can remember it as it was... love and sad hugs, maia
Things have changed then. I went to a hickabilly school full of rednecks in SW Missouri and I've always spelled it "sulphur". Wow...my Firefox spell check has it underlined. Interesting. Just added it to the dictionary.
I find it kind of upsetting that when you talk about global cultures you speak only of America. There are a lot of cultures that get spread around the world in one way or another. Japan's culture is spread threw anime and shows were you get spanked if you laugh (look it up on you tube), French culture (to my everlasting regret) is spreading threw what some call the arts, Indian culture has bollywood and over such stuff, Greece has its music and Uncle Jessie from full house. Our world is going global, hopefully leading up to a global government one of these days. Some people think this will mean that their culture and their belief system will disappear, but it wont, it will stay there as a small part of the grater hole. This is my view on things. If an American goes abroad and demands that the people around him speak English he is labeled as rude. The same label should be put on someone that goes to America and demands its citizens to speak his language Are you above 16? If so you are not this shows target audience.
I find it ironic that the advances in communication, the primary factor responsible for globalisation, is the cause of all this miscommunication.
I find it very ironic that despite all our advances in communication we still retain some of the same idiotic and misguided stereotypes of the previous age.
I think the kind of cultural injection is qualitatively different. Culture spread isn't entirely one way, of course, but I think that people in, say, Bangladesh are far more influenced by Western ideas than people in Kansas are influenced by Bangladeshi ideas. The major cultural infusion into the US recently has been from Mexicans, and it's largely been driven by immigration. Having said that, I think it's easy to mistake globalization for real change. I mean, the guys who flew the aeroplanes into the WTC dressed in Western clothes, spoke good English and probably knew a lot about the West. As Samuel P Huntington pointed out, you can wear Levis while you put together a pipe bomb in Baghdad. Why will it not disappear? Can you be specific about which cultures and belief systems? It seems almost inevitable to me that cultures that do not defend themselves, and possibly seek to expand, will be destroyed by those that do. California and Egypt are both good examples of this.
Agreed. My gripe was really more about how most of the people I observe every day have this petty attitude that American culture is superior and absolutely refuse to learn or appreciate any other cultures or any other languages. English speakers aren't the only ones guilty of it, though. I've also spent a considerable ammount of time in one of the Vietnamese/Cambodian communities and they're just as bad, if not worse. (I can only speak for the one I've spent time in, of course.) I think it's important for immigrants who come to America to learn English, just as I think that learning the language and culture of any country one decides to live in is an important part of living there. But I don't get irritated by hearing other languages spoken around me, and it makes me cringe to see it happening. I just hope that I, a white, primarily English speaking person, doesn't get thrown into the same pot as the ignorant folks in the minds of foreigners. Because I'm a white American, they think that I will automatically be unaccepting and cold towards their beliefs and opinions, when it really couldn't be further from the truth. (Again, I can only speak for those who have been around me. I've no true idea if this is the popular opinion, but it seems to be from what I've observed.)
I think there's a difference between enjoying things from other cultures and completely adopting them and replacing pieces of your own culture with pieces of someone else's. And I enjoyed that you threw John Stamos in there. This I do agree with. I'm not one of those people that refuses to learn about or appreciate other cultures, but I do think that if you are going to visit/move somewhere, you should make an effort to learn enough of the local language to be able to communicate. My complaint with Miley Cyrus doesn't so much have to do with her work as with her attitude. She does stupid things and then when people say something about it, she tries to say "I'm not a role model, don't look at me like a role model." Like it or not, little kids look up to her, and it bothers me that she tries to act like a. they don't and b. she didn't see that coming when she decided to sign on with Disney and gear her music/performing toward younger audiences. But that doesn't really have anything to do with culture...so sorry about the tangent.
I can vouch for one thing. If you ever come to India, even though there is the language barrier, most of the people will try their best to converse with you in English. English is not their first language, esp. in the North, so theymight have trouble conversing, but they try their best...even the fadhwalas on the road. In the south English is more established. So you will never have any problem...most of the Indians are very friendly. Okay, I'll shut up now. lol, Bollywood is a culture of it's own. Did you know that Pakistan cinema is called Pollywood? And I've had a crush on Uncle Jesse since 5th grade Agrred. But at least she's a long way from reaching where Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan is ...Another celebrity I can't stand is Paris Hilton though!
True. I had several Indian friends in college. Very kind, laid back people from what I can tell. I really admired how it didn't seem like any situation could 'shake' them or make them panic. I was borderline jealous. Sure, I appear to be calm in stressful situations, but I usually have to work hard to appear that way. I'm pretty sure that they were really calm, inside as well. Just a mindset, I'd imagine.
Hehe! Yeah, but it always took a lot more to panic them than myself. I can be a bloody coward when it comes right down to it.
who hasn't? Have mercy! True enough, but i like the idea of mimetic evolution, that is to say that good ideas will survive and bad ones will die out, origin none related. But then again i am a big sappy optimist True, but assembling a pipe bomb in an attempt to destroy something that symbolizes democracy and personal rights becomes impossible if they are principals that are adopted globally. When i say globalization i think more of the idea that everyone has the same goals, hopes, dreams and concepts of right and wrong. Global ideas creeds and faiths as opposed to a global dress code. Fair enough, some things can't co-exist. In a global world some things will have to disappear, things that are unable to exist in current western view points. Tyrants, intolerance, inequality, things that are considered evil by the western culture will have to be eradicated for a truly global culture. But that doesn't mean we all have to be the bloody Borg. In current American societies there is an amazing assortment of sub cultures, jocks, Goths, geeks, emo's, Mexicans, blacks, ext... It's the same thing in Israel and most if not all western countries. In England they talk about curry incessantly (or so i've seen from British tv-shows and books) as well as other Indian things, so you can't say the Indians there lost their culture. In Israel a lot of Arab phrases, words and music got into main stream culture. Just because one culture has the lion part doesn't mean the others disappear. It's like democracy, just because one party won doesn't mean the others won't get a fair representation. From what i've seen Egypt is doing just fine. As for California, anywhere were the terminator as governor is doing o.k. by me.
hmmm...who here knows what language is spoken in Bangladesh? I'll give hint, you'll be alble to tell from the name. And don't google please Edit-Thank You in Egyptian, is Shukran btw...no harm in knowing that ..and in hindi it's Shukriya/dhanyawaad
nope...lol, I'll put you outta your misery...it's Bangla a.k.a Bengali . This proves Apathy''s point btw...the Bangladeshi people know that French is spoken in France and English in England
