American cultural customs

In a sense, the United States is an extension of Europe, because its language, its demographic composition and its founding spirit all originated from Europe. On the other hand, the United States is different from Europe, because after European immigrants drove away the Indians on the North American continent, they created an amazing and splendid civilization in a barren wilderness. Therefore, when talking about American customs and social etiquette, we should not only consider the similarities between Europe and America, but also pay attention to their differences.

Custom is a broad and complex topic, involving all aspects of people's social life and communication. The author intends to give a brief overview of American customs in the form of gossip.

tolerate

America is an immigrant country, and its ancestors came from all over the world. When people move to the United States, they not only move geographically, but also bring their country's comments and customs to their new homes. Because of miscellaneous, people's differences are very prominent; Because differences are common, people don't pay special attention to unity. Over time, Americans have formed a high degree of tolerance in customs and habits, and are tolerant and receptive to heterogeneous and different comments. At this point, the feasible customs in American society are broader than those in other countries in the world.

Politically speaking, this tolerance is manifested in the pursuit of freedom and the maintenance of freedom rights. Religiously speaking, it is reflected in the harmonious coexistence of different beliefs. From the perspective of life, it is manifested in the peaceful coexistence of different ethnic groups and communities. In short, in the United States, everyone can basically choose different ideas, beliefs, lifestyles and traditional habits at will; People can also maintain their own customs and habits to a considerable extent. For example, Jews can celebrate their religious festivals, while Christians can celebrate their Christmas and Easter. For another example, Chinese can live and work in Chinese in Chinatown; By the same token, Vietnamese immigrants can run businesses and engage in various activities in their "little saigon" in the Vietnamese way.

Besides being an immigrant country, American tolerance is also related to the frequent immigration of Americans. As we all know, an important part of American development is its western development history. At that time, American pioneers either walked or rode, from east to west and from south to north, and moved wherever there was an opportunity. Frequent migration and constant change of residence make people always in a "mobile" state, and it is easier to tolerate and accept the different phenomena they face temporarily. In addition, frequent migration can help people broaden their horizons, be well informed, sympathize with and understand different customs, and gradually form an open concept that pluralism is better than singleness.

Because Americans are more tolerant, they rarely impose their will on others, which is very similar to the old saying of Confucius in China, "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you." . For example, the husband may be a Republican, but you must never force a wife who supports the Democratic Party to change her political stance. Similarly, a mother may be a Catholic, but she must never force her son who has converted to Islam to change his religion. This spirit of tolerance is more common in daily life habits and daily affairs.

Unceremoniously

Americans are famous for their informality. In office buildings, people often find "white-collar workers" sitting in their rooms, without coats and ties. When talking, they will lean back in their chairs, put their feet on the table and "chat" for a long time in the room. On university campuses, there are countless examples of American professors wearing jeans and Nike shoes for education classes. What's more, American professors, regardless of their age and sex, will sit on the podium and talk a lot. The more common situation is the easy-going and relaxed relationship between father and son and mother and daughter in the United States. No matter in school or in real life, we often see American elders and young people patting each other on the shoulder and shooting freely. All this stems from the informal habits of Americans.

From a perspective, Americans' informal habits are related to their concepts of democracy and equality. As we know, there was a stage of feudal society in the development of the United States. A set of things prevailing in continental Europe, such as nobility, untouchability, hierarchy and royalty, has no or no practical significance in the United States. People don't pay much attention to family, status and identity: what is more important is the actual achievements of the parties themselves. This concept, which originated in the early stage of American development, has largely become a "sediment" in American tradition. Because everyone cherishes equal rights, there is no need to pay too much attention to all kinds of red tape in people's communication. This is true between the superior and the subordinate, between parents and children, between bosses and workers, and between professors and students.

In this respect, people only need to pay attention to the way Americans fight when they meet people. Whether subordinates meet their superiors or students meet their teachers, Americans generally just need to smile and say "hi" or "hello" without adding various titles. In addition, Americans seldom say goodbye to each other in social occasions or business meetings, but wave to everyone and say "OK, goodbye". Doing so does not mean that people lack respect for each other, but because of people's long-term habits.

Informal is to make people more relaxed in communication, thus shortening the distance between people more quickly. This may be one reason why Americans are happy.