The second assignment in our Intercultural Communications class was to write an essay about our observations within 'American culture'. We had to read an article by
Robert Kohls about 'American Values' and write an essay agreeing with his chosen 13 values (with examples) or disagree and give new values. For your reading pleasure I have posted it here, although I've made some alterations due to confidentiality of my other cast members :)
* If you are strongly patriotic you may not want to read this - or maybe you will. These are observations I have made about the general population around the 'Disney Area' here in Florida. I do not believe these opinions of every state in the USA nor do I believe these opinions of every individual American within each of said states - don't be hatin' *
Give specific examples of American behaviors that you yourself have observed during the time that you have lived and worked at Disney.
After reading
Robert Kohl’s “The Values Americans Live By” article I have created a list of
the 10 American Behaviours/Values that I have witnessed or disagree with,
during my first 2 months enrolled in the Disney International Program here in
Orlando, Florida.
American’s need to focus more on
change, always maintain a sense of time, still have a great lack of equality, constantly
need privacy, a misunderstood sense of ‘self-help control,’ s strong sense of
competition, have an appearance of informality, a strong sense of directness,
value practicality & they are indeed very materialistic.
American society
still needs to focus on change; specifically the outward appearance and
personas of its citizens. Since arrival I have gotten many negative looks when
seen with ‘non-afro-Caribbean’ students. Everywhere you go ‘black is black and
white is white unfortunately with many afro-Caribbean citizen staying together
(at work or personally.) If you are not seen with ‘your sisters’ then you are
cast an outsider - and then do you need to be changed.
Many of them still don’t dress very
‘respectively’ for the twenty-first century either. While I was out for dinner
with some friends we seen a group of young afro-Caribbean women dressed out in
public in a very popular middle-class restaurant looking like ‘they were on
their way to the red light district’ so to speak. It is sad to find that in
this day and age many still view afro-Caribbean people as lower in status and
have to demean themselves to slang and derogatory language and un-classy
occupations.
American’s
do have a very strong sense of time. They are always busy or in a rush (even if
there is nothing to rush to) and they always have to stick to a schedule. One of my closest coworkers always needs to
follow our scheduling shift track sheet perfectly ‘to a T’ until she can begin
to slow down and relax and enjoy work. The track sheets themselves are a good
example of how precise American’s follow scheduling and deadlines.
American’s
pride themselves on ‘equality’ but in following my first example of lack of
change, they only have specific equality for their own race. Yes they have
gotten better at accepting and welcoming other cultures but not as far as other
countries. Our Social Security office guard was very prejudice against Italians
and French culture. When we went to our SIN card appointment he spent the entire
morning discussing his dislike for the arrogant culture and antics of those
countries citizens (all after bluntly stating we weren’t supposed to talk
during our appointment time.)
I
agree American’s are a very private culture. Phones are always no more than an
inch away and password protected. Doors are always closed and locked. Even
though all 5 of my American roommates claim to be very friendly, welcoming and
approachable they all close their bedroom doors and get anxiously perturbed if
the doors are left opened. This might be because Americans try to give the
persona of being busy and self-preserved so it would be disheartening to see
into such a chaotic or cluttered lifestyle ‘behind closed doors.’
Many
American’s are seen as cocky or conceited because of their strong sense of
self. They believe that recognition is always needed and don’t want to complete
or help with a task if no recognition or reward will be offered in return. They
are individual players that don’t like to share the spotlight with many others.
Many of our character performers think and act this way. Not realizing that
everyone performers, costuming or cosmetology help to contribute to a show.
American’s
are very competitive. Coworkers compete for the supervisor’s attention. Women
compete to win affection from men. Friends compete to dominate the conversation
or plan the day’s activities. All these are examples of how competitive
Americans can be. I work with some coworkers that like to be right so much that
they will interrupt your conversations just to tell you what you already know
(in order to smugly listen to their own voice.)
It
is true that many American’s can be perceived negatively due to informality. I
work with very many blunt and straightforward cast and performers that have a
racial and crude sense of humor. It is sometimes hard to just shrug it off,
laugh nervously and carry on with your work. Many of them do give one-word
answers or greetings and seem very unwelcoming (until you smile or wave at them
and they open up positively.)
I
do agree that many American’s are very direct with their dialogue. Sometimes
again to the point of perceived negativity. Many of my coworkers are perceived
as bossy or arrogant because of the direct way that they speak or give
requests.
American’s
do value practicality. They do not like to waste time and energy on things that
won’t give them any benefit in return. Many of my coworkers will not give rides
home to ICPs without asking for a shift exchange or favor in return first.
Finally,
Americans are very materialistic. There are specific bus routes scheduled to
take you to shopping malls and trolley routes taking you between both shopping
outlets. Every American walking by you has a cellphone or other kind of
electronic mobile device. Even character performers become partial to a
specific kind of costume item or clothing piece that they claim for their own whenever
they perform.
I've previously posted before about hidden allergens that we don't notice typically on labels & packaging, and explained the difference between nuts and nut products, but do shoppers really understand how to find such allergens while reading ingredients labels? Or is it that they forget or don't care?
