No creative title this time :|
More about American culture.
The world sees us Americans as youthful, energetic, loud, obnoxious, fat, and always eating unhealthily, with a thriving hero complex. And surely, this would offend some people, but it's funny because it's true.
We are very young compared to other nations-less than 300 years old, which seems like a tiny speck compared to China's 5000 years. And with youth comes energy, and lots of it. Americans are always busy doing something. We can never stand still. And if an American does attempt to chill out and take a moment to de-stress, like what we did by doing literally nothing (no thoughts, no communication), that American is seen as lazy or a weirdo. Though I personally didn't get a reaction because my mom and sister are used to my "strange" behavior, other people were getting alarmed reactions from strangers.
America is the second most obese country (Mexico takes spot number one), and our portions are enormous compared to the rest of the world. We eat too much grease, not enough fruit and veggies, and too much fat but don't get enough exercise. We looked at Kohl's American values, and one of them is efficiency. Americans value always being busy, so instead of going home for lunch or going to a sit-down restaurant, the average American just goes through a drive-through and grabs a fattening burger and eats in on the way back to work in an effort to waste as little time as possible.
And as for the hero complex-that explains itself. If we didn't have a hero complex, why would we ever invade another country under the pretenses of "helping out?" We call ourselves the "world police," but we do more harm than good. We really shouldn't be invading other countries, and we shouldn't intervene in another country's war or situation unless our help is asked for.
Hetalia is an anime where the characters are personified stereotypes of the nations. Just look at how America's portrayed.
Here's one mocking Americans for sucking at world geography
We also read an article called "Bemused in America" which was from a German perspective of life in America and how different and confusing everything was, from the idioms and expressions used in English to the 24 hour drugstores and supermarkets. When I hosted exchange students, we would take them all to Walmart and be amused at their expressions because they don't have such a massive corporation in their country. Even the Danish and German exchange students were shocked, amazed, and maybe even a little horrified at the size and amount of choices of everything.
In my personal life, I know that Americans are individualists who value spending time alone over spending time with loved ones. On my dad's side, we don't see them often and they don't get together often because that's not our culture (though we don't visit much because they live in Indiana.), but my mom's side, which is from eastern Europe (my mom's parents are first generation Americans), has weekly family dinners and is very VERY close-nit. To miss a family dinner (unless you're sick) is an insult to my grandparents that makes them very upset. Their parents brought over the European close-nit family values when they immigrated.
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