1. you are american. how do you view this identity? positively? negatively? with indifference? and how, specifically, would you explain to someone ignorant of the concept what being an american meant (to you, not ideally or traditionally, but how it affects your personal life... immediately, indirectly or even hypothetically).
I'm content with it, being an American. To be an American - at least to me as I would tell others - is something so familiar that it's barely perceived, like how one's skin inures to the feel of clothing. It's in my voice and my language, like an unshakeable accent. It means having a rich amount culture in our short past, but seemingly a dearth in the present. And being in Florida in particular - I have a glimpse into a sense that's hard to name: like anachronism but spatial. Melaleucas from Australia, carambola from Vietnam, aloe from Africa, etc. America is a convergence of cultures, right down to my blood - Scotch-Irish, Dutch, Italian, German, and Creek Indian. I'm two generations away from Alabama, and the identity of being Southern. To explain it is almost as hard as seeing oneself without a mirror. I've never really stepped outside of my own perspective; not many have here I guess.
2. how does being an american affect you in relation to non-americans? this can include itn'l travel, friends, language (how you feel about english as the global language, or about people in america that don't speak english) fears (you fear other cultures or you fear what other cultures may think of you because of this, and things of the like).
I don't travel. I wish I could learn another language, but I'm stuck in English. I can see how people could be stuck in Spanish or Creole. By the third generation here, immigrants usually speak English without an accent. It takes time to adjust anywhere. I'm sure people abroad would assume I'm a jerk - even if only slightly. Graham Greene titled a book The Quiet American as if it were an oxymoron. I'd like to think I don't fit all of the parts of the American stereotype: loud, boastful, fat, and ignorant. I try.
I'm content with it, being an American. To be an American - at least to me as I would tell others - is something so familiar that it's barely perceived, like how one's skin inures to the feel of clothing. It's in my voice and my language, like an unshakeable accent. It means having a rich amount culture in our short past, but seemingly a dearth in the present. And being in Florida in particular - I have a glimpse into a sense that's hard to name: like anachronism but spatial. Melaleucas from Australia, carambola from Vietnam, aloe from Africa, etc. America is a convergence of cultures, right down to my blood - Scotch-Irish, Dutch, Italian, German, and Creek Indian. I'm two generations away from Alabama, and the identity of being Southern. To explain it is almost as hard as seeing oneself without a mirror. I've never really stepped outside of my own perspective; not many have here I guess.
2. how does being an american affect you in relation to non-americans? this can include itn'l travel, friends, language (how you feel about english as the global language, or about people in america that don't speak english) fears (you fear other cultures or you fear what other cultures may think of you because of this, and things of the like).
I don't travel. I wish I could learn another language, but I'm stuck in English. I can see how people could be stuck in Spanish or Creole. By the third generation here, immigrants usually speak English without an accent. It takes time to adjust anywhere. I'm sure people abroad would assume I'm a jerk - even if only slightly. Graham Greene titled a book The Quiet American as if it were an oxymoron. I'd like to think I don't fit all of the parts of the American stereotype: loud, boastful, fat, and ignorant. I try.
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