American Culture

Whenever I do a training about intercultural communication, there are always a few people who introduce themselves as "American... whatever that means," or "I'm American... so I guess I don't really have a culture." Likewise, one of the most common critiques of the US that I hear from Europeans is that "there's no culture in America." In French that comes out as "les americains n'ont pas de culture," which is very similar in meaning to "les americains ne sont pas cultives" - which in the French context (and especially among the Parisian bourgeoisie) means that Americans don't know and appreciate the same things as the French upper classes (who as everyone knows have a monopoly on taste and refinement - c'est evident!)

It's a common adage in the IC world that you don't really understand your own culture until you step out of it and into another one. That said, I've found that training materials intended for immigrants or other newcomers can be a great resource for someone interested in understanding his own culture more thoroughly. I spend a lot of time reading and thinking about idiosyncracies of French and American cultures, and I find that this increased self-awareness helps me be more effective in all of my interpersonal relationships. As a bicultural person all of my interactions necessarily have an intercultural dimension (especially considering the company I keep!).

Over the coming weeks I plan to look at various aspects of American culture from the interculturalist perspective - if anyone has specific questions please leave those as a comment to this post... stay tuned!