New Yorker and Americanisms
May. 9th, 2013 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abendgulesI've been enjoying the Borowitz Report, a satirist from the New Yorker magazine. It's like a finely condensed Onion without the occasionally tasteless bits. Borowitz has been paying particular attention to the NRA and the gay marriage stories of late.
Browsing New Yorker led me to this post about 'spoiled kids'.
I can't decide which is weirder, having a six year old who can catch food and cook it, or the families from LA. I know my upbringing was certainly closer to the latter, if not quite so accommodating as described. I tied my own shoes, for one thing.
The author refers to someone writing 'Bringing up Bebe', which sounded familiar - it was sold in the UK as 'French children don't throw food' (no idea why, unless 'bringing up baby' is somehow an 'Americanism').
As a nice Canadian, I've found that many expressions, that I just thought of as 'two ways of saying things' prove to be firmly divided here: one will be the British expression, and one is judged an 'Americanism', which is always said with disapproval and a sniff.
It's that napkin/serviette, toilet/washroom/loo, trash/garbage type dichotomy, where I can't see a difference, but are apparently class indicators as well as signs of American influence, that I feel I'll never get hold of.
No real point, just passing on today's reading.
Browsing New Yorker led me to this post about 'spoiled kids'.
I can't decide which is weirder, having a six year old who can catch food and cook it, or the families from LA. I know my upbringing was certainly closer to the latter, if not quite so accommodating as described. I tied my own shoes, for one thing.
The author refers to someone writing 'Bringing up Bebe', which sounded familiar - it was sold in the UK as 'French children don't throw food' (no idea why, unless 'bringing up baby' is somehow an 'Americanism').
As a nice Canadian, I've found that many expressions, that I just thought of as 'two ways of saying things' prove to be firmly divided here: one will be the British expression, and one is judged an 'Americanism', which is always said with disapproval and a sniff.
It's that napkin/serviette, toilet/washroom/loo, trash/garbage type dichotomy, where I can't see a difference, but are apparently class indicators as well as signs of American influence, that I feel I'll never get hold of.
No real point, just passing on today's reading.
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no subject
Date: 2013-05-09 09:45 pm (UTC)It is neat that you see all these differences! I am fascinated by class structures and how they work. Feel free to keep posting on this topic. =)
no subject
Date: 2013-05-10 01:58 pm (UTC)http://www.amazon.co.uk/Watching-English-Hidden-Rules-Behaviour/dp/0340818867
It's a really fair review of modern British behaviour, written by an English woman, that is easy to read and funny for both English and 'expat' readers alike. I think you'd really like it, because what you study is culture, through music.
Its observations might have saved one of my jobs here, where I completely misread my manager and eventually left in great frustration.
The English moan about how 'there's no native culture anymore' but this lady demonstrates that there is a very strong shared culture, it's just not the one they think of when they think of 'culture'.