Quintessentially?

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Tue January 27th, 2009, 12:06 pm

Following on from the thread about what it means to be British from a Brit point of view, this is for the non-Brits

What are the quintessential aspects of your own nation from your insider viewpoint? I'd be interested to know.

pat · Post by **pat** » Tue January 27th, 2009, 12:12 pm

[quote=""EC2""]Following on from the thread about what it means to be British from a Brit point of view, this is for the non-Brits

What are the quintessential aspects of your own nation from your insider viewpoint? I'd be interested to know.[/quote]

Everyone spends so much time outdoors here. Not true! It can be too hot to be outdoors! Yes, we cook on the barbie, that is too keep the heat out of the kitchen!

sweetpotatoboy · Post by **sweetpotatoboy** » Tue January 27th, 2009, 1:03 pm

Just five minutes my colleague and I were talking about the supposed hardiness of the Australians (in comparison to us)!

Volgadon · Post by **Volgadon** » Tue January 27th, 2009, 2:37 pm

Good question. What makes Israelies Israeli. Hmm. Pigheaded arrogance, a know-it-all attitude, a dislike of ceremony (religion excepted), but also a warmth and willingness to help.
Poking fun at the latest wave of immigrants.
We also love getting as much of a bargain out of everything as we can. It is quite common for someone on a radio quizz to demand a prize even if he got the questions wrong, or demand more prizes. What beggars belief is that people get away with it. There is a joke about a bunch of new conscripts in boot camp. The instructors says today we are drilling a grenade attack. When the enemy lobs a greande at you you have three seconds to run as far away as you can.
-Sergeant, can we have five?
We love barbecuing things and when I say barbecue I don't mean one of those silly American things (no offence). Our peculiarity is to constantly wave a piece of cardboard, in order to spread the heat evenly.
The three greats of Israeli music are Bob Dylan, Umm-Kolthum and Charles Aznavour. That joke is hard to get unless you relaise what a melting-pot we are.

Volgadon · Post by **Volgadon** » Tue January 27th, 2009, 2:57 pm

This explains my point about immigrants
Every time a new group arrives, the old group complains about how now everything is gone to the dogs, we built this place and you come in and get everything etc etc until finally the most recent ones join in right away

Leyland · Post by **Leyland** » Tue January 27th, 2009, 3:44 pm

The upside of being a Southern American is that we're considered very well mannered/polite, friendly and social, outgoing, very musical - country, jazz and blues, display extreme hospitality, are quite charitable due to high attendence in churches, and have lots of good fried food.

The downside is being considered inbred, racist, gun crazy, stupid, intolerant, and violent. Deliverance by James Dickey sure didn't do much to allay those suspicions!

Carine · Post by **Carine** » Tue January 27th, 2009, 6:05 pm

It's said about Belgians that they have a brick in their stomach. Which means that every Belgian wants to own a house.

Also : Belgium is THE country for eating chips and mayonaise

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Tue January 27th, 2009, 7:32 pm

Well, EC, the further I get into this book I mentioned on that other thread, the more I realise that things I thought were quinessentially American, aren't. LOL

Other than that, I'm pretty much in agreement with Leyland about the South.

LCW · Post by **LCW** » Tue January 27th, 2009, 7:38 pm

"What are the quintessential aspects of your own nation from your insider viewpoint?"

It's very hard to easily sum up anything as quintessentially American because this country is so diverse but one of the common themes though that runs through our society is our almost sacred respect for freedom and liberty. That can translate into many different expressions of freedoms and means different things to many Americans but ultimately most of us would agree that the "give me liberty or give me death" sentiment runs pretty strongly throughout our society.

On a slightly different note, we Americans love our cars and our entire infrastructure has been built around us all having our own individual cars. Suburbs, the width of our streets and roads, interstates, etc.

Work!! Americans are workaholics and, even while the fatcats and white collared crooks have caused a lot of trouble the productivity of the average American worker is up or is as good as ever. I personally prefer the 5-6 weeks a year of vacations that some Europeans get but that's just me,

!!

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Tue January 27th, 2009, 7:40 pm

I think the most quintessential characteristic of Americans is that we are a nation of immigrants. From the beginning of our history as a nation, people from several different countries have settled here and managed to get along together (both well and badly) as neighbors. From our perspective, it often feels as though we can be quite prejudiced and intolerant, but given the huge variety of religious and cultural traditions this country has absorbed, the real achievement is how well we get along together. We don't expect people who come here to give up their religious practices, their native foods, their native dress, etc. One of the fun things about living in an American city is the huge variety of restaurants where foods from all over the world can be enjoyed.