Okay for all you Americans getting excited out there, this Brit isn’t actually becoming American officially, but your ways have influenced me in a significant way that things I swore I’d never do I am now doing. So here is a list of things I now do since I have lived in the United States:
- My rubbish has become trash
- My garden has become a yard
- I find the nearest parking space to the building
- I feel more comfortable driving on the right hand side of the road instead of the left!
- My 40 hour work week has become a 50, 60 and sometimes 70 hour week
- My 5 weeks holiday has turned into 2 weeks vacation
- I use Z’s instead of S’s, take out the U and finish with ER instead of RE. Confused? We spell things differently in the UK (Organise, Honour, Centre to name a few!)
- I complain about my food in restaurants
- My car gives less than 20 MPG
- I complained when gas went over $3 a gallon. I use to paid $8 a gallon in the UK
- I no longer say water like “wortar”
- I wear shorts now not 3 quarter lengths
- If I can’t wear blue jeans I don’t want to go!
- My pants are no longer my underwear
- I have ice with every drink, even tea and coffee!
There is a bunch of other things as well, but I can’t remember them all. Here is a list of things I’ll never do, even if I become an American Citizen (I hope I don’t offend anyone):
- Wear a white shirt under every thing I wear
- Wear white socks no matter what the outfit
- Wear a phone holder on my belt
- Say tomatoes like an American
- Prefer iced over hot tea
- Tell anyone “I love your accent”
- Stop viewing the BBC website
So joking aside, what living in America has taught me is that even though you may try your hardest to never change, you eventually become like your surroundings. I have become a lot more Americanized over the last four years because I am immersed in the culture.
You will become what you hear, read and see. How ever much you try, your friends, church, employment, the TV, the Internet, the books you read and your culture will change you. Look at all the people you associate yourself with, the places you go and the things you read; do you want to become like these people? They are shaping you and there is nothing you can do about it.
What things have shaped you? Are you someone you never thought you would be? What can you do today to become more like the people you want to be?
May 29th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Great post…..being born in another country and then coming to the US over 18yrs ago and now a US citizen, I can say that it is so true and I can relate…slowly but surely you become your surroundings and the things that you choose to associate with/do. Hmm… I hang out with you all the time…wonder what that says about me? Hee, hee. Love you!
May 29th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Saw the link to this in my feed on facebook. Very entertaining. Also very true. I can’t relate to the extreme that you describe, being from an entirely different continent, but I can relate having lived in a few different states. Moving from Las Vegas, NV to Jacksonville, AR was a HUGE culture shock. Moving from Jacksonville, AR (near Little Rock) to Harrison, AR was a culture shock as well, even with it being in the same state. I came to Missouri with the thickest southern drawl you could ever imagine… but it went away and I eventually stopped saying “y’all” “ain’t” and I don’t use “fixn” quite as much as I used to… come to think of it, I barely say it at all anymore. The new environment slowly sinks in and we slowly conform to our surroundings. In the case of my horrible accent, it was a good thing. I can see where it can be a bad thing as well. However, I have found, that there are things I won’t change… Like your list of things that you will hold to, no matter how long you live in America… things that make me who I am, no matter what surrounds me, but you are so right, we are shaped by everything that we surround ourselves with.
May 29th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Thanks for the comment Amy. That must have been a real shock moving from Vegas to Arkansas, glad to see there are things you won’t change though!
May 29th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
“THE GREAT DEBATE”
BRITS vs AMERICANS…Who’s Cooler???!
It’s amazing to see those small (but huge) differences.
Thanks for laughing at us…and allowing us to laugh at you.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:31 am
I like this post. Its funny all the same.