Classless Society
January 9, 2012 | 
Author Hello Pals!
Americans are generally very soft, polite and you will often hear “please”, “thank you” and “excuse me.” However, they are predisposed not to apologizes, as much as people seem to do in other countries, and they like only positive declarations better than negative ones. Generally, they try to be honest and direct when they are dealing with some other persons. They are also open and friendly, even if they do not aim to start a friendship with someone. The United States society is not really classless, because it is true that it does not have the same centuries old class divisions that survive in many other countries. Instead, it has a remarkably mobile society that rewards and admires anyone who is able to do well, especially if success involves making a lot of money.
While there is a confirmed class of white people of Anglo-Saxon origin, who have usually held wealth and power in the country, there are uniformly rich and powerful people from other cultural backgrounds. There is a more marked division between blue and white collar workers, which make bigger into most areas of people’s lives, from where they live to what they do in their spare time. Some behavior, such as bowling and playing pool, are seen as blue-collar and other ones, such as golfing is seen as white-collar. It is generally money rather than family environment that marks the difference in classes in the United States, except for a quite small social circle in the Northeast.
Posted in American Society | 
Tags: class divisions, difference in classes, uniformly rich, wealth and power, white people | 
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Sharing Lifestyle and Business Relationship
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To people from other countries, Americans may seem deafening and embarrassing to be with, and too willing to share their entire life stories with even unfamiliar person. To Americans, however, it is considered normal and friendly behavior. What matter confuse newcomers to the United States is that even though they may have shared some very private information with them, it does not necessarily mean that they need to be friends for a long period to maintain it. Honesty and frankness are just part of the American character, and any reserve or coyness on the part of strangers may be taken as self-importance or a sign that they may have something to conceal. But when it comes to doing business, Americans are generally quite informal and relaxed in their relations with people, but they are found to be very serious about business itself. Most people who work together call each other by their first names.
In case of meeting someone for the first time, it is best to wait for them to ask to be called them with their first name, until, it is almost certainly best to call them by their title. They tend to be friendly and polite in their business transactions, but the bottom line is that it is still business, no matter how friendly they are. They are also very honest and up-front, and will not be uncertain to say what needs to be said. To some people it may seem very direct and even impolite, but if something is not happening the way it should, Americans will speak up and expect the person they are dealing with to do something about it. In opposite situation, if someone has done a job predominantly well, then the business associate will be enthusiastic to praise that person immediately.
Posted in American Lifestyle | Tags: frankness, friendly behavior, Honesty, riends for a long period, willing to share | No Comments »
Way to Write Business Letters
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There are many rules and regulations in writing a business letter. First of all, unless if you know the person whom you are writing a letter, it is also best to use a title and the person’s last name, for example Dear Ms. Jones, Dear Mr. John. Generally, it always better to use Ms. for a woman unless you know that she prefers Mrs. or Miss. If you cannot analyze from the name, whether the person is a man or a woman, it is good enough to use the person’s full name in the salutation, although it is also better to find out their sex. Most of the American’s don’t frequently use the British method, but actually is found to be a nice solution. In case of writing a letter to some unknown persons, like a letter to a company or some complaint about something, it is better to use Dear Sir or Dear Madam.
Likewise, if you are responding to a letter, which someone has sent to you, it is good to start by thanking them like, for example, Dear Mr. Thank you for your letter of November 10. When ending a business letter, close with yours truly or yours sincerely. If you started your letter with Dear Sir or Dear Madam, then you are supposed to finish the letter by using Yours faithfully, but most Americans do not do this, they use Yours Sincerely or Sincerely.
Posted in Business Letter | Tags: British method, full name, nice solution, rules and regulations, use a title | No Comments »
Direct Approach is Best
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Generally Americans wish to face the problems directly. That’s why they don’t know the real meaning and can’t able to understand people who seems to be friendly and say “yes” a lot, which is the word mostly expected in a business situation. For example, if you are a friend and seem to agree about many things in business discussion, they will think that you have reached an agreement. After that, if you then go back to your country and decide that you cannot accept to certain points after all, and then on those situations they will feel betrayed. Americans are more comfortable with arguments, and even outright aggression, than they are with what they see as dishonesty.
The general American approach to work and to any problems that arise at work is confident, we can do it courage, and they generally expect this same approach from anyone they work with. The American workplace is also extremely competitive, an attitude that is encouraged early on in children and young people through the competitive nature of schools and other activities. If you think about it, it is a reasonable that since Americans like being direct and honest, and they don’t like jokes, which insult people. The peoples in United States are not like other country peoples; they usually take such comments seriously and get offended. They do not like to be embarrassed in public, so it is better to stop playing by jokes on anyone unless you know that person very well.
Posted in American Lifestyle | Tags: arguments, business discussion, confident, directly, feel betrayed | No Comments »
Marriage and Family
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Generally in United States, there is no specific rules or laws for marriage or children about how many children a couple can have, whether a woman must take her husband’s name or what name children are allowed to call. The average number of children comes out to two to four and you will sometimes hear a couple with two to four children used to mean as average family. Most of the women hyphenate their last names when they marry, for example, if Susan Smith marries Bill Jones, then she becomes Susan Smith-Jones and their children, however, usually have the father’s last name. Families are modern and difficult in the United States. The divorce rate is 1 out of 2 marriages, so there are a lot of families with only one parent or with stepparents.
Women usually work at least part-time outside the home, and so many children who are too young for school spend their days in some day care centers. Most of the families try to eat their meal together at home during the evening period, but this is often not possible because of work schedules or school activities. There are also many couples who live together without being married or live together for a period of time before they marry and this relationship is sometimes called as a term “partner”. Homosexual couples with children are increasingly common, although mostly in large cities where people tend to be a little more open-minded.
Posted in Personal Life | Tags: average family, day care centers, open-minded, stepparents, two to four children | No Comments »
Religion
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There are few subjects that Americans desires not to discuss with anyone other than their near and dear ones and these are said to be religion, money and politics. Generally, a new comer to the U.S. can ask an American about religious customs that are followed in that specific place, so that he can learn it. But, however it is impolite to ask directly what their religious backgrounds, who often build entire acts around how their family’s religion has exaggerated their lives. Americans on the whole are fairly holy and any religion that has ever existed on this planet will have at atleast a few followers in the United States. Of many, Christian groups are the most common, and conservative groups tend to be very active in politics. Though there are no official government religion, the separation of the church and the state are one of the basic principles of American administration.
Likewise, when it comes to money, it is considered to be bad to ask someone how much they earn or how much they are paid for their work. Since Americans do love to deal, they will sometimes unpaid helper how much something cost, if they got it for a particularly good price whereas some may do not like social arguments or heated discussions in the same way that some Europeans like to do. Therefore, it is not prudent to bring up the subject of politics unless you are sensibly sure that your comments are generally in agreement with the beliefs of the other person.
Posted in American Society | Tags: Christian group, church, government religion, religious backgrounds, religious customs | No Comments »
Political Correctness
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America is recognized as a land of political truthfulness, so that you must be very careful with your verbal communication to avoid aberrant anyone. Actually, most Americans think that a little compassion to issues of race, gender and sexual orientation is a good idea but actually it does not mean that they are watching every thing they say. In general, Americans may seem quite willing to discuss about sexual matters and family oriented problems with most people, judging by the huge number of informative talk shows on television, but they are found to be exception somewhat than the rule. But, whereas in other countries they feel that sex is a very personal matter and not usually a subject of conversation during the party and it is also not well-mannered to ask anyone other than a child how old they are.
But, certain conditions have however made their way into each one American English and are viewed as normal, rather than the correct but unusual way of saying something. This is probably most true of terms such as sexist, actor, server and letter carrier as actress, waitress, and mailman. People are also more careful and cautious when referring to Americans of nonwhite racial or ethnic origin. Terms like African-American, Mexican American and Asian-American are now frequently used rather than preferred to someone as being handicapped, because it is best to say that they have a disability or they are disabled.
Posted in Personal Life | Tags: African-American, American English, Asian-American, careful and cautious, Mexican American | No Comments »
Profanity
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Generally Americans tend to watch their language carefully in every place like business, formal situations or in informal places, even if it is obvious from watching the average Hollywood movie that Americans can be pretty rude when they want to be. So it is considered to be best to save more bright language for more informal-moments, if you feel logically confident that none of your listeners will be affected by your speech. It is also significant and you need to keep in mind that while most swear words are equally the same in all varieties of English. At the same time, there are some differences between British English and American English.
Generally, Americans do not use the words wanker, prat, tosser, opting for something like jerk or asshole. One such word that may cause confusion and offense is the word fag, which is an offensive term for homosexual, but it is considered to be slang for a cigarette. The variant faggot is also equally offensive. Other terms that are likely to get strange looks in the United States are sod off, bollocks, and shag, although the latter may make it into common usage after featuring highly in the Austin powers movies. When expressing disapproval or abhor of something, Americans do not use the following words or edifice. It was a shit, crap, shite movie, instead they are more likely to say something to the effect of “It was a really shitty, crappy, bad movie” or “that movie really sucked.”
Posted in Profanity | Tags: American English, British English, common usage, language, varieties of English | No Comments »
Yankees
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The term Yankee has several interrelated and often uncomplimentary meanings, generally referred to people originating in the northern United States or New England, where submission of the term is largely restricted to descendants of the English pioneers of the region. The meaning of Yankee has varied over time because the origin of the term was uncertain. In the eighteenth century, it is referred to residence of New England, then in the following centuries it is used as a word in this sense “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, which was published by Mark Twain at 1889. Then later in 1770s, British people seem to apply the term for the persons from United States. Outside the United States, Yankee is slang for anyone from the United States, but inside the United States, however, it is a different story.
A Yankee is someone who comes from one of the northern states countries and fought for the union against the southern confederates in the war, which is called as Civil War by them and War Between the States by southerners. In the southern, Yankee can also be anyone who is not from the southern part, although westerners argue that they cannot be called Yankees since most of their states did not even exist n the 1860s when the war took place. In the Southern United States, this term is sometimes used in mocking reference to any Northerner especially those who have traveled to Southern part.
Posted in Yankees | Tags: Civil War, different story, New England, northern states countries, traveled to Southern part | No Comments »
Eating Habits
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Generally Americans use to eat frequently in hotels because it is found to be reasonable and convenient for them. Due to this reason, most American cities have a wide range of eating options like popular fast food joints to all-you-can-eat buffets, to some specialty and ethnic restaurants and most Americans seem really picky about their food in restaurants. While specialty restaurants are much more common in larger cities, smaller cities have at least an Italian, a Chinese, or a Mexican restaurant, but influences from other cultures have made their way into daily American eating habits too. French is not the only language found in American food talk, but Italian, German, and Eastern European foods have also been a part of American culture for almost a century, and people tends to be familiar with foods such as pasta, bagels, and knishes.
At present, settlers have introduced whole new words to Americans, for example tortillas, gyoza, and gyros. Since many people are on diets or have allergies to certain type of foods, they will order their coffee with 2% milk, their salad with the dressing on the side, or their bagel with non-fat cream cheese. Main courses usually come with vegetables and rice or potatoes, so you will be asked for a soup or salad? Baked potato, fries, or rice? Or what dressing would you like with that? Like Italian, blue cheese, French, honey mustard etc.