How important is your "native" culture to you?

[Chaotic42]

By that I mean whatever culture you are most comfortable with. The food, the manner of speaking, the protocol for day to day interactions, stuff like that.

I may be about to move out of the south (yet again), and I realize that I'm very stubbornly southern, specifically Louisianian. It's just wrong to me for people to not use sir and ma'am. Y'all should be part of the codified English language. Food in most other places sucks and when it doesn't it usually needs more seasoning. Mardi Gras and crawfish are both seasons and they vie for importance with football season. It boggles my mind that people aren't over-the-top friendly and outgoing with strangers.

It seems like no matter where I go outside of my comfort area and no matter how perfectly nice and reasonable people are there, they just do things wrong.

So as I prepare for possibly leaving again, and this time it might be forever, I'm curious to know how important your native culture is to you. Have you ever had to permanently adapt to a new and strange culture? Do you ever fully integrate into it, or do you end up with a melting pot of the old and the new?

 

[KeithTalent]

Not important at all; it's really not something I ever think about to be honest.

KT

 

[TwiceOver]

None. Zero. But I wish "some uh y'all'd" learn to talk.

 

[Chaotic42]

None. Zero. But I wish "some uh y'all'd" learn to talk.

I vehemently defend y'all as valid since it fills a niche for second person plural. It replaces the ambiguous "you".

As for accent, people don't believe I'm from Louisiana/Mississippi. I apparently have a neutral Midwestern accent. Joys of working in radio, I guess.

 

[IronWing]

Oh, not too important, doncha know. I still use the term "bubbler" just because I like the sound.

 

[Chaotic42]

Oh, not too important, doncha know. I still use the term "bubbler" just because I like the sound.

Every time I hear that accent it reminds me of MST3K, so it's definitely a positive thing. As long as you all don't mind me picturing you as Crow.

 

[IronWing]

I vehemently defend y'all as valid since it fills a niche for second person plural. It replaces the ambiguous "you".

As for accent, people don't believe I'm from Louisiana/Mississippi. I apparently have a neutral Midwestern accent. Joys of working in radio, I guess.

Second person plural is y'alls similar to yu'ens. Y'all is singular.

 

[TwiceOver]

I vehemently defend y'all as valid since it fills a niche for second person plural. It replaces the ambiguous "you".

As for accent, people don't believe I'm from Louisiana/Mississippi. I apparently have a neutral Midwestern accent. Joys of working in radio, I guess.

My wife is from the south. It took years to get that dirty foul accent out of her. I can tell when she's been talking to her family though, "boy howdy" does the "ding dang doo" come out.

BTW, joking. Her family is awesome. They do sound funny, but I'm sure I sound funny to them.

 

[IronWing]

My wife is from the south. It took years to get that dirty foul accent out of her. I can tell when she's been talking to her family though, "boy howdy" does the "ding dang doo" come out.

BTW, joking. Her family is awesome. They do sound funny, but I'm sure I sound funny to them.

"Hell damn" is one of the best expressions ever.

 

[Kadarin]

Here in northern California, our culture is hella important to us. So important that we invented the word "hella" to emphasize it.

 

[brianmanahan]

Pretty important. I wouldn't want to live in a former confederate state.

 

[TwiceOver]

"Hell damn" is one of the best expressions ever.

I still give my mother in law shit every time she comes up. I keep both a pin and a pen on hand because they are both the same word to her.

 

[TridenT]

Some people say they wouldn't mind but they think their version of culture is so colorless that it wouldn't matter. Move to London, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Trinidad, Philippines, whatever... They have vastly different cultures from ours but plenty of English speakers.

I wouldn't want to move to any of those. I prefer the common core within American culture that removes nearly all regional differences. It makes it easy to communicate with other people regardless of their regional area and obtain goods. As far as regions go, I do like some of the PNW American culture and things that go along with it. (Safeway, WinCo, Tillamook cheese, Umpqua Dairy, etc...) Mostly because it's better cheese and ice cream than other regions... for a good price.

 

[KeithTalent]

^^ I'm hoping to move to London in the next couple of years. Would be awesome.

KT

 

[Humpy]

It's not at all important to me.

I find that people who claim it to be important often use the term as a shield to justify bad behavior.

 

[OverVolt]

People talk too fast, and move too fast in the north east. They end up burning themselves out. Its hilarious now that I've resisted the temptation to play along, haven't burned out, and run circles around them for 1/2 the effort now. They're still giving 150% effort for 75% of the results and turning their hair grey. Good job north-easterners. I make it worse I'll be like, you don't seem to be getting good results maybe try harder? Talk faster? Work more OT? Get less sleep? Drink more coffee?

Lulz.

 

[Chaotic42]

My wife is from the south. It took years to get that dirty foul accent out of her. I can tell when she's been talking to her family though, "boy howdy" does the "ding dang doo" come out.

BTW, joking. Her family is awesome. They do sound funny, but I'm sure I sound funny to them.

I can't understand some of my relatives. Once you get away from the "West Florida Republic" areas, which is the culture I most strongly identify with, southern culture becomes more... stereotypical. It transitions away from beaches, crawfish, and parades.

 

[MongGrel]

I'm too much of a mutt to claim a native culture in reality anywhere I guess.

Just Merican

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Not important at all; it's really not something I ever think about to be honest.

KT

Same here. But I think that's because I don't really interact with people who don't share most of my cultural background. So I'm not aware of the contrasts.

Flipside - travel to the nearest metropolis (or rural area if you live in one already) and observe how people behave differently. S'kinda creepy.

 

[mmntech]

"Go Leafs Go! Let's get some extra large double doubles with a box of them there timbits eh. Fuck America. Universal healthcare! Hockey!"

Meh, folks around here are just content leeching off other cultures because we really don't have one of our own. Toronto especially. Means nothing to me. I've probably adapted more aspects from my British heritage but I don't go all out with that either.

 

[Chaotic42]

"Go Leafs Go! Let's get some extra large double doubles with a box of them there timbits eh. Fuck America. Universal healthcare! Hockey!"

Meh, folks around here are just content leeching off other cultures because we really don't have one of our own. Toronto especially. Means nothing to me. I've probably adapted more aspects from my British heritage but I don't go all out with that either.

Interesting. I've got no ties to my ancestors. I'm apparently part French, British, Native American, Black, and who knows what else, but I don't self-identify as any of those.

The culture shock shouldn't be so bad. I may be moving to Missouri, which I guess has a little Southern mixed with Mid-western in it. I'm going to try to move out west at some point. Somewhere like Colorado or Wyoming.

 

[poopaskoopa]

I want to say not that important, but reality is that I probably would be most comfortable living in a urban/suburban setting in the US. And I'm not American. I wouldn't miss American food in general, though. Especially that stupidass turkey tradition on Thanksgiving. The pilgrims should have gone with fried chicken or steak and shrimp with rice.

Sometimes I wonder what my "native" culture is. I grew up in Japan but I've lived more than half my life in the US since, so when I "go back home" to Japan to visit the family, there are times that I definitely feel like a foreigner. I feel bad about that when I'm there, but not in a profound way. More like in the "I should eat more vegetables" or "exercise more" way.

 

[Ruptga]

I'm too much of a mutt to claim a native culture in reality anywhere I guess.

Just Merican

Murrican absolutely is a culture of its own. Some of its most cherished tenets are guns, god, and cheap beer.

I'm not too big on it myself, though it is also my heritage.

 

[pete6032]

It has become relatively more important to me now that I live in a place where my ethnic heritage is not the predominant ethnic heritage.

 

[Jodell88]

My culture oozes through my entire country.