Five Things About My Culture
Aug. 11th, 2008 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I first saw this in
sparkymonster's journal, and most recently in
griffen's.
List 5 things which are basic common knowledge in your culture, which people outside are unfamiliar with. This is not about obscurity, but something everyday to you, that others go "bzuh?" at.
Ah, but what is my culture? I'm an immigrant! I've got more than one! And I like to talk, so here are at least two sets:
As I've experienced it, anyway. :)
1. Steak is cooked in sauce in a pan, until fork tender.
2. Everyone used to have livestock, even in the city; goats still roam Kingston, afaik. Middle-and-upper class people do this less these days, but everyone has fruit trees they eat from, etc.
3. The hottest weather is no reason not to have a big bowl of soup.
4. It is an acceptable option for parents to leave their children with trusted friends or relatives for months or years, so that the parents may do a long-term project that might not be a good environment for their kids. (Like going to another country to work but not to settle, for instance.)
5. When writing a letter home, it is very strongly recommended that one include some money. That may be more of an immigrant thing than a Jamaican thing, though.
Well, really, having grown up in NYC. On rereading, most of these aren't true in Boston.
1. Lock your doors.
2. Get out of people's way.
3. Public transit is a way of life.
4. It's not actually that people are all bad. They just could be, so a modicum of wariness is sensible.
5. Jaywalking is a fine art, to be accomplished with one's brain on. If they hit you and you were being an idiot, it's your fault.
I'd say more, but Eva (sitting on my lap) keeps trying to type!
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List 5 things which are basic common knowledge in your culture, which people outside are unfamiliar with. This is not about obscurity, but something everyday to you, that others go "bzuh?" at.
Ah, but what is my culture? I'm an immigrant! I've got more than one! And I like to talk, so here are at least two sets:
As I've experienced it, anyway. :)
1. Steak is cooked in sauce in a pan, until fork tender.
2. Everyone used to have livestock, even in the city; goats still roam Kingston, afaik. Middle-and-upper class people do this less these days, but everyone has fruit trees they eat from, etc.
3. The hottest weather is no reason not to have a big bowl of soup.
4. It is an acceptable option for parents to leave their children with trusted friends or relatives for months or years, so that the parents may do a long-term project that might not be a good environment for their kids. (Like going to another country to work but not to settle, for instance.)
5. When writing a letter home, it is very strongly recommended that one include some money. That may be more of an immigrant thing than a Jamaican thing, though.
Well, really, having grown up in NYC. On rereading, most of these aren't true in Boston.
1. Lock your doors.
2. Get out of people's way.
3. Public transit is a way of life.
4. It's not actually that people are all bad. They just could be, so a modicum of wariness is sensible.
5. Jaywalking is a fine art, to be accomplished with one's brain on. If they hit you and you were being an idiot, it's your fault.
I'd say more, but Eva (sitting on my lap) keeps trying to type!
And hey
Date: 2008-08-11 03:51 pm (UTC)"Bzuh?" moments for me
Date: 2008-08-11 04:01 pm (UTC)Truth be told, I'm afraid of livestock (and, to be honest, most animals). The house I grew up in had fruit trees in the back yard, but most of the fruit went uneaten. We didn't trust it.
Re: "Bzuh?" moments for me
Date: 2008-08-11 05:25 pm (UTC)If you live in a place where there's substantial lead contamination in the soil, you probably shouldn't trust foodstuffs grown in it. Common sources of lead contamination include:
1. Lead paint that's flaked off of older houses over the years and decades. Lead paint was banned in the 1970s some time, so if your house was constructed after then and/or the trees are sufficiently far away from the house you're probably good.
2. Near the road, the soil is often contaminated with lead from the exhaust of cars that used leaded gas in decades past. I don't know exactly when leaded gas was banned; IIRC it was the late 1980s sometime, with the phase-out starting in the early 70s. The extent to which this is a problem is a function of when the road was constructed (later is better) and how heavy the traffic is/was on it during the time when leaded gasoline was in use.
Of course, YMMV; if there's an EPA Superfund site down the road or upriver from you, you might have other, bigger problems.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 04:23 pm (UTC)I'm contemplating doing this meme myself, but can't quite decide from which perspective. Currently, I'm an immigrant (albeit a highly privileged one), and so many if not most of the things I take for granted make the people around me go 'bzuh?' But my self-perception is still that of an American, so maybe I should try it as if I still lived in the States...::ponders::
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Date: 2008-08-11 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 04:55 pm (UTC)In Trinidad, too! :D I was amazed by the soup section!
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Date: 2008-08-11 05:09 pm (UTC)My mother is from upper-class ranch background (which is to say, she is from a background where being a rancher counts as upper class) and sees nothing odd about keeping livestock, but everywhere else I go it seems to be regarded as something you only do in abject poverty (and very low class, dear.) It's a bit weird.
I wonder if I should try doing one for the prairies?
no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 06:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 05:19 pm (UTC)yeah, on big-city culture:
(1.) I'm continually shocked by the number of people who post to
(2.), In Boston, the rule seems to be to stop just inside doors, at the top of an escalator, etc., to have a half-hour kaffee klatsch, and give dirty looks to people who say "excuse me" and try to get by.
(5.), In Boston the rule is to step off the curb, either mid-block or contrary to the indications of any traffic lights in the immediate vicinity, in front of an automobile that's traveling at the 30mph speed limit, while you're yakking on your cell phone and consuming your morning latté. Do not look up at the sound of screeching tires as the driver attempts to stop. If the driver sounds the horn, give him or her the dirtiest look imaginable, as if to say, "How DARE you drive your DIRTY, FILTHY *hock* *spit* AUTOMOBILE down MY street!"
no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 11:41 pm (UTC)Thanks a lot for sharing and for the link to
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 04:43 am (UTC)Jaywalking
Date: 2008-08-13 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-14 12:50 pm (UTC)Belgians often have livestock in the suburbs. This was a surprise to me. Finns don't. Nice clean modern houses with a goat behind it. We didn't do it in Finland. Goats were only in the countryside.
We also lock our doors and get out of people's way and use a lot of public transport. The getting out of way is more out of politeness. Also, Finns don't make eye-contact with strangers on the street, unless they speak to them first; it would be rude. And if you speak to a stranger on the street, you should have a better reason than trying to find someone to chat with, because then you're not only rude but also weird. :D