Essential Question: How have other communities shaped the US?
Bryn Weiler
Communities from across the globe have shaped American culture. Products, customs, and ideas from other countries are so ingrained in the lives of Americans that few even notice how profoundly other cultures have influenced our own. Everything from the food we eat to the words we speak can find traces of other cultures. It is safe to say that almost every American has worn clothes made in another country, or listened to music written across the sea, or practiced a religion that originated on another continent. The American culture is truly a blend of many ethnicities.
One prominent example of how influential other countries’ cultures are on us is the food we eat. Every day, Americans eat foods that were either made or grown in another country, or were originally invented somewhere else. For example, pasta and pizza are Italian. Many Americans eat the two at least once a week. Additionally, the ubiquitous Dunkin Donuts sells croissants, a French pastry. Coffee, a staple for many Americans, originally comes from Latin America. Coffee shops such as Peet’s Coffee and Tea and Starbucks sell drinks advertised as being grown somewhere else. Peet’s currently advertises the “Angelina Nicaragua” bean, grown by a family in Nicaragua, and Starbucks sends tea tasters across the globe to find new tea blends to bring to their stores.
It is no accident that foreign foods are a part of the average American’s diet. Americans actively pursue ethnic ingredients and food. For example, H-Mart, an Asian grocery store chain with a store in Burlington, has a parking lot that is rarely ever empty. Another grocery store that specifically stocks imported foods is Cardullo’s in Cambridge. The store imports Cadbury chocolate from the UK. In New York City, a restaurant flies in macaroons made fresh in France every day. Restaurants that specialize in ethnic food are also popular. In Lexington alone, there are Thai, Chinese, Indian, and Italian restaurants. There are many international restaurants in the greater Boston area as well. For example, Tango of Arlington sells Argentinian food. Cambridge boasts Greek, Mexican, Algerian, Tunisian, as well as the popular Chinese and Indian restaurants.
Although American music is popular in other countries, there are more international artists popular in America than one would expect. Everyone knows the famous bands that hail from the United Kingdom such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Coldplay, U2 and One Direction. Additionally, the tune of the national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner”, was written by John Stafford Smith, also a Briton. Belgian singer Gotye sings on the radio frequently with his song “Somebody that I Used to Know”. France boasts bands such as Daft Punk and Phoenix. Sweden’s ABBA had a Billboard Top 100 song, “Dancing Queen”. Even Justin Beiber is Canadian. Asian music is also popular in the US, even though the majority of Americans don’t speak Asian languages. For example, “Gangam-Style” by PSY from Korea has been hovering at the top of iTunes’s “most downloaded” for over a week.
The most practiced religions in America came from either the Middle East or India. Seventy-six to eighty percent of Americans identify as Christian, which originated in the Middle East. Judaism and Islam also originated in the Middle East. Other popular religions in the United States are Hinduism and Buddhism, both which come from India.
American government is even based off of French ideas. The American constitution was inspired by French Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke and his 1689 writings, Two Treatises on Government. He believed that all people had a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and also that the government’s job was to protect these rights and if it failed to do so, they people had a right to overthrow their government. The American Revolution was based on this very idea; that Parliament did not give the colonists their right to representation in the legislature, so they removed themselves from British control. Another French Enlightenment philosopher, Montesquieu, believed that powers should be separated. The United States government consists of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. American government is also based off of English political ideas. The American Bill of Rights reflects the English Bill of Rights. For example, both Bills state that individuals have the right to petition and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment.
Although Americans enjoy aspects of other cultures, people worldwide reciprocally use or enjoy the few products that can be called truly American. For example, television shows made in America are popular in Europe. American football also enjoys a growing popularity in England, as baseball does in Japan. American music is popular in other countries as well; country-pop singer Taylor Swift currently has a number six song on the Billboard Top 100 in the UK. Additionally, many American companies have offices in other countries, or sell their products to other countries. For example, the fast food chain McDonalds exists in 119 countries worldwide. Although the American culture consists of traditions, ideas, food, and music from other cultures, other communities enjoy aspects of our culture that are uniquely American.
From the beginning of United States history, America has attracted immigrants from many nations. These immigrants brought ideas and customs from their native lands and assimilated them with other nations’ cultures, creating what is now known as the American culture. What makes the way Americans live unique is its influence from other communities.
I enjoyed reading your post and I completely agree with your argument that American culture is the result of influence from other countries. Your style is succinct and to-the-point, making the response clear and focused. The evidence you used strengthened your points, especially since you chose specific and popular examples to support your argument, such as PSY’s “Gangnam Style” or the Dunkin Donuts franchise. The only criticism I would give is to be careful with tense and vary the structure of some of your sentences. Other than that, I think your response is extremely convincing and well-written. Good job for being first, too.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I will definitely work on the tenses and sentence structure!
DeleteMr. Moran- this is one of the comments I don't want graded. Thanks!
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ReplyDeleteWhoops, my previous comment seems to have been deleted. I'll try to remember what I wrote... I absolutely enjoyed your post, Bryn. Your writing style is clear and concise, and straight to the point. You knew exactly what you wanted the readers to get out of your post, and it was displayed in a thoughtful, non-biased light. Although I knew a lot of the examples (Justin Bieber being Canadian, "Gangnam Style" being Korean etc.), I learned a couple new things from your post--I had no idea the Star Spangled Banner was written by a non-American! The amount of research you put into this shows, each paragraph is filled with information proving the American "melting pot" and cultural blending. I don't have much constructive criticism, but your concluding paragraph seemed a bit choppy and rushed. Other than that, I really enjoyed reading your post! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI personally loved your post, and I found it very interesting the way you answered the question. You found a lot of facts about foreign effects on America that I had no idea about. I like the way you broke your writing up into different aspects that are affected by other communities and how you elaborated on each with such detail. I also really enjoyed how you added that other communities have been affected by US culture, such as television shows. I think that it is very important to see that it goes both ways, even though there is a stronger influence coming in than going out. Overall, I really enjoyed your writing and the ideas that you had!
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else, I enjoyed reading your post. I love how modern and relatable it is, for example how you mention H-Mart, a new store most of us have been to. Music and food are all things we are interested in, and your facts point out some things people may not know about these topics. You balance these modern facts out by bringing up the assimilation seen in the Declaration and the Bill of Rights. At first, the structure was a little confusing to me (like how you have two paragraphs about food) but later I realized that it works for this essay. It might have been helpful though to state in the introduction what your body paragraphs were going to be about. But overall this is great, and as Maya pointed out, your research really does show and it pays off!
ReplyDeleteYou make a lot of great points here, Bryn. By covering a wide range of examples, from the Enlightenment to modern pop culture, you strongly emphasize how America was created and continues to grow based on other cultures. I appreciate the research you clearly did, it allows the reader to follow along and provides legitimate evidence toward your point. My only criticism is that you may want to look closer on how this all relates back to exceptionalism, which is our focus for the whole unit. For example, if Americans draw from other countries, what does this mean about whether or not America is exceptional. When you discussed food you talked about how sometimes ingredients that are "foreign" are idolized as fancy, superior, etc...This is just another example of how your ideas might fit in to questioning exceptionalism. Overall great job!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your essay Bryn. I think your argument towards foreign influences on the US is very clear your evidence supports your argument very well. I did not have any trouble following your statements and you brought your evidence back to your thesis often, making it so I never got confused of what you were trying to say. I do have a couple minor criticisms. The first is more of a personal one. Pizza come from Italy, it came from China. Also when you say "America" or "American", it is unclear whether you are talking about the US or the American continent. I think that the arguments you made are great but I did not see any counterclaims in your essay. I would have liked to see another perspective of the topic so that it would be easier for me to agree with your argument. Just to add my thoughts, in my opinion, The US shaped itself by creating its own identity from foreign influences. Rather than simply integrating other customs into US society, we Americanize them. An example of this would be the Americanization of Chinese food. We brought in the type of cooking from a foreign influence (China) but instead of keeping it as it was, we Americanized it by changing its features such as the recipes and how we eat it. Overall, I think your essay was very well written, your argument was clear, and although there were no counterclaims, I understood your essay very well.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. It is wonderful how broadly you answer the question, from cultural to governmental issues. First on the Enlightenment, you talk about how the government was created and then you span to how current culture in America is influenced by foreign countries. Your essay is also really clear because your sentences are worded to be concise and to the point, which is also useful because you managed to cram a lot of information into a short informative essay. One criticism: I am not clear how the US would look like without other communities impacting them. The way you describe the US in this essay makes it seem that the entirety of our identity is constructed by other countries and cultures.
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