什么是美國文化?

What is American Culture?

2024-09-30 龜兔賽跑 4428 24 4 收藏糾錯&舉報

譯文簡介

網(wǎng)友：美國確實有文化，而且美國的文化比許多美國人自己意識到的要更加統(tǒng)一。這主要是因為在過去的幾十年里，美國文化逐漸成為了一種全球性的文化標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，以至于人們常常忘記了它的獨特性。但無論你走到哪里，從佛羅里達(dá)到夏威夷，再到阿拉斯加，那里的人們在外觀、穿著、行為和思維方式上都有著明顯的美國特色，盡管他們自己可能并沒有意識到這一點。在某種程度上，美國文化已經(jīng)變得如此普遍，以至于人們甚至忘記了它的存在......

正文翻譯

What is American Culture?

什么是美國文化?

評論翻譯

Jim Grupé
Could you tell me about the U.S culture?
America was created by people who ran from the poverty and tyranny of their home countries to tame a wilderness in North America. It took a lot of courage and independent spirit to do that, and you wouldn’t survive without help from your neighbors. Then they formed a government that was very protective of individual rights, to make sure no monarch or dictator could subjugate them again..
The legacy of that beginning remains today:

你能向我介紹美國的文化底蘊嗎？
美國是由那些逃離家鄉(xiāng)的貧困和壓迫，來到北美開拓荒野的人們所建立的。這需要極大的勇氣和獨立精神，沒有鄰里的幫助，生存幾乎是不可能的。隨后，他們建立了一個非常注重保護(hù)個人權(quán)利的政府，以確保再也沒有君主或獨裁者能夠征服他們。
這段歷史的遺產(chǎn)至今仍在：

Americans tend to be hard-working and materialistic. They continue to work hard to make a better life for themselves and their children. It’s called the “American work ethic”. Work is good - Idleness is bad, even if you are rich.
Americans are incredibly social. They greet you on the street for no reason. They engage in conversation at the drop of a hat. In small towns, everyone knows everyone else’s business. You can’t shut them up.
They follow “rules” and cooperate with the government and the police. It is a government, “of the people, by the people, for the people”. But it extends well beyond “government”, to things like waiting on line and being courteous in traffic.

美國人通常勤奮工作，追求物質(zhì)生活。他們努力工作，以期為自己和子女創(chuàng)造更好的生活條件，這被稱為“美國工作精神”。在他們看來，即便你已經(jīng)很富有,工作是美德，懶惰則是惡習(xí).
美國人極其社交。他們會無緣無故地在街上向你打招呼，隨時準(zhǔn)備與人交談。在小鎮(zhèn)上，每個人都對彼此的生活了如指掌，他們總是滔滔不絕。
他們遵守“規(guī)則”，與政府和警察合作。這是一個“民有、民治、民享”的政府。但這種合作精神遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出了政府范疇，比如排隊等候和在交通中的禮貌行為。

The independent streak must be genetic. If you want to anger an American, tell him he *must* do something. Doesn’t matter what it is, he’ll obxt. Americans must be convinced it’s their own idea before they’ll agree to anything. It also means they always want to be able to “do their own thing”. They really don’t want “public” anything - public transportation, public health, public whatever. They want their own that they alone can manage.
Creativity is highly valued. American schools emphasize it over memorization. A strong patent system protects people who come up with good ideas. “Rednecks” may be ridiculed for their impoverished lifestyle, but at the same time envied for their creative adaptions.

獨立精神似乎是與生俱來的。如果你想激怒一個美國人，就告訴他他必須做某事。不管這件事是什么，他都會反對。美國人必須確信這是他們自己的主意，才會同意去做。這也意味著他們總是想要能夠“走自己的路”。他們真的不喜歡“公共”的東西——公共交通、公共衛(wèi)生、公共設(shè)施等等。他們想要的是完全由自己控制的私人財產(chǎn)。
創(chuàng)造力在這里備受推崇。美國學(xué)校更重視創(chuàng)造力而不是死記硬背。強大的專利體系保護(hù)那些有好主意的人。雖然“紅脖子”可能因為他們貧困的生活方式而受到嘲笑，但同時他們因為創(chuàng)造性的適應(yīng)能力而受到羨慕。

Benjamin Yates
Do Americans have a culture?
Yes we do. It is a mixture of all the European settlers and African cultures. We didn’t steal these cultures we inherited them. And then after a few decades we made our own cultural trademarks. The Cowboy is wholly American. Our movies, music, and literature has been our number one export for years. Superhero’s, Baseball, Rock and Roll, all created by and a part of American culture. Now a lot of people seem to think white Americans have no culture, but those people are a bunch of white hating racists that think modern America should be split into white America and black American culture. That isn’t what America is. We are supposed to all be American. People need to quit that nonsense.

美國人有自己獨特的文化嗎？
當(dāng)然有。美國文化是歐洲移民和非洲文化融合的產(chǎn)物。我們并沒有竊取這些文化，而是繼承并發(fā)揚了它們。經(jīng)過幾十年的發(fā)展，我們形成了自己的文化特色。牛仔文化完全是美國獨有的。我們的電影、音樂和文學(xué)作品多年來一直是我們最重要的文化輸出。超級英雄、棒球、搖滾樂，這些都是由美國人創(chuàng)造并成為美國文化不可分割的一部分。
現(xiàn)在，有些人認(rèn)為白人美國人沒有自己的文化，但這些人其實是帶有偏見的種族主義者，他們錯誤地認(rèn)為現(xiàn)代美國應(yīng)該被劃分為白人文化和黑人文化。這種觀點并不符合美國的實際情況。我們都應(yīng)該認(rèn)同自己是美國人。人們應(yīng)該停止這種無意義的爭論。

Malcolm MacNeil
Does the United States really have a culture?
Yes it does, the US is way more culturally homogenous than Americans realise largely because over the last 50 years or so American culture has kind of become a global default and people forget it exists. But go anywhere in the US from Florida to Hawaii to Alaska and people there will look, dress, act and think like Americans even if they themselves don’t actually realise it. In some ways they’ve actually become so homogenous they forget they exist.

美國確實有文化，而且美國的文化比許多美國人自己意識到的要更加統(tǒng)一。這主要是因為在過去的幾十年里，美國文化逐漸成為了一種全球性的文化標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，以至于人們常常忘記了它的獨特性。但無論你走到哪里，從佛羅里達(dá)到夏威夷，再到阿拉斯加，那里的人們在外觀、穿著、行為和思維方式上都有著明顯的美國特色，盡管他們自己可能并沒有意識到這一點。在某種程度上，美國文化已經(jīng)變得如此普遍，以至于人們甚至忘記了它的存在。

Apart from being funny this does cause legitimate problems sometimes, when an actual foreigner like me (especially a white native English speaker from a country most Americans consider quite similar to their own) does something really weird for them but normal back home rather than realising that I don’t know what I’m doing in the US people just think I’m absolutely nuts because a lot of them can’t see how someone would exist outside of the cultural defaults that are only really common in America but Americans think everyone holds.

當(dāng)然，這種情況除了帶來一些幽默感外，有時確實會引發(fā)一些真正的問題。比如我這樣的外國人——尤其是像我這樣來自一個大多數(shù)美國人認(rèn)為與他們自己的國家非常相似的國家的白人母語英語者——做了一些在美國人看來非常奇怪的事情，但在我自己的國家卻很正常。美國人并沒有意識到我在美國可能不知道應(yīng)該怎么做，他們只是覺得我瘋了，因為很多人無法理解，怎么會有人在沒有美國文化默認(rèn)習(xí)慣的情況下生活，而這些習(xí)慣在美國人看來是全球普遍存在的。

Kelly La Rue
What defines American culture?
Anything is possible.
A world traveler once told me the one sentence she never heard in America is “It can’t be done”.
This can do attitude permeates the entire culture here. If we can envision it then it can be made so.
It is so engrained that we don’t notice it much less talk about it but if you want something you can get it or are at least free to try and it’s good to dream big.

美國文化的核心是什么？
那就是“一切皆有可能”。
一位環(huán)球旅行者告訴我，她在美國從未聽到過的一句話是“這是不可能的”。
這種積極進(jìn)取的態(tài)度貫穿了整個美國文化。如果我們能夠想象得到，那么就有可能實現(xiàn)它。
這種信念已經(jīng)深入人心，我們很少意識到它，也很少談?wù)撍?，但如果你有夢想，你就可以去追求，至少你有機會去嘗試，而且有夢想總是好的。

Steve Hirsch
Could anybody tell me about American culture?
I don't think of America as having one culture. We have many cultures. It's Louis Armstrong and Bob Dylan, Herman Melville and Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Martin Scorsese, Wody Allen and Buster Keaton, Langston Hughes and HP Lovecraft, Grant Wood and Andrew Wyeth and so many others.
We don't have one culture, we have regions. It's the plains of Texas, the Grand Tetons, the Pacific Northwest and the New England Coast, the Mississippi Delta and Chicago Blues.

有人能告訴我美國文化是什么嗎？
我不認(rèn)為美國只有一種文化，我們有多種文化。它包括了路易斯·阿姆斯特朗和鮑勃·迪倫的音樂，赫爾曼·梅爾維爾和馬克·吐溫的文學(xué)，納撒尼爾·霍桑和馬丁·斯科塞斯的電影，伍迪·艾倫和巴斯特·基頓的喜劇，蘭斯頓·休斯和H.P.洛夫克拉夫特的詩歌，格蘭特·伍德和安德魯·懷斯的繪畫，以及更多其他文化元素。
我們不只有一種文化，我們有各個地區(qū)的獨特文化。它是德克薩斯的廣闊平原，大提頓的壯麗山峰，太平洋西北的自然風(fēng)光和新英格蘭的海岸線，密西西比三角洲的藍(lán)調(diào)和芝加哥的都市文化。

It's Fried Chicken and corn bread, barbecue pork and baked beans, Starbucks and Jim Beam.
It's high brow and in bad taste. It's broadly popular and barely recognized. It's uplifting but sacrilegious.
American culture is whatever we make and call culture.
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." Walt Whitman

它是炸雞和玉米面包，烤豬肉和烤豆，星巴克咖啡和占邊威士忌。
它是高雅藝術(shù)，也是通俗娛樂。它是廣受歡迎的大眾文化，也是小眾的隱秘發(fā)現(xiàn)。它既鼓舞人心，又可能帶有褻瀆。
美國文化是我們創(chuàng)造并稱之為文化的一切。
“我矛盾嗎？很好，那么我就矛盾吧，我寬廣，我包含了無數(shù)?！薄譅柼亍せ萏芈?/b>

Philip Moss
Independence. Americans strongly believe in the concept of individualism. They consider themselves to be separate individuals who are in control of their own lives, rather than members of a close-knit, interdependent family, religious group, tribe, nation, or other group.
Equality. The American Declaration of Independence states that “all [people] are created equal,” and this belief is deeply embedded in their cultural values. Americans believe that all people are of equal standing, and are therefore uncomfortable with overt displays of respect such as being bowed to.

獨立性。美國人深信個人主義，他們視自己為獨立自主的個體，能夠掌控自己的命運，而不是緊密相連、相互依賴的家庭、宗教團體、部落、民族或其他集體的成員。
平等。美國《獨立宣言》中“人人生而平等”的理念，已經(jīng)深入人心，成為他們文化價值觀的核心。美國人認(rèn)為每個人都應(yīng)享有平等的地位，因此對于過分的禮節(jié)，如鞠躬等，會感到不自在。

Informality. This belief in equality causes Americans to be rather informal in their behavior towards other people. Don’t be surprised if store clerks and waiters introduce themselves by their first names. Many people visiting the US are surprised by the informality of American speech, dress, and posture. Don’t mistake this for rudeness or irreverence; it’s just a part of their culture!
Directness. Americans tend to value, frankness and openness in their dealings with other people. They believe that conflicts and disagreements are best solved by means of forthright discussion among the people involved. Americans believe that if someone has a problem with someone else, they should tell the person clearly and directly in order to come up with a solution to the problem.

非正式性。平等的理念使得美國人在與人交往時表現(xiàn)得相當(dāng)隨意。不要驚訝于店員和服務(wù)員會用他們的名字來介紹自己。許多初到美國的人會對美國人在言談、著裝和舉止上的隨意感到驚訝。不要把這種隨意誤解為無禮或不敬，這僅僅是他們文化的一部分。
直接性。美國人在與人交往時，傾向于坦率和直截了當(dāng)。他們認(rèn)為，通過直接的溝通和討論，可以最好地解決沖突和分歧。如果對某人有意見，美國人相信應(yīng)該清晰、直接地表達(dá)出來，以便找到解決問題的方法。

Ylli Shqiptari
Does the United States really have a culture?
Yes it does
A lot of the modern musical styles you see like Rock, Rap, Jazz, Pop, and Country all originate from the United States.
A lot of the modern clothing styles typically comes from the United States.

美國確實擁有獨特的文化。
你如今所聽到的許多現(xiàn)代音樂風(fēng)格，如搖滾、說唱、爵士、流行和鄉(xiāng)村，都起源于美國。
許多流行的現(xiàn)代服飾風(fēng)格也源自美國。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://top-shui.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

Various sports like basketball, skateboarding, surfing all come from the United States.
Various foods like steak, Hamburgers (created by German-Americans but still invented here), and other foods associated with America are a byproduct of American culture.
And lastly the people who constitute this nation and whose ancestors built this nation with their hands constitute America. People who sailed their ships and build up cities from nothing, from New York to Boston, or whose ancestors braved across the frontier into the wilderness with no GPS or modern technologies to aid them, and built up cities there and created their own regional cultures.

籃球、滑板、沖浪等眾多體育運動也都來自美國。
從牛排到漢堡（雖然是由德裔美國人發(fā)明，但確實是在這里誕生的），以及其他與美國相關(guān)的食物，都是美國文化的一部分。
最后，構(gòu)成這個國家的人民及其祖先用雙手建立了美國。他們乘船從無到有地建立了城市，從紐約到波士頓，或者他們的祖先在沒有GPS或現(xiàn)代科技的幫助下，勇敢地穿越邊界，進(jìn)入荒野，建立城市并創(chuàng)造了各自的地方文化。

It’s a very postmodernist way of thinking that america has no culture and rather ignorant. America has defined itself as a melting pot of various European cultures which became the present American culture we see today with other elementary added onto it later. America has a culture, and its western culture, defined by western customs, clothing, laws, and attitudes. It is a republic, a form of western government. America in essence is a nation regardless of how hard globalists try to erode or downplay the significant importance of nations. America is a relatively young nation, but it is a nation that has built itself up over the centuries. Every nation has its origin, and America’s origin comes from the initial British settlers (and later Dutch, German, and European settlers) as evident by America’s culture.

認(rèn)為美國沒有文化的這種觀點非常后現(xiàn)代主義，，這種看法顯得相當(dāng)無知。美國自我定義為一個融合了多種歐洲文化的熔爐，這些文化形成了我們今天所看到的美國文化，并在后期加入了其他元素。美國確實擁有自己的文化，那就是以西方習(xí)俗、服裝、法律和態(tài)度為特征的西方文化。作為一個共和國，它屬于西方政府的形式。無論全球主義者如何努力削弱或淡化國家的重要性，美國本質(zhì)上仍然是一個國家。雖然美國相對年輕，但它在幾個世紀(jì)中不斷發(fā)展壯大。每個國家都有自己的起源，而美國的起源則可以追溯到最初的英國移民（后來還有荷蘭、德國和其他歐洲移民），這一點在美國文化中得到了充分體現(xiàn)。

Charlene Brooker
That is just crap. I live in Iowa and we had all German-speaking schools in some areas up until the 1960s. There are instances of people born in Pennsylvania that never learned English. I lived in an Italian neighborhood and most of the older generation never learned English. We have never had a State language and half the West was Mexico and Spain at one time. I made my kids take Spanish in high school. My German son-in-law knows 7 languages. It shows your lack of intelligence if you only know one.

這簡直是胡說八道。我住在愛荷華州，某些地區(qū)的德語學(xué)校一直存在到1960年代。有些出生在賓夕法尼亞的人甚至從未學(xué)過英語。我曾住在一個意大利社區(qū)，那里很多老一輩的人也不會說英語。我們從來沒有官方的州語言，西部的一半曾經(jīng)是墨西哥和西班牙的領(lǐng)土。我讓我的孩子在高中學(xué)習(xí)西班牙語，而我的德國女婿會說七種語言。如果你只會一種語言，那說明你缺乏智力。

AHH AH
BREAKING: Local Iowan man unable to comprehend that an area as large as the United States might have proportionally different languages spoken depending on what area you live in. It must be noted that the aforementioned Iowan also lists radical outliers in an attempt to further his claims.

突發(fā)新聞：一位愛荷華州的居民難以理解，像美國這樣幅員遼闊的國家，不同地區(qū)可能會有不同的語言使用習(xí)慣。值得注意的是，這位愛荷華州居民還列出了一些極端的個例，試圖以此來支持他的觀點。

Ylli Shqiptari
I think the problem with modern America is that the government and institutions don’t encourage assimilation.
I always hear about how the Poles, Irish and Italians mass migrated to America from the 1870–1950s, but what these liberal talking points don’t acknowledge is that all of these groups assimilated into American culture rather quickly and became an invaluable part of American society

我覺得現(xiàn)代美國面臨的一個問題是，政府和相關(guān)機構(gòu)并不鼓勵人們?nèi)谌胫髁魑幕?br /> 我們經(jīng)常聽到關(guān)于19世紀(jì)70年代到20世紀(jì)50年代波蘭人、愛爾蘭人和意大利人大規(guī)模移民美國的故事，但這些自由派的討論往往忽略了一個事實：這些群體迅速融入了美國文化，并很快成為美國社會寶貴的一部分。

Post-1990, the establishment has begun propagating that people don’t “melt into” America and instead ghettoize themselves into ethnic enclaves and create racial/ethnic conflict. This has led to racial and ethnic based gangs to gain a foothold during the 1990s and 2000s.

自1990年代以來，一些權(quán)威機構(gòu)開始宣揚一種觀念，即人們不再像過去那樣融入美國社會，而是選擇自我隔離，形成民族聚居區(qū)，從而引發(fā)種族或民族間的沖突。這種趨勢導(dǎo)致了基于種族和民族的幫派在1990年代和2000年代逐漸壯大。

Not to mention the education system and media are totally compromised, they don’t serve the benefit of the public but their donors.
Regardless of interracial couples (White-Asian, Black-Hispanic, etc), this doesn’t seem to solve the complex issues of racial strife in America today (2021)
Regardless of their fawning over Canada, Canada is arguably facing a faster ethnic dilution than America since Canada advertises itself as a mosaic not a uniform culture

更不用說，教育體系和媒體已經(jīng)完全受到操控，它們不再是為了公眾的利益服務(wù)，而是服務(wù)于它們的資助者。
無論跨種族夫婦（比如白人與亞裔、黑人與拉丁裔等）如何增多，這似乎并沒有解決當(dāng)今美國（2021年）面臨的種族沖突的復(fù)雜問題。
盡管人們對加拿大贊不絕口，但加拿大可能正面臨比美國更快的民族融合問題，因為加拿大將自己定位為一個多元文化的馬賽克，而不是一個單一的文化。

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