Since moving to London two years ago from the United States, I feel like I've had a lot of practice in debating. Not just myself on how I feel towards my own country and my current one, but also other people. However I sometimes feel like I have to defend things that don't necessarily want to. One of them comes in the form of American Culture (if there is such a thing) from TV shows and movies.
Our TV shows and movies seem to be judged more harshly or favorably. I think this is unfair, whether it's for the better or worse. I'm sure there's TV shows in the U.K. that are horrible and would force me to make certain judgments about the country as a whole (and the same goes even with the good TV shows), as well as in Spain, Italy, Poland, etc. Countries shouldn't be judged based on TV shows and movies but on the other hand, it's got to tell something minute about the country and its people, if not it wouldn't be watched or popular or even made at all. Obviously I don't condone judging people on such trivial things as TV shows but out of all the different kinds of people I've met while over here, the one thing that sadly unites us all are the TV series we watch. It doesn't matter if you're English, Turkish or Indian, we all still watch Lost, Heros, and so on.
But that being said, when a topic or action is portrayed in a TV series and someone from a different or even same nationality doesn't agree with it or understand it, it doesn't mean it's unintelligent or wrong or, most importantly, speaks for the country or people as a whole (same goes with politics!). There are so many times I've been watching an American TV show or movie and they mention a food product or phrase that I haven't heard of or don't necessarily know of. My boyfriend looks to me for help and I have to tell him “I don't know”. He tends to not believe me but I think things like that depend on where you're from, your background, and what you've been exposed to.
If someone in a TV show calls soda, “pop”, of course I'm not going to immediately know what it is just like someone from Greece or France would have to scratch their head for awhile. That's just one example of words that are not familiar in my area. however I'm from NYC and the words and slang varies even from the city to upstate NY, sometimes no less than an hour away. Maybe our regions aren't as diverse as those in Spain or Italy or other countries but they are still different. And whether you're watching an American TV show or movie with a New Yorker, Texan or Minnesotan there are always going to be words, phrases and ideas we don't share. The U.S. is a big country, I don't expect someone from Germany or Sweden to know every single detail about every area and every culture in their country, so why would that be expected of an American when we are literally and figuratively such a vast country.
