Say you are from Norway, you would probably see the world through the eyes of a Norwegian after being shaped through its culture, history, and day-to-day life. You might have beliefs that are typical of a Norwegian.
Has any of that changed after becoming an American? Does your worldview remain the same, has it changed completely, or is it a combination of them?
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It was as if I went to America for a better life, then I had a Holliday back in my home country.
Like americas gone downhill so much and home country has improved that much that now…. I moved back….
Yo gotta chase that good life
I grew up in America, born in Russia. I love America the good, bad, and ugly. I love NC and don’t really want to leave the state
I would bet it depends a lot on what countries people are from.
My grandparents escaped fascism in Europe. My best friend’s parents were Cambodian refugees. My cousin’s wife is from England. Lol.
I feel like those all have different perspectives on what was and how they still see things.
I was born in the UK and moved to America when I was young and at this point I’m just 100% an American. I have dual citizenship but I’d never want to live anywhere but here. Although I pretty much entirely grew up in America, I would imagine things might be different if I moved here at like 15 or something.
I was born in India, immigrated the US at the age of 7, and was a naturalized citizen at 18. I visited India frequently in the meantime, and maintained pretty strong connections.
I think I became completely Americanized by the time I hit 12 or so. It’s a lot easier for kids. I’d lost my accent by 9, and as soon as I got my citizenship, I began to self-identify as American. I don’t hate India or anything, but I don’t feel a connection to the country anymore. I think it’s a natural consequence of growing up around other Americans. Most of my friends and coworkers are white.
One major effect of being from India and having traveled extensively around the world is a serious appreciation for how good we have it here. The serial complainers on Reddit have no fucking clue.
I don’t think so, because I didn’t suddenly become an American, I was planning to do so for over a decade.
I think I decided to do it when I was 16 and became a citizen at 29.
My reasons why I wanted to move changed.
And good thing they did because I’d either go back or be very depressed right now.
At first it was ideological and materialistic.
And although I still appreciate those aspects of America, it wouldn’t be enough to justify leaving my family and friends.
No matter how collectivist and poor the nation I came from was. Relationships are worth more.
I grew up in Europe, came to the US when I was almost thirty. I love this country, values, history, culture… all of it.
My world view changed so much, it’s incomparable to my previous European views. It’s surprising to me as well sometimes. If I hear that a police officer would pull me over for no reason but to “verify”, is outrageous. The idea that the government tries to control every aspect of my life like they do in Europe is just feels so bad.
When Americans talk about “freedom”, it is actually so much, most Europeans wouldn’t understand without spending some time. Cities have a lot of power on the money they collect, taxes, construction and zoning rules, school funding etc. my experience in Europe was very different and I don’t want to go back, ever. I’m willing to spend a lot of time and energy to protect the freedom here.
I was born and raised in the Philippines. Even when I was a kid, I always had that weird feeling that I didn’t belong there. I had that nagging feeling for 20 years of my life there until I moved to California. I’ve worked with American companies for years, being more often than not the only Filipino in every one of them. Even in college, I’m the only Filipino among my circle of mostly Latino friends.
A series of circumstances forced me to take up a job at a Filipino grocery store, and during my stay there I realized that I’m pretty much American in my mannerisms, speech, and identity. The Filipinos there, both employees and customers, didn’t like it one bit, calling me “whitewashed”, a traitor, accusing me of “colonial mentality”, telling me that “[I] will never be one of [the Americans]” and demanding that I “act my ethnicity”.
I vehemently refused. The Americans accepted me with open arms and without any judgment whatsoever when Filipinos by comparison would force me to adhere to a specific mold else I would be a social pariah (what they call *”walang pakisama”* or “no sense of community”). And besides, if I plan to live in America for a long time, I might as well adapt to the local customs instead of “sticking to my own kind” and stunting my potential like most of the “proud” Filipinos here.
I love being an American, and no amount of shaming from some ethnicity infamous for the “crabs in a bucket” mentality is gonna change that.
Yes, dramatically and in many ways very positively. I will list a few things I learned/ was affected by:
America is the land of law, where it’s the law that counts not personal power and clientelism like you see in most under developed countries, including mine.
American culture generally doesn’t tolerate corruption and does not tolerate dishonesty in business. Both of these are rampant where I’m from.
Americans are very shy about showing off wealth, in many parts of the world it’s the opposite. People can be very ostentatious and annoyingly showy.
Americans are extremely tolerant. It baffles me how much hate this country gets from the inside by people who simply have no idea what systematic oppression actually looks like in 2022. In my view this virtually doesn’t exist in America. I might not be seeing the whole picture since I live in a large city, but my experience has been very positive and has taught me to be far less prejudiced and judgmental.
Americans are very hard working. They work A LOT. Maybe too much sometimes. But they work hard and seem to like the idea of earning your bread. I think this is a very healthy attitude and it reinforces the idea is being independent and accountable.
Americans have never made me feel like a foreigner. They’re so accepting of me as an American that I almost have to *remind* them that I’m still technically a foreigner and I wasn’t born here and I have a whole other culture as well. Lol.
Americans are not ideological. Most people just wanna get their work done, have a beer and enjoy their 2 weeks off a year. A small group on either side of the spectrum can be ideological, but my feeling is that most Americans are satisfied with the simple pleasures and just wanna be left alone.
Americans are not evil imperialists the way many of us think them outside of here. Americans are very self-critical people who self-regulate and correct better and faster than any other people on earth. Where I’m from, we are *stubborn as heck* about our faults and we rarely admit them, much less publicly for the whole world to see as Americans do. In fact, out of all the good things, this is probably the best and least appreciated virtue of America, especially compared to other countries and especially to less developed ones.
I only list the positives because I wanna keep this light. I realize there are negatives to every country and culture, but these are the ways that my worldview was affected positively by moving to America. For better and for worse I’m so grateful that America and Americans took me and my family in and treated us as their own from day one. 🇺🇲❤🇺🇲
Edit: added 1 small thing