Talk:Americanization

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[edit] Un-Categorized Comments

For example, there is a widely held belief in Australia that "American spellings" are a modern intrusion. Because of a backlash to the perceived Americanization of Australian English, there is now a trend to reinsert the "u" in words such as harbor/harbour, color/colour, flavor/flavour, honor/honour, etc..

When were the u's ever used in Australia? Australia has always used an English which is closer to British English than U.S. --Kuan 02:20, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Doesn't this also refer to immigrants becoming a part of American culture in America? --Anon

Yes, that is the definition I am most familiar with. However, the more general term of cultural assimilation would probably be where that type of info would go. --maveric149, Wednesday, July 3, 2002

Oh I love it! An article on Americanization with the British spelling. I will provide the obvious redirect. --maveric149

Americanisation is a word used by non-Americans. Both s and z spellings are valid in British English though some countries prefer one over the other with the s being predominant. Hence I think this should instead be spelt using the spelling that people who use the word would use: Americanisation. --Kuan 02:00, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Americanisation is the a term used for the perceived influence America has on the culture of other countries, substituing local culture with something of an American culture.

I removed "perceived" from the above sentence, as it implies that the idea of this influence is not grounded in reality. I think it's quite obvious that US culture has an enormous impact on the world. The debatable issues are 1) does the United States actively persue Americanization, or is it embraced, and 2) is it a bad thing? --Stephen Gilbert

I think "percieved" should be re-added. There is no confusion. It means what it says. Simply that there may or may not be an influence. Not that it is not grounded in reality. It is hard to define what Americanized means. Such as in negative circumstances like Britain's increasing love for fast food is often mentioned Americanization. But this could be debated. So even more reason to add the word back in. No doubt it has had an anormous impact on the world, but isn't it meaning more "in the present" rather than things like medicine. Because not only America has medicine and sanitation. I think it's more about general culture. (this is also in reply to crazytalk below) Papa leaf 05:52, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Shouldn't this be under its American spelling?

w/o objection...--Jiang

I object to the sentence:

"It [Americanization] is often used in a negative context."

What about people using cell phones, automobiles and Smallpox vaccinations? People using those items are not known to curse America for making their life better (I have no idea who discovered Smallpox vaccines, but you get my jist). Also, the term "often", if used, should be backed up by sources. I replaced the sentence with:

"When encountered unwillingly or perforce, it has a negative connotation; when sought voluntarily, it has a positive connotation."

To me, that sentence lets the world have the good with the bad, although it still seems a bit dark. (I did use "perforce" - one word - on purpose, rather than the two-worded "per force".) Before reverting the change, please debate here first. I know it is not a popular stance to take in this day and age, so forgive me for defending my country's honor. --CrazyTalk 01:34, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

It's a tad ironic that the three items you mention, mobile phones, cars and the smallpox vaccine, were not invented/developed in the USA. The car was invented in Germany, smallpox vaccine in the UK and mobile phones were not invented by any country on their own. But your point is still valid. Jizz 23:15, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Well, it's clear that you are desperately trying to defend your countries honour. But step back for a minute and look to see if it is insulting. We all know that when we say Americanisation we do not mean things such as inventions. Papa leaf 05:52, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

100% agree with you there. This page is not about the good things which the U.S. does in the world. No one calls those things Americanisation. When the term Americanisation is used it is used negatively most of the time. This article should be written by non-Americans as they are not the ones which use the term. --Kuan 01:55, 20 February 2007 (UTC)


Wouldnt it be less ambiguous to call it "US culture" than "american culture"? The term american is ambiguous as it also refers to the other people of the continent besides the US residents. If theres no opposing it, I suggest that it be changed for clarifying purposes.LtDoc 01:56, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Amen. logologist 02:23, 29 July 2005 (UTC)
This debate has been done to death. In the English language, "American" is the proper adjective for things from the U.S. It's unfortunate and potentially confusing, but so are a lot of things in English, and it's not for an NPOV encyclopedia to try to change usage. Best, Meelar (talk) 13:48, July 29, 2005 (UTC)

Aside from "unfortunate" and "potentially confusing", you forgot "culturally imperialistic" and "offensive". I could thorw in "appopriation" and some the very Americanization of the Latin America (by a huge pressure applied by the US) to the causes of it. Besides that, "US culture" is a term which causes no confusion whatsoever, isnt offensive to anybody, and more than adequately substitutes the term "american". Also, I do believe that is due to a NPOV encyclopedia to minimize its bias in the articles. If it is not for a encyclopedia to do so, whom should do it??? So far we have a pro-change of 2-1.LtDoc 22:14, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

LtDoc, I think the article would be much the worse if it did not reflect worldwide ussage. However, the association of the word "America" for the US is perhaps one of the prime examples of Americanization and the article should probably call attention to that. In any case as, unfortunate word ussages go, I think many uses of the term cultural imperialism ranks up there (along with the afforementioned use of America) in the worst of list do to its ambiguity and appropriation (i.e. it means other things than the cultural component of the historical practice of imperialism).Sammydirectproduct 15:25, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Well I am British too and don't like the suggested use of "US culture", but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed. This is not a British Encyclopedia and it doesn't need to be done our way, it should be done in a way that it is factual and makes sense to everyone. America does after all include North,South and Central America.. HOWEVER, I don't feel it needs to be changed because it states in the first line "the influence of the UNITED STATES of America" on other countries. Perhaps a bit could be added about the influence the US has on other parts of America? Like the Americanisation of Latin America that has been mentioned.

Let me ask the Brits here something. Isn't the "appropriation" of a larger geographical entity (America) as the toponym and adjectival form of a nation-state (with which many geographical "Americans" would not want to be associated) similar to the appropriation of the larger geographical term "British" (refering to the entire British Isles, which include Ireland, Mann, and the Channel Islands) to refer to a particular political entity, with which many under other governments (Ireland, etc.) would not want to be associated? In fact, there are many countries which appropriate larger geographical entities (Columbia, Syria, Macedonia, Dominican Republic, Ireland, etc.) or racial/linguistic families (Turkey, Iran, etc.) as the name of their states. These sometimes cause confusion or dispute, but should we stop calling Marquez a "Columbian" writer because it hurts Hugo Chavez's feelings? It seems to me it would be more invidious to name your state something which does the opposite, which necessarily leaves out some indigenous group in the nomenclature (ie. Hindustan, Russia, Israel, etc.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.21.67.158 (talk) 13:13, 8 February 2008 (UTC)



sould the americanization of anime be put in this article or sould there be a seprate one

It already kinda has been, at the start of the Media section. WikiSlasher 13:42, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Picture

What we need here is a picture of someone eating a McDonald's sandwich in front of a cinema with blockbuster posters, preferably on the Champs Elysees or something like that... Jules LT 21:25, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] influence of culture / assimilation of immigrants split

Americanization's two meanings are completely distinct, so I think the article should be split into

  • Americanisation(assimilation) (purely US phenomenon, so you have US spelling)
  • and Americanization(influence)

Or something like that. The first one would be quickly populated with the US-specific information in cultural assimilation and the information in melting pot that isn't specific to the word. Jules LT 15:23, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

US spelling would be with a "z", and UK with a "S", so shouldn't it be Americanization(assimilation) and Americanisation(influence) (the latter being a phenomenon said to affect non-US countries)? Andjam 15:21, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
You're right. Anyway, this article must be split. I wish I had the time Jules.LT 17:12, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
The article should be split, but I'm in the same boat as Jules here.ProfessorFokker 09:11, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Split theres a difference between Americanization of a country and Cultural Americanization.

[edit] /* Anime */

The Harem Jutsu was intact in the Naruto dub, so the example really doesn't work. I'm too lazy to find another example, could someone else do this? SA9097

....What are you talking about?

Don't be meanies, he's askings a question >< he mighta justs put it in the wrong place or stuffies...I don't watch Naruto so I dunnos..maybes you could try asking your question on the Naruto page? o.o ~ SnuggleBunny 19:24, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Self-Reference

"The title of this article is itself ironically an Americanisation as the spelling of the word used first is indicative of American English dominating the Wikipedia project."

Isn't there a rule against self-referencing Wikipedia in the articles (if not, there should be, it's a little jarring)? Plus, I don't think it's very ironic that the article discussing a phenomenon would itself be an instance of that phenomenon; for example, an article on the English language wouldn't make the statement, "this article is ironically written in that very language." This sentence should be removed. 138.69.160.1 14:41, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Rule or not, the sentence is nonsense. I removed it. --Cultural Freedom talk 2006-06-29 14:45 (UTC)

[edit] This article contradicts itself, or at least is incomplete.

The entire "Media" section talks about changing material for the American culture, while both definitions at the top define Americanization as changing culture itself to become more American. Neither the American culture nor the American audience, can become Americanized. Neither can the culture which provided the material that's changed. The BBC wouldn't have been Americanized if NOVA had changed "maize" to "corn". And if the BBC isn't forced to change, then there's no Americanization occurring, according to the two definitions provided.

Is the answer to this contradiction to add a new definition which means making something from another culture palatable to American audiences or consumers? The disambig argument gets stronger, if that's done. 198.49.180.40 19:37, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] OR?

I had hoped for far more from this article: sample questions from U.S. citizenship exams, statistics on United States novels in foreign translation, or a survey of U.S. television shows in international syndication. Quite frankly this page says far more about the spread of American culture than what I read here - and the few assertions about United States media are unsourced and dubious. One could dispute the claims by noting how the United States is one of the few countries where the standard method of screening foreign language films is with subtitles rather than dubbing, or by tracking the influence that international box office receipts have had in de-Americanizing American motion pictures, or by contesting that Hollywood remakes certain foreign language pictures for economic rather than cultural reasons: the United States is the only country whose domestic market is large enough to finance the highest level of production values. Having read that section with gritted teeth, I scrolled down in search of something better and found nothing. Surely this article could improve. 72.199.30.31 10:27, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merging of Articles

The Americanization page and the other Americanization page are basically the same thing. They should be merged into one article entitled Americanization. Also, in the Americanization (immigration) page, the trivia section says the exact same thing as the Americanization (foreign culture and media) page does. I'm somewhat of a Wikipedia noob, and I've never merged an article or anything, but I guess I'll attempt it now or in the near future...or should I wait for a response...? Ah, whatever I'm just going to leave this comment and if nothing happens for a few days I'll probably just try merging them myself. I'm not even sure if I wrote my signature properly :( -- Arnesh 02:43 16 November 2006

I think it would be better to make disambiguation page as it has more than one meaning. GeoW 10:30, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Language

I woud like to see a section on the Americanization of the English language i.e. usin Z's in stead of S's center versus centre etc etc "Snorkel | Talk" 09:17, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Writing systems

I've commented out the writing systems tag. Can anyone justify this tag at all? If not, I'll entirely remove it. -- FrederikVds 14:38, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Requested move

IMO, this should be moved to Americanisation. This article applies to all countries in the world, except the US, so using US spelling is a little paradoxical. -- FrederikVds 14:38, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Oppose per WP:ENGVAR. Of course this article concerns the United States - its actions are what cause the phenomenon internationally. Americanization can be observed in the immigrant population of the United States as well. It's not necessary to move from a stable title here. Dekimasuよ! 02:16, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
  • Oppose Shouldn't the fact that the article is about American influence in other countries mean it should also use American spelling? As Dekimasu pointed out, it's also about the influence on immigrants in the US as well. TJ Spyke 03:33, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
  • Oppose per Dekimasu and TJ Spyke exactly.--Húsönd 00:28, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

It was requested that this article be renamed but there was no consensus for it be moved. --Stemonitis 09:04, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Some Changes

I've made a few changes to the article as i feel it could be quiet a good article. Its my first time editing a page so be easy. I added a section regarding big american business and the influence they have on the world stage, also i have added a bit to media regarding us tv shows. I hope to add more about hollywood and american movies abroad, please let me know what you think of the changes, thanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Davewit13 (talk • contribs) 01:22, August 22, 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Just saying...

That can of soda picture at the beginning, doesn't look like a real soda brand. I think it is from a television program of film. Do you actually think there is a brand of soda called "U.S. Soda"??? It's clearly not an authentic example. If you are going to have an example, it should be of something that isn't from a set. Contralya 21:13, 17 October 2007 (UTC)


I'll point you towards This link [1] 80.6.241.155 19:52, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] American boasts

IMHO this article seems to be more about America's achievements and seems to be somewhat boastful. It doesn't seem to have much to do with 'Americanisation'. I think you'll find that 'Americanisation' has more of a negative meaning around the world, as most people see it as an intrusion on their own cultures. I think that this article should be changed to convey that. I don't mean to offend anyone, but what I say is pretty much a universal truth. Zestos (talk) 22:40, 6 March 2008 (UTC) Zestos 22:40, 06 March 2008 (UTC)

Point me in the direction of some links that back up this so called 'universal truth'. I mean links that prove without a shadow of a doubt that every living thing in the UNIVERSE agrees with what you claim is the truth. Good luck and thanks in advance! AnonEditor —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.213.193.16 (talk) 07:45, 17 April 2008 (UTC)