Uh oh, culture clash

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by Fazor

OP, in forum-talk, stands for "Original Poster" . . . the person who started the discussion.

Thanks! I didn't know.

[x mi amor x]

thank you everybody for all of your advice. I am sure it will all in small parts come into use when I do talk to her. I have not talked to her yet and have not talked to her since our conversation that we had on Friday.

CrOtALiTo: I agree with you when you say that I need to learn about his culture and him about mine. I do know some about his culture and everything because I love his culture. I learn from when he talks about Ecuador about his culture and I learn from reading books about latino culture. He knows about mine because he does live in the United States. But I do agree that my friend and I are lacking communication and this might be why we dont see eye to eye about certain things. All the time we talk about her relationship problems with her boyfriend and nothing else really, therefore, we never really have time to talk about anything else. So i think that you are right that we do need to take time to talk and communicate with eachother as friends.

irmamar: thank you. I do agree I will never let anybody change who I am, I love Spanish music and I always have loved Spanish music even before Julio came along. But I do think as well that I will talk to her and if she cant accept how I am then I might just have to leave the friendship. Not that I want to lose her friendship but if she cant accept me then whats the point of being in a friendship?

Elaina: I believe you when you say that she feels jealous. A lot of this comes, I believe, because her boyfriend and her are having troubles and right now are not together until she works on things. However, I have always loved Spanish music, and food ever since i was introduced to it. Also she is not my best friend a lot of times i wonder why i am friends with her because she likes to use me and guilt trip me into different things (ex: driving her somewhere that she needs to go because she doesnt have a car). She puts her issues on me a lot of times and its very hard to deal with because I have my own problems and then she is constantly everyday making me be somewhat like her therapist making her feel okay about what her and her boyfriend argued about or whatever. Thank you for your advice, I appriciate it.

Fazor: I agree with you as well and I think that sometimes a lot of people think that everyone else needs to think how they do. I try very hard as well to not worry about what others think but when its my friends I do sometimes take it to heart and its hard to blow that off. HAHA! THe rice thing just makes me laugh, and your right there is no such thing as REAL American food. haha.

[irmamar]

x mi amor x. I've read that you've had words for all of us. Surely, you'll have words for her.

[x mi amor x]

Originally Posted by irmamar

x mi amor x. I've read that you've had words for all of us. Surely, you'll have words for her.

haha i do hope so!

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by x mi amor x

thank you everybody for all of your advice. I am sure it will all in small parts come into use when I do talk to her. I have not talked to her yet and have not talked to her since our conversation that we had on Friday.

CrOtALiTo: I agree with you when you say that I need to learn about his culture and him about mine. I do know some about his culture and everything because I love his culture. I learn from when he talks about Ecuador about his culture and I learn from reading books about latino culture. He knows about mine because he does live in the United States. But I do agree that my friend and I are lacking communication and this might be why we dont see eye to eye about certain things. All the time we talk about her relationship problems with her boyfriend and nothing else really, therefore, we never really have time to talk about anything else. So i think that you are right that we do need to take time to talk and communicate with eachother as friends.

irmamar: thank you. I do agree I will never let anybody change who I am, I love Spanish music and I always have loved Spanish music even before Julio came along. But I do think as well that I will talk to her and if she cant accept how I am then I might just have to leave the friendship. Not that I want to lose her friendship but if she cant accept me then whats the point of being in a friendship?

Elaina: I believe you when you say that she feels jealous. A lot of this comes, I believe, because her boyfriend and her are having troubles and right now are not together until she works on things. However, I have always loved Spanish music, and food ever since i was introduced to it. Also she is not my best friend a lot of times i wonder why i am friends with her because she likes to use me and guilt trip me into different things (ex: driving her somewhere that she needs to go because she doesnt have a car). She puts her issues on me a lot of times and its very hard to deal with because I have my own problems and then she is constantly everyday making me be somewhat like her therapist making her feel okay about what her and her boyfriend argued about or whatever. Thank you for your advice, I appriciate it.

Fazor: I agree with you as well and I think that sometimes a lot of people think that everyone else needs to think how they do. I try very hard as well to not worry about what others think but when its my friends I do sometimes take it to heart and its hard to blow that off. HAHA! THe rice thing just makes me laugh, and your right there is no such thing as REAL American food. haha.

Yes, I think that the better communication between couple is the talk both person always that you feel that lack the communication in the relationship, because sometimes is very hard to take a relationship with a person who does not take in mind the relationship, therefore the always in the relationship will has problems as couple.

whatever I wish you good luck.

[ZeroTX]

I agree with your friend that you shouldn't be alone in his house with only his brother there. That could lead to some awkward situations, regardless of what country you're from.

[ZeroTX]

Originally Posted by Fazor

Oh, and as for the rice thing; you can always remind her that there's really no such thing as American food.

I have to respectfully disagree with you there. While the United States has many foods influenced by other cultures brought over by the original European immigrants to this nation, there are plenty of foods invented in the United States.

Corn Dogs - invented in Texas, 1942
Philly Cheese Steak - invented in Philadelphia
"American "Chinese Food" - Fried foods not consisting of anything Chinese
S'mores
Reuben Sandwich
Buffalo Wings
Gumbo (and most other Cajun foods)
Pecan Pie (U.S. southern states)
Hot Dogs -- you can see the German/Euro influence, but if you dare call a hotdog the same thing as a bratwurst on a bun, you might get smacked by everybody in Germany
Hamburgers
Chicago-style Pizza -- surely you can see that it's Italian influenced, but 100% American
New York-style Pizza -- ditto

The list could really go on and on especially once you get into regional dishes that bear no resemblance whatsoever to any of their European ancestry.

-Michael

[Fazor]

All (okay, so almost all) American food comes from other cultures. Pizza had itallian influence, Hamburger was western-Europe, as well as hot dogs. Gumbo is a mixture of French and island cuisine. American Chinese is "inspired by" Asian foods. etc.

The point is, it's ignorant to say that if you're an American, you shouldn't eat so much rice, you should eat American food.

[poli]

Of course all this is arguable, but what isn't arguable are products native to the Americas. Before Columbus, Europe knew nothing of corn, peppers,tomatoes, potatoes, quinoa, eggplant, tomatillos, wild rice to name just a few native American food products. They are truly products of American origin.

Some of these products are still not well known in Europe.
PS I forgot two obvious ones cocoa and avacodos.

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by poli

Of course all this is arguable, but what isn't arguable are products native to the Americas. Before Columbus, Europe knew nothing of corn, peppers,tomatoes, potatoes, quinoa, eggplant, tomatillos, wild rice to name just a few native American food products. They are truly products of American origin.

Some of these products are still not well known in Europe.
PS I forgot two obvious ones cocoa and avacodos.

Yes, you're right, but... now we've made ours (I mean: los hemos hecho nuestros )

Once I was told that when potatoes came here to Spain, people didn't want them (I suppose because they were ugly ). Then authorities enclosed the fields of potatoes, so people were more interested in them and went to steal potatoes). I don't know if this is true, but it is an anecdote someone told me.