Welcome to E-com Monthly Intro to American culture.
I'm Marcellus.
And I'm Heather.
Now, we're in the month of September and in America right now, it's back-to-school season.
And what that means is, a lot of students who were on summer vacation are now going back to school.
That's right. So, going back to school, high school, elementary school, also going back to the universities.
Which may be hours and hours away from your home.
So back to school time, means good sales, right?
That's right.
Usually around September, particularly in the beginning of September,
also the end of August, you find a lot of great sales.
Back-to-school sales is what they're called.
And a lot of items are half-priced off, because students need new clothes for the new school year.
They need books and writing supplies, all kinds of things.
And so, everywhere you go, there's always a sale happening.
It's called a back-to-school sale.
That's right. Everything, also, for the university students,
including refridgerators and microwaves, everything.
It's a really great time for shopping.
That's right. Also, another interesting kind of idea about back to school,
is during the summertime a lot of students have summer jobs, or older students have summer jobs.
Maybe summer loves if you're a high school student or if you're a college student.
And so, going back to school sometimes can be a little bit of a downer for many people.
On the other side of that, though, a lot of people are excited, as well, to see their friends again.
That's right. Well, speaking of back to school, are you ready to get back to studying?
That's right.
Let's begin!
All right everyone, today our American culture topic is about the melting pot and religions of America.
Alright and we have three key words for you today.
The first one is: melting pot.
Alright, the second key word is: racism.
And the third one is: ethnicity, ethnicity.
Alright, so let's start with the melting pot.
And, I think, maybe this is a term that most people are aware of
and if we picture a big pot, and putting many things in the pot, and they're kind of melting together, okay.
So, America is a melting pot of many people from different places, with different beliefs.
Alright, and so let's look at the 2008 census, alright.
We have 65% of Americans are white and 15% are Hispanic,
meaning they're coming from a Spanish-speaking country, such as Mexico, Columbia, Spain.
That's right, Central or South America.
And 12% are Black and 5% are Asian, okay.
That's right.
So you can see, we have a big mix of races in America, okay.
They're a melting pot, and this can lead, sometimes, to a touchy subject, which is our next key word.
Yes, that's right and a touchy subject is racism.
America is, in fact, a melting pot.
There are many people from all over the world and many of them get along absolutely fine with no problems.
We love to debate about our differences and our similarities
and many people can do that and still be great friends with someone else from a different race.
But, there are some people in America, for whatever reason, they don't like people from other races.
And so, those people we call: racist.
And, what we say, it that they're, they are practicing racism.
Now, America has a long history of struggle with racism.
With Irish immigrants, with Chinese immigrants, Japanese in internment camps during the war,
also with Black and White relationships.
Unfortunately, it's part of the American history,
but, thankfully, in modern times, you don't see quite so much of it out in the open.
You can still go to a beautiful city in America,
like New York or San Fransisco, and have a fantastic time.
That's right. We definitely study about the past problems America has had.
We study about it in school.
We try to learn about it, how to deal with it, how to celebrate each other's uniqueness
and that we're all from different places and we've come to America and can try to live together happily,
and that's, I think, the key in our situation, right?
Absolutely.
Yeah, and...
Now, that also brings up the third key word, which is ethnicity.
And that has a lot to do with nationality and also race as well.
That's right. So, we had a little bit of a debate as to what ethnicity means
and we came to the conclusion that it has a couple of different meanings, depending on the situation, okay.
So, if you have a form, such as the census or some kind of form you have to fill out
and it asks your ethnicity, probably the answers will be: White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, like that, okay.
So, that's a very simple term for ethnicity.
So, in that case, ethnicity would be refering more to what's your race.
Right.
Or how you, yourself, identify your race.
Now, if you're talking among a group of people, sometimes ethnicity can also mean nationality.
Because America's a melting pot, there are people coming from all over the world, who become American.
So, sometimes Americans ask eachother, "What's your ethnicity," meaning,
"Where does your family originally come from?"
That's right. So, for example, if you see someone in Japan and you ask,
"Oh, where are you from," or, "What's your country," and they say, "I'm American," right.
Well, they may look what you think is American, or maybe not, but, actually, anyone can be American.
That's right.
So, you can ask them to find out where their family's from or what's their history.
So you can ask, "What's your ethnicity?"
And maybe they would say, for example, "My mother is German and my father is from Korea," or something like that.
And it kind of explains their history,
because, as Americans, maybe most people are proud of their history and what they are, right.
I'm American. I'm also, I don't know, I'm...
Jamaican.
Right. That's right.
Now, that's the beautiful thing about America and its melting pot culture.
It's that you can be American, but you can also be whatever you want to be as well.
That's right.
Take care!
Okay, unfortunately, that's all the time we have today, but you know what?
This being September and being back to school season for Americans and for you, too!
Why don't you take all those new English phrases and words that you learned over the summer and put them to good use.
Also, try hard in school, keep up your work in your English classes, and whatever you do,
make sure you have fun.
Take care, bye-bye!
Good-bye!