So, before writing anything here, I made a little bubble map about the six articles/books we read during our Americana unit. I don't know how something so simple can be so messy. Here it is:
If you can't read it, that's ok. Here's the gist - I had a light-bulb moment when I was making this map. I thought to myself, "what's something that every article has in common?" Then it hit me.
The two main topics explored in more than one article are immigration and advertising. Two very different things. But they have a link: America. America has changed the world. America has done some great things. However, I noticed that these articles (aside from Made in America, which seems neutral) all seem to note how America is harming and/or 'Americanizing' not just language, but our global culture.
Let's discuss advertising first. As I covered in my last post, ads can be deceiving. Looking back at some of the articles, I've realized how mainstream this deception really is. Just look at the sheer number of weasel words - 'new', 'improved', 'like', 'virtually', 'should', 'up to', 'helps', 'works', and even more! Advertisers need to realize that these words give us a bad image - it makes us look gullible and stupid. And look at the number of big businesses that use these words in their most famous ads just in the 'quick quiz' section of one of the articles! Domino's, Advil, Cascade, Miller, Alka-Seltzer, and so many more!
But I digress. Weasel words aren't the only problem with American advertising. Americanization is, in my opinion, an even bigger problem. Both The Language of Silence and Living Abroad as an American elaborate on this topic, even though one talks about 20th-century Asia while the other talks about modern-day Europe. The two share a very common theme, though, which is that America is taking over the world - not because of war, but because of advertising. The Language of Silence really sticks out to me because it shows that not all people want to be American. When the narrator argues with the Hawaiian teacher about politics and songs and it just feels super awkward and forced, I saw the cultural shift, the rich Chinese culture being shrouded by an American mask.
That's the problem with America right now. Made in America explains it best when it lists out all of the many words that have entered our vernacular from foreign languages. We call our country a 'melting pot', but it's more like America is a bottle of water and all of the foreign countries are salt. We absorb these countries and their languages and their cultures, but the salt dissolves and leaves America looking the same.
So, to sum it up, I don't think this is about how the English language has changed over time, exactly. I would describe it more as absorption. And, soon enough, our language will have either absorbed every other language and culture or simply made them obsolete. So, at some point, I think that our identity will be the same as that of every other country - either you live in the US, or you live in a version of the US that simply has a different-looking flag. So, in conclusion, I believe that all of the articles, combined together, show that America is not just a melting pot, but the whole kitchen. We have changed, and not for the better.
Soon, if we aren't careful, every one of these 200+ flags will represent the same country - America.
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