Is Secondlife american culture ?

[Lureo]

Before I started Second Life I thought that SL was international. But but but

 

I just notice that here in this forum most of people are american (USA+ Canada + other english countries). All is in english. If you don't understand english how can you understand the culture. If you understand a little you still don't understand.

You receive notecard with rules. You need to understand. You are ejected or banned without knowing the reason. sometimes you face agressive people just by misunderstanding.

 

So my reflexion is that. Is SL american for american. If you are not you feel stranger.

 

Why do I never meet people from Africa ? People from Russian rarely speak english and use translator or stay in they community. The diversity of SL is not really diverses. what is your experience with multucularity ? Are you american or native english at least ? I don't count countrie from notherm europe that are really english friendly.

 

[Cindy Evanier]

I am not american and don't speak american english

[Blush Bravin]

Scroll down to the International forum. 

[Ethan Paslong]

18 minutes ago, Lureo said:

 my reflexion is that. Is SL american for american. If you are not you feel stranger.

 

Why do I never meet people from Africa ? People from Russian rarely speak english and use translator or stay in they community. The diversity of SL is not really diverses. what is your experience with multucularity ? Are you american or native english at least ? I don't count countrie from notherm europe that are really english friendly.

 

not english, not american and no i don't agree to you other statements, or even other posts, they make me think that you didn't find your way in SL yet.

[Candice LittleBoots]

America is a small planet revolving around the Earth in geosynchronous orbit. The majority of the indigenous population rarely, if ever, venture beyond their own atmosphere as everything they need is within their grasp. For those that do explore their neighbouring planet (Earth) it is primarily for oil exploration or conflicts pertaining to the same, or for sex-tourism.

On the whole they seem a friendly species despite possessing deadly weapons of mass destruction and carrying loaded weapons whenever they go shopping. The capital of America is called Hollywood, where many documentaries about life on their planet are produced. A particularly well observed documentary portraying daily life on planet America is called The Walking Dead and is well worth viewing in order to fully understand the culture. Their leader is called Jerry Springer.

Americans communicate using a bubblegum version of English, which is sometimes difficult to understand. If you fart in America, it is referred to as a 'Trump', with a capital 'T'.

[Talligurl]

This map shows the percentage of the population with Internet access, I suspect that access at speeds that would allow use of SL is even more limited than this shows in developing nations.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Lureo said:

Before I started Second Life I thought that SL was international. But but but

 

I just notice that here in this forum most of people are american (USA+ Canada + other english countries). All is in english. If you don't understand english how can you understand the culture. If you understand a little you still don't understand.

You receive notecard with rules. You need to understand. You are ejected or banned without knowing the reason. sometimes you face agressive people just by misunderstanding.

 

So my reflexion is that. Is SL american for american. If you are not you feel stranger.

 

Why do I never meet people from Africa ? People from Russian rarely speak english and use translator or stay in they community. The diversity of SL is not really diverses. what is your experience with multucularity ? Are you american or native english at least ? I don't count countrie from notherm europe that are really english friendly.

 

Maybe you will do better if you use an online translator. Search SL for “Russian”, also. We can’t explain everything for you. 

[Love Zhaoying]

19 minutes ago, Candice LittleBoots said:

America is a small planet revolving around the Earth in geosynchronous orbit.

But world is flat! 

[Lureo]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Maybe you will do better if you use an online translator. Search SL for “Russian”, also. We can’t explain everything for you. 

Yes of course !! thank you for all your explaination. I just did a little animation in this forum but I notice plenty of nice people are online and they don't need me. specialy when I write not nice things or no mod odd drama

 

I stop for today. that is enough

[Syo Emerald]

2 hours ago, Lureo said:

Before I started Second Life I thought that SL was international.

And that is correct. Second Life is international. SL has a huge US population, but I wouldn't be suprised if the ratio to users from other countries is only at 50% or 60% percent. This would mean that every second user is from the US, but it also means the other half is not. There are many sims and groups in SL that focus on other nationalities or languages.

And not everyone who writes English is from the US or another english speaking country. English only dominates SL, because its the most commonly spoken language on the internet. In many countries, English gets taught as a school subject from an early age and is required in many jobs.

I'm from Germany. I learned English in school and because I spend so much time on the internet, I use it daily.

[Claireschen Hesten]

I've come across plenty of people in SL for whom English isn't their native language some that are my friends have a really good grasp of the English language, others I've encountered they type to you in their native language be it French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, or Arabic. There are always translators you can buy or you can copy and paste in to an online translator if you really want to converse with these people

[ThorinII]

3 hours ago, Lureo said:

Before I started Second Life I thought that SL was international. But but but

 

I just notice that here in this forum most of people are american (USA+ Canada + other english countries). All is in english. If you don't understand english how can you understand the culture. If you understand a little you still don't understand.

You receive notecard with rules. You need to understand. You are ejected or banned without knowing the reason. sometimes you face agressive people just by misunderstanding.

 

So my reflexion is that. Is SL american for american. If you are not you feel stranger.

 

Why do I never meet people from Africa ? People from Russian rarely speak english and use translator or stay in they community. The diversity of SL is not really diverses. what is your experience with multucularity ? Are you american or native english at least ? I don't count countrie from notherm europe that are really english friendly.

 

German here, living in Germany, Europe. And among the circles I'm frequenting inworld, there are Americans from all over the place between the West coast and East coast, between Canada via the USA down to Mid-America; also Brits, Australians, French people, Italians, Polish people, and German people. Really international, although the South-Americans, Africans, and Russians are rather rare in the places I do visit.

However, as soon as there are English-speaking people around, everyone else switches to English or uses a translator, so that everyone has the same chance to be understood. Also, European folks often use English to conquer the language barrier between each other.

Edited March 28, 2019 by ThorinII

[marinathewitch]

Well, I am Russian and I don't stick to Russian community. I do meet other Russians that do know English good enough that we have to read each other profiles through and through to be like: "Wait, why do we speak in English with each other?" One of my best friends in SL happens to be from South Africa. I met ton of Indians for some reason. Aslo, people from everywhere in Europe, hence our timezones align better. A lot of people from US too, but SL does feel International to me. 

Who do you meet does depend on where you hang out and your online hours. So maybe explore some new places? 

And of course English language is everywhere. It's the one most people will likely understand. 

[HeathcliffMontague]

People I speak with/hang out with on a regular basis are from Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and of course the U.S... And that's just off the top of my head. Feels pretty international to me too.

I'm fortunate enough to have a good grasp of English, even though it's my second language. I totally get that it can be frustrating to feel a bit left out there.

The translation tools available for SL are semi-decent. I'd recommend at least trying some of them out. They are at least better than nothing. As always with such tools, they are better when the source and target languages are "larger" languages (i.e. more speakers worldwide) as opposed to "smaller" languages (fewer speakers). It's simply a case of the databases being more developed, thus generating chances of better "hits", as linguists would say.

[Linda Reddevil]

Linden Labs is based in the U.S. but I disagree that most of the people who are in-world are Americans.  I've met people from all over Europe and South America in the past 13 years I've been a resident.  I think as a whole there aren't as many residents who log on as there used to be but it's still pretty diverse based upon those who do log on.  Logging on to SL shouldn't make you feel as though you aren't welcome or "stranger" as you described.  Remind those who are sending you notecards or IM's or banning you that you don't understand or don't speak English well.  We all sometimes forget that while English is universal, not everyone has a need to comprehend it.  There are so many translators available to us that it isn't a huge deal to translate into a language that you do use proficiently.

[paragonfanfare]

4 hours ago, Lureo said:

Why do I never meet people from Africa ? People from Russian rarely speak english and use translator or stay in they community. The diversity of SL is not really diverses. what is your experience with multucularity ? Are you american or native english at least ? I don't count countrie from notherm europe that are really english friendly.

 

I'm from Canada, I speak only English.   Most of my friends are from Europe (both northern and southern).  (A couple from Asia, and a few from the americas.)  I'd say I met a good 90% of my friends in London City.

Until this week I'd never met anyone from Africa either - but I met one on Saturday and one on Monday.

In the past week I also met two people from Turkey, although one didn't speak any English, and Google Translate wasn't terribly helpful.

I've met several from south american Spanish-speaking countries, most speak passable English, but two of them only speak Spanish and I use Google Translate to converse with them.

I've found that the times I'm online dictate where the people I meet are from.   If I'm online during the (for me) morning, I meet more Europeans (and now Africans).   Evenings I meet more people from the americas.

[Pamela Galli]

Although the largest group is American, we are still in the minority, last I saw, about 40%. LL used to publish this data somewhere. 

[Janet Voxel]

I’ve run into a lot of Germans, Dutch, Russians, French and Brazilians

Now that I think about it....a lot of Asians and middle easterners too.

English does seem to be the lingua Franca though. International as SL is it needs a lingua Franca.

[ChinRey]

6 hours ago, Lureo said:

So my reflexion is that. Is SL american for american. If you are not you feel stranger.

SL is very American (or should we rather way USian?) but I don't think of that as criticism because it can't be avoided.

Everybody have to come from somewhere and the culture you grew up in is so deeply rooted in you it colours everything you do and everything you create whether you want it or not. The people who created SL in the first place, were all Americans so the underlying structure is based on American culture and an American view on Life, the Universe and Everything. If they had been German, everything would have been German flavoured and so on.

As a Norwegian I see that especially clearly at Second Norway. It's a Norwergian themed region created by Norwegians who really tried hard to get it right. But it still has a very distinctive American flavour because that's the direction the basic premises of SL leads you in.

[Fionalein]

of course it is very American ... already the Brazilians alone are among the top ten (if not top five) most active countries in SL...

Edited March 28, 2019 by Fionalein

[ItHadToComeToThis]

What you have to understand is this.

There is no such thing as American culture.

Now before you all stand up and start waving your flags angrily with torches and pitch forks at the ready, bare with me on this.

For there to be American culture, there would have to be Americans. If you ask any American what their nationality is they will never utter the words "I am an American". Even though they were born in America, their parents and grandparents were born in America. And they ARE in fact American. They will try to convince you that they are actually half Irish with a touch of Nepalese, a quarter Swiss and descended from Russia, and that is just on their dads side. For American culture to exist there would first have to be Americans to have created the culture in the first place and as I said ask ANY American where they are from and you will get a long convoluted response telling you all the different ways in which they are not American. Now, perhaps if your parents brought you over to America as a child then I could forgive you trying to tell me you are actually from somewhere other than America. Trying to convince me that you are hardcore Irish, even though the closest you or four generations of your descendants have come to being Irish is buying Lucky Charms for your breakfast and wearing a Shamrock hat one day a year, is just not going to cut it any more. Americans need to start accepting their fate, being American is not a bad thing. There is no shame in being American, own it.

So no, Second Life is not American culture because for American culture to exist there would have to be Americans to have made that culture happen.

Queue flags and pitchforks.

[Selene Gregoire]

9 minutes ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

What you have to understand is this.

There is no such thing as American culture.

Now before you all stand up and start waving your flags angrily with torches and pitch forks at the ready, bare with me on this.

For there to be American culture, there would have to be Americans. If you ask any American what their nationality is they will never utter the words "I am an American". Even though they were born in America, their parents and grandparents were born in America. And they ARE in fact American. They will try to convince you that they are actually half Irish with a touch of Nepalese, a quarter Swiss and descended from Russia, and that is just on their dads side. For American culture to exist there would first have to be Americans to have created the culture in the first place and as I said ask ANY American where they are from and you will get a long convoluted response telling you all the different ways in which they are not American. Now, perhaps if your parents brought you over to America as a child then I could forgive you trying to tell me you are actually from somewhere other than America. Trying to convince me that you are hardcore Irish, even though the closest you or four generations of your descendants have come to being Irish is buying Lucky Charms for your breakfast and wearing a Shamrock hat one day a year, is just not going to cut it any more. Americans need to start accepting their fate, being American is not a bad thing. There is no shame in being American, own it.

So no, Second Life is not American culture because for American culture to exist there would have to be Americans to have made that culture happen.

Queue flags and pitchforks.

Ok. You asked for it.

Here's my flag:

And here's my pitchfork:

https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/archive/blackhorse-native-american-american-indian-nope-hNAQB_MRSk-07Cw1hAF8Xw/

[Blush Bravin]

53 minutes ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

What you have to understand is this.

There is no such thing as American culture.

Now before you all stand up and start waving your flags angrily with torches and pitch forks at the ready, bare with me on this.

For there to be American culture, there would have to be Americans. If you ask any American what their nationality is they will never utter the words "I am an American". Even though they were born in America, their parents and grandparents were born in America. And they ARE in fact American. They will try to convince you that they are actually half Irish with a touch of Nepalese, a quarter Swiss and descended from Russia, and that is just on their dads side. For American culture to exist there would first have to be Americans to have created the culture in the first place and as I said ask ANY American where they are from and you will get a long convoluted response telling you all the different ways in which they are not American. Now, perhaps if your parents brought you over to America as a child then I could forgive you trying to tell me you are actually from somewhere other than America. Trying to convince me that you are hardcore Irish, even though the closest you or four generations of your descendants have come to being Irish is buying Lucky Charms for your breakfast and wearing a Shamrock hat one day a year, is just not going to cut it any more. Americans need to start accepting their fate, being American is not a bad thing. There is no shame in being American, own it.

So no, Second Life is not American culture because for American culture to exist there would have to be Americans to have made that culture happen.

Queue flags and pitchforks.

There is a point to this. As an American, I still hang on to my European roots. Though my mother's family has been in the US for generations they held on to their French roots so much so that my mother's first language was French and not English. Her elder brother and sister did not learn English until they entered public school.  My mother is in her 80s now so that gives you a little perspective. One thing that I've always loved about my country is that we aren't the so called melting pot but actually a salad bowl of cultures. Is that any different than many European countries? Look at Spain as an example. How many different cultures have made that country home and isn't it better as a result? I could go on naming other countries but you get the idea. 

[ItHadToComeToThis]

41 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

Ok. You asked for it.

Here's my flag:

And here's my pitchfork:

https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/archive/blackhorse-native-american-american-indian-nope-hNAQB_MRSk-07Cw1hAF8Xw/

I did mean to put in a "except natives" clause when writing my above rant but I forgot, natives are usually more than happy to state that they are native, Native American, american etc.

[ItHadToComeToThis]

9 hours ago, Blush Bravin said:

There is a point to this. As an American, I still hang on to my European roots. Though my mother's family has been in the US for generations they held on to their French roots so much so that my mother's first language was French and not English. Her elder brother and sister did not learn English until they entered public school.  My mother is in her 80s now so that gives you a little perspective. One thing that I've always loved about my country is that we aren't the so called melting pot but actually a salad bowl of cultures. Is that any different than many European countries? Look at Spain as an example. How many different cultures have made that country home and isn't it better as a result? I could go on naming other countries but you get the idea. 

Honouring your roots is fine. But the truth is, even though you are descended many generations ago from the French. You are not yourself French. Take me for instance. I come from a part of the UK where most are descended from the norse vikings. My family name is also Irish in origin and I have ancestral jewish roots in the middle east. Do I claim to be norse, Irish or a near eastern jew when someone asks me, no. All of those things were so many generations ago. If anyone ever asks me I am either British (universal term for the uk) or a local term which describes being from the island I live on in the UK. I wouldn't dream of trying to convince someone that I am norse and Irish on my mothers side and part jew on my grandmothers because its simply not true. I may genetically be descended from norse, Irish and jewish roots but that doesn't make me norse, irish or jewish.

Edited March 29, 2019 by ItHadToComeToThis