在美国文化中英语

American cultureThe main content of American culture is the emphasize on individuals' value, the pursue of democracy and freedom, the promotion of deploitation(开拓, 经营) and competition and the need of realistic and practicality. Its core is individualism: self first, personal need first, pursue of individual benefit and enjoyment, emphasize on achieving individual value by self-strive and self-design. This type of intentionally build up of personality and pursue customized individualism has its pros and cons, it gives incentives to people and make them exert on their potential and wisdom and as a result accelerate the development of the entire race and nation; on the other hand it is difficult to keep good relationship among people if everyone is egocentric thus make the entire society lack of unity.egocentric: .自我中心的, 利己主义的American citizens emphasize on achievements and respect heroes. They have great sense in their hearts to praise success and heroes. Personal achievements are one of those with the highest value in Americans mind. Americans have very strong senses of success. Success is the pursuit of most Americans, it is their attractive future and the incentives for moving forward. They believe that one's personal value is equivalent to his achievements in his career. Some high achievers in their career such as entrepreneurs, scientists, artists and all kinds of super starts became modern heroes. The process and result of how they strived have become the frame of reference of social culture value and the real life text book for parents to educate their children. incentive: Serving to induce or motivate:American society has great movements within itself. These movements are shown in two aspects: movements amongst locations and movements inside the society. The United States are relatively more open and have more freedom. Developed transport and the tradition of adventure and sporty makes a lot of American migrate from countryside to cities, from downtown to uptown; and from north to the southern sunny land, from one city to another. Unlike European countries, the social classes in America is not so stable. Further more, with the advocation of public education, movements upwards along the social ladder have become possible. Many people living in the states, no matter whether they are Native American or immigrants from overseas, have the same dream of changing their social class and make their lifetime dream come true through their own efforts. This is what they often called "American dream".advocation：(=advocacy)拥护；支持美国文化的主要内容是强调个人价值，追求民主自由，崇尚开拓和竞争，讲求理性和实用，其核心是个人中心主义：个人至上、私欲至上、追求个人利益和个人享受，强调通过个人奋斗、个人自我设计，追求个人价值的最终实现。这种刻意塑造自我，追求个性化的个人主义有其积极的一面，也有消极的一面。它调动了个人的积极性，使许多人的智慧和潜力得以充分发挥，从而促进整个民族与国家的振兴和发展。然而，人人以我为中心，人际关系就难以融洽，整个社会也会缺乏凝聚力。美国公众注重成就，仰慕英雄，有深厚的成就崇拜和英雄崇拜的心理积淀。个人成就是所有美国人价值观中评价最高的价值之一。美国人有很强的成就(或成功)意识。成功是所有美国人的追求，是诱人的前景，前进的动力。他们坚信，一个人的价值就等于他在事业上的成就。一些事业有成的企业家、科学家、艺术家和各类明星，成了新时代的英雄。他们个人奋斗的过程和结果，成了社会文化价值取向的参照系，父母教育子女的活教材。美国是流动性很大的社会。这种流动体现在两个方面：地域性流动和社会性流动。美国相对的开放自由、发达的交通和冒险好动的传统使许多美国人从乡村流到城市，又从市中心流向郊区；从北方流到南方阳光地带，从一个城市流到另一个城市。美国社会阶级不像欧洲国家那样固定，加上公共教育的普及，使沿着社会阶梯向上流动成为可能。许多生活在美国的人，无论是土生土长的美国人，还是漂洋过海来到美国的外国移民，都有一个梦，即通过自己的努力，改变自己的社会地位，实现自己的人生梦想，这就是人们常津津乐道的“美国梦”。

语言是文化的一个特殊组成部分。美式英语是受美国社会多元文化影响以及不断创新而形成的一种变体。由于美国文化的强大影响，越来越多的美式英语词汇及表达法出现在英国人的生活和工作中。英式英语已经开始由一个传统意义上的“输出者”变为“输入者”。牛津大学出版社最近所做的一项分析调查显示，英国孩子越来越多使用美式英语，更多的美式英语表达开始出现在他们的作文中。造成这种结果的原因很多。文艺界名流惯用美式英语对此起到了推波助澜的作用，例如红遍大西洋两岸的英国电视选秀节目制作人西蒙·考威尔就经常在电视上说美式英语。另外美国的文学作品、影视作品等也起到了一定的作用，例如知名女作家斯蒂芬妮·梅尔的《暮光之城》在英国就大受欢迎，也使得更多孩子使用美式英语表达。目前许多英国青年人开始学习使用比较简单化的美式英语，以便以后更好地与美国人交流。在日本，第二次世界大战以前由于英国知名外语教育家哈罗德·帕尔默的倡导，日本的英语教学始终以英式英语为标准；战后美国的影响迅速改变了这种局面，美式英语逐渐成为日本英语教学和使用的主流。一些原来只教英式英语的国家，如巴西、智利、土耳其、印度尼西亚、阿尔及利亚等现在已改教美式英语。值得注意的是，近年来其他英联邦国家，如澳大利亚、新西兰、爱尔兰、加拿大、南非、印度、新加坡、马来西亚等掀起了“美式英语学习热”。新加坡前任总理李光耀最近认为，教导学生美式英语将是大势所趋。美式英语作为美国的一种文化输出方式，其影响力和传播范围涉及到了世界的每一个角落。而英式英语正在像其发祥地——大英帝国一样日落西山。一些学者预言英式英语与美式英语的差异将会越来越大；他们担忧未来英美人士之间很可能听不懂对方的英语。其实这种担忧是多余的，因为这两大英语变体的基本要素几乎是相同的，它们维护着英语的共核(common core)。正如中国知名学者周海中教授曾经指出的那样：虽然美式英语与英式英语在语音、词汇和语法等方面存在着一些差异，但由于它们的相同之处远远大于不同之处，所以不会影响英语表达的规范性；因此，这些差异不会妨碍美英人士彼此交际和交流思想。