We All Live in America: Difference between revisions

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Often, when writing a story set in another country, the writer simply takes their own country and adds foreign names, and might refer to some famous local festival if you're lucky. If you're not, it will be writers' own country half-turned into a [[Planet of Hats|Land of Hats]] with "[[The Theme Park Version|local colour]]". If you find an author who truly understands the other culture, cherish them, for they have a gift.

The title is inspired by ([[Beam Me Up Scotty|but is not a direct quote of]]) a line in the [[Rammstein (Music)|Rammstein]] song "Amerika", which points out the spread of American values and culture across the globe.

The title is inspired by ([[Beam Me Up, Scotty|but is not a direct quote of]]) a line in the [[Rammstein (Music)|Rammstein]] song "Amerika", which points out the spread of American values and culture across the globe.

Please note that, despite the [[Trope]] name, this is not an exclusively American phenomenon; writers from other countries will often project their own cultural mores, vernacular, and sense of geography onto countries other than their own, including the United States, as well (most common is the strange tendency to treat all the landmarks and major cities of a country that spans an entire continent as if they are within a couple hours' drive of each other).

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Contrast [[Eagleland Osmosis]], where the influence of another country's media (chiefly the United States') causes people to do this to their ''own'' society. See also [[Values Dissonance]], which is perhaps the most compelling reason why this [[Trope]] doesn't work.

== Anime & Manga ==

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== [[Fan Fiction]] ==

* This could just as easily be called "European Writers Have No Sense Of Scale In North America".

** British ''[[Supernatural (TV)|Supernatural]]'' [[Fan Fiction]] often has the Winchesters speaking in British slang and claiming that their small Indiana town is 30 minutes away from the Canadian border. Problem is, Great Britain is ''much'' smaller than the United States -- "from Land's End to John o' Groats", the longest distance in the isle, means 874 miles, whereas "coast to coast" in the USA means at least ''2500 miles'' depending on where one is measuring from.<ref>The drive from Jacksonville, [[~~Flo Rida~~]] to [[Los Angeles]] along Interstate 10, the shortest coast-to-coast highway, is 2,460 miles; the drive from [[Useful Notes/Boston|Boston]] to [[Seattle]] on I-90, the longest, is 3,101 miles.</ref> In [[Real Life]], ''anywhere'' in Indiana is at least three hours from Canada by car, and that's just going from the northern extremes of the state to Windsor, the closest Canadian city. From Indianapolis, it's closer to five hours, and from Evansville, seven and a half. For anywhere ''of note'' in Canada, tack at least a few more hours on to that.

** British ''[[Supernatural (TV)|Supernatural]]'' [[Fan Fiction]] often has the Winchesters speaking in British slang and claiming that their small Indiana town is 30 minutes away from the Canadian border. Problem is, Great Britain is ''much'' smaller than the United States -- "from Land's End to John o' Groats", the longest distance in the isle, means 874 miles, whereas "coast to coast" in the USA means at least ''2500 miles'' depending on where one is measuring from.<ref>The drive from Jacksonville, [[Florida]] to [[Los Angeles]] along Interstate 10, the shortest coast-to-coast highway, is 2,460 miles; the drive from [[Useful Notes/Boston|Boston]] to [[Seattle]] on I-90, the longest, is 3,101 miles.</ref> In [[Real Life]], ''anywhere'' in Indiana is at least three hours from Canada by car, and that's just going from the northern extremes of the state to Windsor, the closest Canadian city. From Indianapolis, it's closer to five hours, and from Evansville, seven and a half. For anywhere ''of note'' in Canada, tack at least a few more hours on to that.

** RPG writer Graeme Davis once wrote a scenario for the Call of Chtulhu RPG set in the 1930s where an NPC starts in Los Angeles, drives over to San Francisco on an errand, drives back and "spends the rest of the afternoon in her hotel room". (From memory, some specifics may be off.) For reference, [[http://local.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=los

** A pair of German ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' fans wrote a fic in which Xander and Faith drive from Boston to California in 8 hours...

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** Hot Topic is unlikely to be brought up -- there are vague equivalents, but most are local to one or two towns or cities. The closest thing to a national indie clothes shop would probably be an online store, which weren't ''that'' popular in the 90s.

*** Not to mention the [[Magic Versus Science|problems]] [[Walking Techbane|inherent]] in wizards from the Potterverse trying to buy clothes online.

** It's easy to get mad at ''[[My Immortal]]'' but this is rather common with [[Harry Potter]] fanfic written by American fans. The "American exchange student" (or Japanese, for otaku fans) in HP [[Self Insert Fic]] could be a trope all its own. It's to the point where some HP roleplaying communities require that all characters be born in the UK or Ireland, not just to keep with the established canon but also to remove this tendency.

** It's easy to get mad at ''[[My Immortal]]'' but this is rather common with [[Harry Potter]] fanfic written by American fans. The "American exchange student" (or Japanese, for otaku fans) in HP [[Self-Insert Fic]] could be a trope all its own. It's to the point where some HP roleplaying communities require that all characters be born in the UK or Ireland, not just to keep with the established canon but also to remove this tendency.

*** It's also common for the British students at Hogwarts to suddenly start speaking in American slang. Seriously guys, we don't normally say 'sweater', 'pantyhose' or 'French fries'. (In case you're interested, they would be jumper, tights and chips).

* ''[[Sailor Nothing]]'' is supposedly set in Japan, but the characters constantly refer to ''American'' media and pop culture. Some of this is understandable, some not; [[Hunter S Thompson]] is famous, but why would Shin compare something to an NBC sitcom?

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* In ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' fanfiction, it is a very common mistake for personified nations to act like people from the nation the author is from. For example, Nordics having an Asian hot pot tradition in a Japanese doujinshi.

** A rarer version of this trope occurs with the naming of the British Isles- for example Englands brothers calling him 'Britain' or UK when in fact these are names for various roups of these countries- occasionally you get people refer to England as 'the United Kingdom of England' which causes a great deal of facepalming. More common is the miss use of British slang and accents (note the plural). I imagine that this also occurs a lot with other countries- and certainly isn't a one way thing...

* Most ''[[Degrassi]]'' fanfiction these days is written by American fans, whose grasp of Canadian geography and cities seems to be limited to [[Canada Eh|stereotypes]]. Two particularly [[Egregious]] examples included one which depicted [[Toronto]], Ontario as a small town of about 300 people only accessible by a long bridge over a lake from the United States, and a second which had a character drive from Edmonton, Alberta to Toronto in about eight hours, a trip which should take about a day and a half without stopping (as much time as a trip from New York to Salt Lake City) in real life.

* Most ''[[Degrassi]]'' fanfiction these days is written by American fans, whose grasp of Canadian geography and cities seems to be limited to [[Canada, Eh?|stereotypes]]. Two particularly [[Egregious]] examples included one which depicted [[Toronto]], Ontario as a small town of about 300 people only accessible by a long bridge over a lake from the United States, and a second which had a character drive from Edmonton, Alberta to Toronto in about eight hours, a trip which should take about a day and a half without stopping (as much time as a trip from New York to Salt Lake City) in real life.

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* Despite the Sega Mega Drive being named 'Mega Drive' pretty much everywhere except North America, the majority of games sites, American or not, as well as this very site, use '[[Sega Genesis]]' as the default name. If the Mega Drive is mentioned, it's often described as [[Did Not Do the Research|the European version of the Genesis]].

** A common example of this is when ''[[Zero Wing]]'' is said to be a Genesis game. It was released in Japan and Europe on the Mega Drive, but wasn't released in North America. Which is truly ironic when you consider it's the poster boy for incorrect translation and is usually mentioned in that context.

** Similarly, if [[Market Based Title|a game has different names according to where it's released]], the North American title will be the universal standard, whether the game was made there or not. As a result, attempting to discuss certain games (''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'', for example) on an international forum can be difficult.

** Similarly, if [[Market-Based Title|a game has different names according to where it's released]], the North American title will be the universal standard, whether the game was made there or not. As a result, attempting to discuss certain games (''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'', for example) on an international forum can be difficult.

*** It also makes it difficult to search for info from a game if it is called something simple (and popular in the English language) like ''[[Bully (Video Game)|Bully]]'' in America, and (the arguably more distinguishable) ''Canis Canem Edit'' in other countries...

* As a general rule, games which go through America before they reach Europe are not translated into British English. What makes this a true example is when the 'English' option on the language selection screen is the ''Union Flag'' in all its <s>colors</s> colours.

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** Even worse are websites which allow you to change language... and illustrate 'English' with an American flag.

*** Many websites choose to use diagonally bisected combination of the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes as if those were the only places where English was spoken. But attempts at being complete and inclusive lead to such things as combined German/Austrian/Swiss flags for the German language option (They forget Liechtenstein). Languages and Flags don't really map 1 to 1 very well.

*** Of course if the makers of these language selection interfaces were to be really strict they should use the 'English Flag' for the English Language option, unfortunately a lot of English speakers would not recognize the St George's Cross as their option. Using a US or combined US/UK Flag for English can thus perhaps be classified as a justified case of [[Viewers ~~Are~~ Morons]] and a [[Viewers Are Geniuses]] for all the other English-speakers in the world who they deem smart enough to figure out the correct option despite it not being represented by their own flag.

*** Of course if the makers of these language selection interfaces were to be really strict they should use the 'English Flag' for the English Language option, unfortunately a lot of English speakers would not recognize the St George's Cross as their option. Using a US or combined US/UK Flag for English can thus perhaps be classified as a justified case of [[Viewers are Morons]] and a [[Viewers Are Geniuses]] for all the other English-speakers in the world who they deem smart enough to figure out the correct option despite it not being represented by their own flag.

** Similarly, if a site offers multiple languages and there's more than one variant of 'English', American English will usually be what's meant by the unmodified option. This is a bit like a Canadian site calling two variants of the same language French and French French, respectively.

* Similar to the GTA example, ''[[Jade Empire]]'' features the occasional very English phrase like "buggers" to refer to a group of panicking rats, but as everyone in the game sounds Canadian save for [[I Am Very British|Sir Roderick Ponce Von Fondlebottom The Magnificent Bastard]], it comes off very odd.

** "Buggers" isn't uncommon in [[Canada Eh|Canada]], or at least the easternnmost portions, so it doesn't come off very odd at all in reference to nasty little buggers like rats.

** "Buggers" isn't uncommon in [[Canada, Eh?|Canada]], or at least the easternnmost portions, so it doesn't come off very odd at all in reference to nasty little buggers like rats.

* ''[[Indigo Prophecy]]'' and ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' are set in New York and Philadelphia, respectively, but were made by a French company, and there are a bunch of telling details -- for example, both games feature apartments with the bath/shower and toilet in separate rooms, which is not unheard of in Europe but is pretty much never seen in America.

* ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' games are apparently set in Europe or America but the characters retain certain Japanese mannerisms such as bowing, a lot of the characters love Japanese foods, and some of the plants are native to Japan.

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[[Category:We All Live In America]]

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