Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Project Four: I need your help
For my project on categories I was thinking of doing four regions of the U.S. (Northeast, south, midwest, west) and talking about how there are such differences in personality, vocabulary, style and other things that make each of these places within America unique. If anyone has some ideas as to some differences among these places it would be a great help. Most of these may come out in stereotypes, but as they say there is a kernel of truth in stereotypes. Thanks!
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3 comments:
I think that's a good idea -- to compare city personality types. You seem to be in my boat -- too much information and difficulty in figuring how to focus. There's too much information for the reader, I think, to discuss everything you listed (personality, vocabm lifestyle, and other things) -- although that can be solved with a good layout.
If I was doing this, I would choose four cities, identify personality types for each and classify them by personality type, which could also build from the compare/contrast exerxise. So, for example, my four cities would somehow have personalities like the four characters on Sex and the City (if I could genuinely draw parallels) and would be dsecribed through that. The classifying principle would be personality type. Or, another personality classification I just thought would be to associate a city with a Myers-Briggs personality type (for example, ISFP).
But -- to give an example of differences between cities, a friend of mine recently moved to San Fran and said she loves how un-political and un-academic it is in comparison to Boston.
I wonder if the Beach Boys' song, "I Wish They All Could Be California Girls," still has applicable traits?
Cities might be easier to hone in on because the regions are rather large to classify into one box.
For example, Boston has a far different mentality than Amherst, Burlington, anywhere in NH...
Otherwise, some differences I can offer you having lived in Boston and Baltimore.
personality-
Boston - it's about success and looking right. The people can be as cold as the winters. Fast-paced. Don't see many homeless at intersections. City is fairly delineated -- you know places you shouldn't go alone and there isn't a lot of in between. This applies to other aspects-- shopping is well defined, cultural neighborhoods, high end/old money hoods, etc. Mass transit is easy and useful but also you can see most major historical areas by foot.
Baltimore - a little friendlier. You can say hi to a stranger on the street as you pass and they don't look at you all that funny. Mass transit bites the big one. Don't even think about walking to see all of the sites -- they're too far apart and a lot of nothing in between. You might ask someone for directions and find yourself still chatting 5 minutes later about places to eat or see. You run into homeless everywhere. Ethnic neighborhoods are no longer well-defined, nor are socio-economic divisions (with some exceptions).
In Boston, being affluent means living in the city. Here, being affluent is more likely to mean you live in a surrounding county.
Hope that helps.
I like this idea, too. And I like the city idea as opposed to regions. If it were me, I might pick smaller, but cool cities, like San Diego, San Antonio, Savannah, GA and Portland, ME. Ones that aren't the first ones that come to mind when you think of American cities (NYC, LA, Vegas, San Fran, Chicago, Boston, etc).
HTH!!
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