4mo ago

What US people think about "the pitiyanquis"?

Pitiyanqui = Petit yanqui (in french) = little yanqui WHERE yanqui = US citizen

This word is despectively about people from other countries that live like Americans ("Americans" in US sense). I want to be clear on it: US people is not the problem but guys believing thenselves "Americans" (US citizens) while they are living (and to be from) other countries. People make a fun of them. I don't know "properly way" of saying it: people see them like... feet-lickers? Sorry for my language barrier.

8 comments

I don't think people in the US have ever heard the term, so we probably don't know exactly what type of behavior it refers to.
It sounds like Americans that live in America but act like they are Japanese. Or, well, they think they are acting Japanese, but all they know about Japan is what they see in anime so really they are just acting like over-dramatic cartoon characters.
Never ever heard this term before. And I speak both English and French.
- You can translate it or use IA: https://www.ambito.com/mundo/pitiyanquis-la-nueva-palabra-que-resume-los-enemigos-chavez-n3515663
  
  No, I don’t need translating. I understand perfectly phonetically what « petit yankee » is meant to be. But this spelling, that slang, the way it’s written, it’s neither french or english.
  Also, fuck AI. If you’re serious about needing to use a fucking LLM to understand that skibidi shitword, there’s a serious problem.
I kinda get it personally, as an American weeb. It's easy to idealize the culture of a place you've never lived.
But yeah, most Americans only conceptualize people in other countries quite distantly and have never heard of this.
If people want to live like Americans, it's kind of a compliment. More power to them :)
I left America and I sometimes struggle not to be self-loathing about it. I love a lot of American-made culture, but it pains me to see people who prefer the giant trucks, the myth of "rugged individualism", and the false machismo around guns, misogyny, and nationalistic tendencies.
I like a version of America that probably never actually existed beyond the imaginations of a minority of us. Those old world Enlightenment ideas melded with the optimism of the new are still attractive to me. I still can't listen to this sort of thing without getting a little swept up in it. I'll never make a proper cynic, I fear.
By all means like what you like, and it's nice if you like American stuff - but we have more to offer than just crutches for fragile egos, and it doesn't take a disillusioned seppo to see it for what it is.

8 comments