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3 “What then is the American, this new man?” —French visitor J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur (1782) Language is a reflection of culture. If Americans speak and write differ- ently than others—including others who speak and write English—it’s because in cultural terms, they are different. In the following four chap- ters, we’ll explore in detail what some of those differences are and how they’ve influenced the way Americans look at the world and the language they use to describe it. The hardest thing to pick up—especially from out- side the U.S.—is this distinctive American language and idiom. Throughout this section, we’ll reference many commonly used phrases, expressions, and euphemisms that Americans use that embody these cul- tural traits, defining a few as we go along. (Some of these Americanisms are in italics.) It’s true a fair number of these terms are also part of English speech elsewhere, but many have a different resonance stateside. Some preliminary words of caution: The goal here is not just to learn the jargon itself, but to understand what the terms tell us about how Ameri- cans approach communication and writing. Part of the problem in Preface to Part I