this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
1 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

495 readers
1 users here now

founded 2 years ago
 

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.

all 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 0 points 11 months ago

I think we’d call them wannabes (want to be Americans) or cosplayers.

I feel a little sorry for them, especially of they’re attracted to Trump or conspiracy bullshit.

A lot like the idea of “freedom” but don’t realize the costs that come with our nearly unfettered capitalism at this stage. Especially health and social services. They also may not understand the huge diversity that a fairly spread out nation can have. And how different a place like Alabama is from one like Vermont.

[–] Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

If people want to live like Americans, it's kind of a compliment. More power to them :)

[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Never ever heard this term before. And I speak both English and French.

[–] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 11 months ago

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.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 0 points 11 months ago

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.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

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.