you know your sociologist is not american when...

[cimorene]

he conflates hood and neighbourhood. 

it was a good theory, dude, but only one of those terms is thoroughly, immediately and unavoidably associated with "so-called 'african-american'" and hip-hop culture.  the other one just means the area around your residence in a lot of american dialects, or could just as easily be associated with gated neighbourhoods. 

still, i should probably suppress this desire to write him a helpful note.  i doubt he'd appreciate it.

i've been trying for three days to return this library book, and i finally gave in and renewed it, which is just as well because now i'm making an outline, which is something i would've done the first time i read it if the process hadn't been so absolutely agonising.

Comments

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Er...is he trying to say that in American English neighborhood has come to mean only "the hood"? Because as far as I know (and dictionaries seem to back me up) neighbo(u)rhood means the same thing in most English dialects, not just American, and even if he's not a native speaker, that's like, a basic vocabulary word you'd learn... *is confused*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

he doesn't specify american english. he's trying to say that because of hip-hop, the term "neighbourhood" has come to be associated all over the world with rap music.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Er...perhaps in non-English speaking countries?

[cimness.livejournal.com]

it is possible, but... i'd be surprised.