Few countries in the world entail the level of cultural diversity that you find in America. It is not simply the differences in the people. Simply moving to a new city such as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania can require adjusting to new jargon, lifestyle, and cultural oddities.
. There are three different accents among Pittsburgh natives. One is southern, from those who's families came from West Virginia, on is northeastern, from the educated class, and then there is a working class accent whose jargon can take some translating. For example, an accountant who moved a mere 300 miles from Buffalo, New York to Pittsburgh, spent several weeks at her job looking for "gum bands" that she generally called "rubber bands". Pittsburgh natives also use the archaic word "redd". It basically means to "straighten up" rather than "clean" an area, but it is so much a part of the culture that most Pittsburgher's cannot define it
Pittsburgh has a combination of hard working and laid-back culture. The city and surrounding areas are divided into "neighborhoods", where people of common ethnic backgrounds gathered. The church communities in particular are closely tied to the neighborhood culture. A popular children's TV show was filmed in Oakland, the home of the University of Pittsburgh, while the star lived in Squirell hill, the home of Carnegie Mellon University. Thus in the fall there are literally hundreds of new college freshmen running around the city saying, "Do you know that we have moved to Mr. Roger's Neighborhood?" Other topics of importance to Pittsburgher's entail the placement of local sports teams in national standings, the preservation of old buildings as cultural treasures, and the hockey program in the Chez Republic, the home of several of their best hockey heroes.
The largest adjustment to living in Pittsburgh is the driving traditions. The geography has created a road system that is experiences da
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