What are some things about your own culture you understand "foreigners" would find weird?

[calm kiwi]

That tears it. From here on out I'm going to start referring to all New Zealanders as Kakapos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakapo).

Just be thankful I passed on Wetas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakapo) and Tuataras (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuataras).

ETA: Though if making a nasty epithet out of it, "filthy, sheep-chasing wetas" does flow better :p.

ANYTHING BUT WETAS!!!!! As a kid, I put my foot in a weta containing gumboot and never got over the trauma!

Kakapo are awesome. The only flightless parrot in the world. Lonely bastards though, I saw a doco of a Kakapo humping a dead seagull because he was that short of mating material.

Hey maybe we are Kakapo!
Damn my luck I only ever find live seagulls!

[ralph124c]

Two things:
-American Weddings: you pay thousands of $ to get married, then thousands of $ to get divorced
-Cheese in spray cans ("Cheezewizz"): any connection between this stuff and actual cheese is purely coincidence

[mascaroni]

...I also have a hard time understanding why Americans use the name of one Italian thing, Peperoni (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepperoncini) that means a vegetable bell pepper elsewhere, means a kind of Salami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peperoni) instead, when Salamis already have their own name...

The very similar names of Peperoni (http://italianfood.about.com/od/vegetablesandsidedishes/ig/Frutta-e-Verdura/Peperoni-Verdi--Green-Peppers.htm) and Pepperoni (http://italianfood.about.com/od/italianmeatrecipes/ig/Salumi--Italian-Cold-Cuts/Salamino-Piccante--Pepperoni.htm) is probably the source of confusion.

[Sunspace]

From what I've seen, the ways that Canadians have adapted to our horrible winters are some of the things that foreigners find most odd obout our culture.Details? I'm having a hard time thinking of examples, except for the aforementioned 'plugging the car in' (actually, the block heater).

[Really Not All That Bright]

The French don't call themselves esgargot (well I couldn't think of a French bird/animal!). The British call themselves Lions for rugby sometimes.

The South African rugby team is called the Spring Bok though I have never met a South African who called themself a Bok.
Nitpicks: escargot.

The Lions are a rugby team selected from the British Isles, but they do not represent Britain or even Britain and Ireland - they aren't really sanctioned by the English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or Irish rugby boards and they don't play the national anthems before matches. The last time there was a British rugby team (the 1908 Olympics) they were a separate entity from the Lions.

The South African team are the Springboks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springbok_(antelope)), not the Spring Bok.

[lshaw]

I’m American, but of Taiwanese/Chinese descent. My parents are from Taiwan. I fly back to the country every once in awhile to visit relatives and friends. I'll talk about what I find weird about Taiwanese culture, and what they find weird about American culture.

Some things I can’t get used to about Taiwanese culture:

Fighting over the bill: They will literally fight tooth and nail over who gets to pay the bill. Even if it has already been established beforehand who will pay, everyone will at least go through the motions. It becomes pretty hilarious for me to see otherwise poised adults clamoring over each other, pushing each other, engaging in a tug-of-war, and resorting to sneaky and innovative methods to get their hands on the check.

Deflecting compliments:In America, if someone compliments you, you’d usually just thank them. In Taiwan, they would deny it to deflect the praise. Sometimes this would involve criticizing themselves. For example, once, my mother complimented her friend’s daughter for her good complexion. Her friend was like “No, no, my daughter is quite ugly compared to yours. Her face is too bony.” LOL. They don’t mean it, of course. It’s just their way of showing modesty.

Greeting each other by commenting on weight gain/loss: In America, weight is kind of a sensitive topic. In Taiwan, they are very blasé about it. If you haven’t seen each other for awhile, you will greet each other and tell them if you think they had gotten fatter or skinnier. I am constantly greeted with news that I “became fatter”. I am 5’4” and 100 lbs. This would never happen in America.



On the flip side, here’s what they find weird about America:

Ordering food at restaurants: In America (and I guess Western countries in general), whenever you are out with a large group, you usually order your own dish. In Taiwan, you order a bunch of dishes and share them, communal-style.

Food, in general: This is changing a bit because of globalization, but generally, the high-fat, high-sugar, high-caloric, super-size eating culture of America puzzles them.

Sun worshipping: The Taiwanese don’t get the sun worshipping (tanning) culture of the US. Why drown yourself in lethal UV-rays that are responsible for premature aging? They avoid the sun like the plague. Out on the streets in Taiwan, you’ll see people using parasols, wearing wide brimmed hats and gloves, visors, etc. This is partly why so many Asians there don’t look their age.

Nudity and sexual content in media: Ok, I know most Europeans think that Americans are prudes when it comes to censoring nudity and stuff, among other things. But Asians are even more uptight. My friends and relatives think that American culture is really sexually permissive. They get kind of weirded out by seeing “so much” sexuality going on in American movies; the scenes shown in Taiwan mainstream media are positively demure in comparison. In most Taiwanese dramas and mainstream movies, you get two people, fully clothed, on a bed. Cut to another scene where they are, again, fully clothed and on the bed. The sexual content is only implied. Movies and such that show more than that are known more for their “explicit content” (as opposed to the overarching thematic content, etc). Movies such as Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution are considered practically scandalous; to take it to another level, in China, the lead actress of that movie was BANNED from entering the mainland… for reals.

PDA: Other than holding hands, acts of PDA are considered quite out of place. The Taiwanese find it vulgar that public make out sessions are so commonplace in America (and most Western cultures, it seems).

[toadspittle]

Greeting each other by commenting on weight gain/loss: In America, weight is kind of a sensitive topic. In Taiwan, they are very blasé about it. If you haven’t seen each other for awhile, you will greet each other and tell them if you think they had gotten fatter or skinnier. I am constantly greeted with news that I “became fatter”. I am 5’4” and 100 lbs. This would never happen in America.


But is it negative to be fat there, or positive (i.e., you're well-fed, hence prosperous and healthy)?

My Italian aunt and uncle would always complain that I looked too skinny, even though there ain't no such thing (too skinny, like too rich) in the USA.

[lshaw]

There is no connection made between being fat and being prosperous and healthy. After all, Taiwan is not a third world country... although maybe 100 years ago, that sort of connection was made. I would say the issue isn't whether it's positive or negative to be fat (the negative aspect of it would mostly be due to the fact that you would be really conspicuous in a country where not many people are overweight... and it's a culture about fitting in rather than about the sort of individualism that pervades Western cultures). Rather, commenting on weight is not a particularly offensive issue like it is in the US - they'll say it like it is, without any sort of mean spirited intention. And in turn, the receiver of such comments would not be offended at all. So saying "you got fatter" or "you got skinnier" is sort of like a normal part of your greeting... just as you would say "how are you?". Haha.

[Bosstone]

Sort of like "Wow, your beard's grown" or "Hey, you shaved your beard." No positive or negative connotations, just a comment on the person to show you're paying attention. Or something.

[lshaw]

Sort of like "Wow, your beard's grown" or "Hey, you shaved your beard." No positive or negative connotations, just a comment on the person to show you're paying attention. Or something.

Yes, this is a better and more succinct way of explaining it.

[ctnguy]

MrDibble has covered much of this already, but:

I lived for a while in South Africa in the 70s. They didn't know what a lot of our expressions meant.
Stop on a dime? - what's a dime? Twisted as a pretzel? - don't have pretzels.

We do too have pretzels, and I asked my parents - who were around in the 70s - and they said pretzels were familiar back then.

Eat pizza with your hands? And buckets of chicken? - Like how the Bantu eat?

That attitude may have been common back then, I suppose. Although, again asking my parents, they were eating copious amounts of pizza out of boxes with their hands. Of course, they were pinko liberal student types at the time.

They were confused about our roads being numbered. At the time they only had one numbered road, M1 from Cape Town to Pretoria. Every other road between towns was marked not with a name or number at all. At each intersection there were arrows as to what city was in each direction. So you'd better know your geography.

This one, I grant you. Although, as MrDibble has pointed out, the roads did actually have numbers back then - I too have maps to prove it - they'd only just been numbered and probably most people weren't familar with them. I still have this problem with older people when giving directions - they'd much rather use a street name or "the road from X to Y".

They were appalled that we had stores open on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. They only allowed you to buy perishable vegetable and the daily paper, but not canned goods or weekly magazines, which had no good excuse to break the sabbath.

It was only the very conservative religious types who gave a damn about the Sabbath. In fact, in general, it sounds like you were probably dealing with older, conservative, religious Afrikaners.

They were shocked (pun) by electrical outlets at shin level. All theirs were at waist level to keep children safe, but then they had killer 220 voltage.

Where in South Africa was this? I've lived in three different houses in Cape Town, two built in the 50s and one in the 70s, and they all had shin-level outlets. I have never, to my recollection, seen a house with most of its outlets at waist level.

Now, some things about South Africa that others find weird:

That we call traffic lights "robots". (No, seriously.)
That you can't pay for petrol or diesel by credit card (though that may soon change).
Our weird university degree system, in which you graduate with a BA or BSc after three years, and then go back for another year to get a BA(Hons) or BSc(Hons).

[Spoons]

That we call traffic lights "robots". (No, seriously.)Not so surprising to me; a South African acquaintance of mine who now lives in Canada still calls them "robots" from time to time.

Our weird university degree system, in which you graduate with a BA or BSc after three years, and then go back for another year to get a BA(Hons) or BSc(Hons).This isn't so odd either--this was the way things were in the province of Ontario when I went through university there. Because Ontario had 13 grades in school (all other Canadian provinces and all US states had only 12), Ontario universities allowed students who had gone through 13 grades of Ontario schooling to graduate with a general bachelor's degree after three years of university study. Those who took four years of university study got an honours bachelor's degree. I think things have changed now that Ontario has done away with Grade 13, but that's the way it was when I did my undergraduate work (early 80s).

[Malthus]

Details? I'm having a hard time thinking of examples, except for the aforementioned 'plugging the car in' (actually, the block heater).

Well, to give a Toronto example ... the PATH underground. Some visitors from warmer climes found this quite a strange innovation.

[Wallenstein]

Nitpicks: escargot.

The Lions are a rugby team selected from the British Isles, but they do not represent Britain or even Britain and Ireland - they aren't really sanctioned by the English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or Irish rugby boards and they don't play the national anthems before matches. The last time there was a British rugby team (the 1908 Olympics) they were a separate entity from the Lions.

The South African team are the Springboks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springbok_(antelope)), not the Spring Bok.

The Aussies are known as "wallabies" in some sports?

[Really Not All That Bright]

Just rugby, AFAIK.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

Sun worshipping: The Taiwanese don’t get the sun worshipping (tanning) culture of the US. Why drown yourself in lethal UV-rays that are responsible for premature aging? They avoid the sun like the plague. Out on the streets in Taiwan, you’ll see people using parasols, wearing wide brimmed hats and gloves, visors, etc. This is partly why so many Asians there don’t look their age.


Your explanation makes it sound like the objection is to the harmfulness of UV-rays but isn`t there actually a cultural prediliction for fair skin as beautiful?

In the U.S. it used to be that fair skin meant you didn`t need to work outside and therefore was good, until eventually it switched completely. I've always wondered if the Asian fair skin = attractive idea was rooted in the same concept or something unrelated.

I once spent a very obnoxious a 3 and a half hour car ride with a Chinese woman who spent the whole trip trying to hide from the sun. It was bad enough that I couldn`t put the top down on a gorgeous summer day, but then she spent the whole trip squirming around like a vampire anyway. This is America, baby, we like our women tanned.

[constanze]

[QUOTE=Fuzzy Dunlop;11318599]In the U.S. it used to be that fair skin meant you didn`t need to work outside and therefore was good, until eventually it switched completely. I've always wondered if the Asian fair skin = attractive idea was rooted in the same concept or something unrelated.[QUOTE]

I think that's the origin in most cultures: for centuries, the only people with a tan would be the peasants who worked in the fields day in, day out, while the nobility, esp. the women, could afford to hide inside.

In the 50s, when airplane travel became affordable, and 90% of the working population slaved away inside offices instead of outdoor fields, being tanned meant you could afford the luxury of taking long vacations in southern locales instead of working each day at the cube farm and vacationing in Southhampton. (Which is why tanning salons became so popular).

In the past was also when thick was beautiful, because it meant you could afford to eat enough. At the turn of the century (19th to 20th), a capitalist showed off his wealth by having his pocket-watch sit snugly in the pocket of his stretched-to-the-limit suit; in the 50s that changed, because now healthy food costs more than cheap fatty sugary food, so the capitalist of today shows off his wealth by having his rolex dangling around his wrist while wearing a track suit.