Definitely true! :rolleyes:
For Australia:
The rest of it is pretty good, however. This in particular is great advice:
The first couple China ones are off base so i didn’t bother reading further down. Chances are it’s more or less all a steaming load…
ahahahahaha
The prairie what?
Hm. My boss told me to tutoie him after five minutes. Maybe the customer information department of a transit corporation didn’t count as a formal setting.
That’s a new one.
Apparently this person has never taken the metro. We have the same testosterone-repelling knee magnets as everywhere else.
…so you look like as pretentious a little snot as possible.
No, it just means we don’t have any street vendors.
Okay, I’m gonna give her these ones.
That website has really got my goat, for some reason. Perhaps it’s all the implied slights against people not fortunate enough to be American. Many examples from the US section:
“American greetings are generally quite informal. […] a manifestation of the American belief that everyone is equal.” - not like those elitist foreign snobs, then.
“People who like to touch really like touching, and people who do not like to touch really dislike being touched.” - and people who like to state the bleeding obvious really like stating the bleeding obvious.
“Americans smile a great deal, even at strangers” - foreigners, on the other hand, are surly and liable to attack people they don’t know.
“In a country that prides itself on its individualism […] business relationships are formed between companies rather than between people.” - so be an individual, but not on the company’s time?
“Americans do business where they get the best deal and the best service” - unlike Europeans, who are all socialists and accept whatever the Central Planning Comittee tells them to.
“When Americans say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ they mean precisely that. ‘Maybe’ really does mean ‘it might happen’; it does not mean ‘no.’” - damn those inscrutable Japs.
“Americans ask questions – lots of them. They are not ashamed to admit what they do know.” - probably just as well.
“Americans do not have as many customs and taboos concerning gifts as many other cultures have” - simply carry this 400-page summary of American tipping etiquette with you at all times and you’ll be fine.
“Women are leaders in all aspects of American life from business to education to government.” - thank you, America, for leading the way in female emancipation.
“Never assume that a working woman is in a subordinate position.” - she’s not your Filipino maid, you know.
Yours hypersensitively, Usram.
Hey, waddaya know? They’re pretty good for Singapore, except for the “use chewing gum” part :rolleyes: (Damn, we’re never gonna get that out of our hair)
Minor mistakes on “smoking in public places”, and I guess we’re already pretty used to public showing of affection for westerners, even if we don’t do it ourselves.
But other than that, spot on! Wow! Colour me impressed.
Actually, it isn’t. We Americans eat a lot of, er, finger food with our fingers - pizza, things like that, that when I’ve been in Europe everybody seems to eat with a fork. Careful observation of other diners seemed to suggest that we’d get stared at in a big way if we were not to cut up our food and eat it with a knife and fork.
And what’s up with the US one about serving women first? Yeah, I mean, if you’re eating somewhere in 1911 that has a ladies’ menu with no prices on it, I guess.
But I didn’t realize we always stood up to greet people, regardless of gender, until I thought about it.
<giggle> russia … smoking and chain smoking sections … <giggle>
C’mon, don’t bother replying if you’re simply going to be dismissive of material you haven’t even read.
Hee-hee-hee! No spray on the screen (I had just swallowed a mouthful of soda before I got to that one), but thanks for the chuckle, nevertheless. I’ve lived in America for all but (approximately) a little over four years of my life, and I still am not certain how much to tip (and occasionally, when).
–SSgtBaloo
No it’s not. It’s positive, meaning “good luck” or “well done”. Any other finger, mind you, …
Bollocks. No-one pays the slightest attention to stuff like this.
Only for people totally ignorant of context.
Not even remotely true. Women can wear slacks or trouser suits anywhere.
Nonsense. If you give your host a local bottle your support of the industry is appreciated, if a foreign one most people would be interested to compare with the local drop.
Contextual. No more or less so than in North America or Europe.
This is contrasting with many Third World countries in which relationships and family connections are more important than price.
. . . as opposed, I guess, to other countries where it’s perfectly all right to bray “HEY!! LOOKIT THE GIMP!!”
Usram: Most of those are fairly useful for someone who’s not from an American Background. It might be hard to grasp but many things that seem perfectly obvious to you bewilder people who haven’t grown up in that social setting.
It’s not elitism. Americans genuinely DO believe everyone is equal far more than most other countries. Contrast this with, say, India where a caste system has been part of the natural order for many hundreds of years.
It’s not at all obvious that there exist two extremes with little middle ground. I’ve never noticed this about americans but I would assume the status quo around the world is that most people either uniformly love being touched (italians for example) or uniformly hate being touched (I dunno? the English?). To have both groups in one culture is note-worthy
In most cultures, random strangers smiling at you is disturbing if not downright creepy. Especially the 24hr cheesy fake grin that service people seem to have on.
These are two different concepts. Individuals get to make decisions about individuals but, at the same time, individuals rarely make decisions for companies by themselves. This is a contrast to many cultures where a multi-billion dollar buisness deal may be settled by a meeting with one person and a handshake with no consultation by other people in the company.
Americans have an almost obsession with getting the best price at the exclusion of much else. Witness the rise of Walmart for example. Some other cultures tend to value non-quantifiable things like ambiance and personal relation or religion. There might be certain bars that protestants attend and others that only catholics attend.
More accurate than you could possibly imagine. There are many asian countries where no is never, ever spoken in a buisness negotiation. This can be very confusing for a foriegner even when it’s perfectly obvious for someone who grew up with maybe meaning no.
There are many cultures where the shame of being ignorance is less than the shame of appearing ignorant. People will blithely continue one doing something catastrophically wrong rather than work up the courage to admit they don’t know how to do something.
Hoo boy, you haven’t seen custom and taboo if you think tipping culture is bad. Try about 80 bajillion different infections when saying yes that manage to convey exactly what person A thinks of person B and what person A expects person B to think of person A now that person B has heard what inflection person A has used to say yes to person B.
Yes, believe it or not, many cultures might automatically assume the woman IS a fillipino maid. Not exactly a gaffe you get the chance to make twice.
I recently read an interview with a thalidomide victim - he said the only place he ever felt comfortable was in Brazil, where people were quite open about asking questions, staring etc - I guess he just felt it’s far better to be honest than to pretend that there’s nothing unusual.
Oh, NO! I’ve been making an IDIOT of myself, haven’t I?
Shouldn’t this be on this list for every country? Or du ze Gehrmons take great joy in heeringk yu imitate zehr akzent?
Maybe you should try an antibiotic or something.
I think they missed one:
German:[indent]“The war?”
“What war?”
“There was a war?”
“Nobody told me there was a war.”
“When did it happen?”
“Where was it?”
“How come nobody ever tells me these things?!?”
[indent]
(Man! I really gotta brush up on my tags!)
–SSgtBaloo