What about your country or culture do you “get” is “weird”?
I’ll go first. I’m an American from Michigan, though I have lived overseas.
Ice cold beer. No, our beer is not so bad that is has to be ice cold, but I do get that it seems that way to others. Hey, we like it cold.
Baseball - Now, see, this I have no explanation for. Why, yes, it is boring 99% of the time and extremely slow paced, but it is big here. I have explanation for this. Fun to play, though. Watching it is horrid.
3.** Electoral College** - I mean, I get it and I actually rather support it, but I do get that it must seem weird for a democracy to have something like it.
I’ll add more as I think of them. Please share what culture you are talking about when you introduce yourself.
By the way, this isn’t supposed to be controversial. It’s not a Pit thread or anything. Just be civl, folks.
A lot of people from other countries are confused by gun ownership in the US - why do some folks find it so necessary, why are there so many guns floating around, etc. This was actually one of the things I was coming in to mention.
Please note I’m not taking a stance on the issue, just pointing out that to many foreigners it doesn’t make sense.
Gigantic SUVs and trucks for people who don’t haul things for a living. I’ve got friends and relatives from Europe, they don’t understand why anyone would want to drive a Humvee.
It’s not my culture per se, but tipping in the US for some jobs but not for others is confusing for a lot of people. Especially in hotels that take care to specifically mention that a charge for services is automatically added to your bill, knowing whether or not to tip is a PITA, and helps me enjoy my stay less. I usually just go ahead and tip anyway, but I feel like things could be clearer and everyone would be happy.
Yes, I am a decadant Western Flag-waving American. And I bathe regularly. I don’t stink like livestock (I have many around the ranch, I know. I can “compare”). I shave now and then, wash my hair, armpits and ass (and everywhere inbetween). I use deodorant, and never use “cologne” to mask excessive nasty body odor. I do not foster cheese in my crotch or between my toes.
On second review: I pluck the disgusting hairs out of my nose. You know, the ones about 2 inchs long, looking like spider’s legs? And the ones growing out of the very tip of my nose and my ears. Just a curtesy to my fellow (dash) man. No one should have to look at that shit.
That does not seem weird to me.
Except for the flag waving.
Actually that may be something that seems weird about Sweden, we are not very patriotic. Most of us don’t even bother to celebrate our national day, I think.
Apparently, from the reactions of my British friends to my AIM status messages, the widespread availability of free wifi in coffee shops and libraries is unusual, as is the idea of going out somewhere with one’s laptop to make use of that wifi.
We were just talking about this the other day - I met a guy (mid 20s) who works at a preschool and he said he was totally freaked out when they asked him to help bathe the kids.
“You mean, just dispense soap, right?” said he, dubiously.
The director made an impatient scrubbing gesture under his armpits. “Wash! Help them wash!”
He said he spent his first few weeks glancing over his shoulder in the showers, terrified he was going to be arrested as a pedophile any minute. Even now it makes him nervous. I think Koreans expect pedophiles to be obviously deviant and easy to spot, which is bizarre considering the Jon-Benet Ramsey case a few years ago. But in general it’s not weird for Korean teachers to have physical contact with their students, which tends to freak the Western teachers out a bit at first.
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.
Eat pizza with your hands? And buckets of chicken? - Like how the Bantu eat?
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.
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.
The didn’t understand free radio and TV - they bought annual licenses
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.
I don’t think many people would find that odd. Almost every country - even ones with unitary governments - have the same levels we do (national, regional, municipal).
Some people would find it odd that there are rights “reserved for the states” - I certainly did - but that’s different.
Slight hijack: I once had a roommate who liked watching baseball, but hated watching football. He said that football was too stop-start, and hence very boring.
Hey, I’m just reporting what people who are not Americans have told me. Those comments seem to come most often from people in China, Eastern Europe, and other nations where central authority and central planning play a much stronger role. I recall one occasion where I was having no success in describing different police jurisdictions, or why the Federal government can’t use the army to police high-crime areas, it was just inconceivable to him that there was a law against doing the latter.
Clearly, many in what are considered “western” countries understand our multi-layered government but not everyone is “western”, or from a democracy, or from a nation of huge geographical extent (which is also a factor in multi-layer governments).
And the folks I know from Singapore would dispute having “national, regional, and municipal” layers of government as their nation is a sovereign city-state and all three of those levels are collapsed into one. As just an example of how everyone is not like us.
My coworker is from Germany. She told me she was a bit taken aback by American customer service. The first time she went to a fast food place and the cashier smiled and said “Hi, how are you?”, my coworker actually looked over her shoulder because she thought the cashier must have seen someone she knows. In Germany, both you and the customer service person know that neither of you really care how the other is doing, and you both just want to get your transaction done. Being friendly and chatty in that situation would be considered a bit silly and a waste of time.
Sure, but that’s got nothing to do with multiple levels of government. The Governor of a state can’t send out the National Guard to police high-crime areas either.
Well, obviously. There’s no point in having a regional government if you’ve only got one region, but I would have thought that went without saying.
