# What are some things about your own culture you understand "foreigners" would find weird? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 25, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906 "2009-06-25T03:21:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/141 "2009-06-30T12:46:17Z")
We happily use the names grapefruit, passionfruit and ODDLY kiwifruit. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/142 "2009-06-30T12:49:07Z")
> [@calm\_kiwi](#): > > How often do American’s come in contact with a Kiwi (bird) or a Kiwi (person). Surely getting one name right can’t be that onerous. If I often interacted with kiwibirds and kiwihumans I might be more inclined to differentiate, lest context clues someday prove insufficient. Maybe that’s why kiwihumans say kiwifruit and yanks say kiwi? Please don`t ever feel guilty for calling us yanks. I think I speak for all of us when I say we find it endearing. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/143 "2009-06-30T12:53:04Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > Please don`t ever feel guilty for calling us yanks. Seconded. Although, for those who use it, “seppo” is right out. ---
**Author:** ![StaudtCJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@StaudtCJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StaudtCJ)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/144 "2009-06-30T12:59:37Z")
I must say, I don’t mind a foreigner calling me a Yank, but them’s fightin’ words coming from one of them there unionists (otherwise known as “D\*\*\* Yankees”, or Yanks for short). The War Between the States is not forgotten. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/145 "2009-06-30T12:59:55Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > If I often interacted with kiwibirds and kiwihumans I might be more inclined to differentiate, lest context clues someday prove insufficient. Maybe that’s why kiwihumans say kiwifruit and yanks say kiwi? > > Please don`t ever feel guilty for calling us yanks. > I think I speak for all of us when I say we find it endearing. Please don’t ever hold the delusion that calling you a Yank was endearing. It does rhyme though! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/146 "2009-06-30T14:46:53Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > 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. I’m sorry, I don’t understand this. Korean pre-schools have showers and/or baths, and the kids are expected to bathe in them? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/147 "2009-06-30T17:01:43Z")
> [@calm\_kiwi](#): > > What we can’t understand is why you can’t use the real name for the fruit…do you have a problem between grapes and grapefruit? I don’t understand why foreigners insist upon calling [this kind of thing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rich_tea.jpg) a biscuit when it’s obviously some kind of cookie. It bears little resemblance to an actual biscuit, which looks like [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Runny_hunny.jpg). And don’t even get me started on this “tuna mayonnaise” nonsense, or the whole “jelly”/“jam” issue. It would be so much easier if everyone would just use the _real_ names for things, like we do in America. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/148 "2009-06-30T17:22:57Z")
While we’re on the subject of what people call things, what the rest of the world calls Canadian bacon is not Canadian bacon. Canadian bacon is just like US American bacon. What you all are calling Canadian bacon is back bacon or ham. If you order bacon in a Canadian restaurant, you will get what US Americans traditionally know as bacon. If you order Canadian bacon, the waitress will look at you funny. [This is what Canadians call bacon.](http://blogchef.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/crispy_bacon_1.jpg) [This is what everyone else in the world calls Canadian bacon.](http://www.foodsubs.com/Photos/canadianbacon.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Spectralist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Spectralist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectralist)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/149 "2009-06-30T19:57:21Z")
> [@calm\_kiwi](#): > > What we can’t understand is why you can’t use the real name for the fruit…do you have a problem between grapes and grapefruit? We use the real name for the fruit. The real name for the fruit is, in Canada, simply “kiwi”. It’s not _wrong_ it’s just different then what you call it. Demanding we change the name to kiwifruit would be like me going to the states and demanding they spell colour with a “u”. We have different dialects. That doesn’t make one correct and one incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/150 "2009-06-30T20:20:27Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > –U.S. currency: … coins have no numbers on them to show their value I don’t know how I never noticed this, but it’s pretty strange. Especially the dime, which says ONE DIME instead of TEN CENTS and doesn’t have a 10 anywhere on it. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/151 "2009-06-30T20:24:02Z")
> [@Spectralist](#): > > We use the real name for the fruit. The real name for the fruit is, in Canada, simply “kiwi”. I have to agree here. I am from the US and had never heard “kiwifruit” before. If you go to the market and buy the fruit, the sticker on it says “KIWI.” If this is such a big deal to New Zealanders, then they should lobby the fruit companies to label the fruit using their preferred name. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/152 "2009-06-30T20:24:59Z")
> [@calm\_kiwi](#): > > Excellent! I will no longer feel any guilt in calling Americans Yanks. why should you feel guilty about calling me a yank? I am an american living in new england region and by definition a yankee … and by other countrys standards i am what would traditionally be called a yank. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/153 "2009-06-30T21:01:49Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > [This is what everyone else in the world calls Canadian bacon.](http://www.foodsubs.com/Photos/canadianbacon.jpg) Not quite everyone. Just Americans, I think. I certainly didn’t know of any such thing as “Canadian bacon” - at least, not in any greater sense than “bacon from Canada” - when I was in England. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/154 "2009-06-30T21:17:23Z")
> [@Hedda\_Rosa](#): > > One from England: Sweet popcorn in movie theaters. When to the movies while visiting London and was asked if I wanted my popcorn salty or sweet. > > Blasphemy! Popcorn is meant to be served one way and one way only: drowned in butter and smothered in salt. It is just a butter-and-salt delivery system in fact. Exactly, the few times I actually got popcorn in English theaters my salty popcorn was ruined because every 5th bite or so I’d get a few sugary bites. The taste was so off putting I just wouldn’t risk it anymore and gave up. And whats with the crap they put on pizza? Sprouts, really? And eating boiled chicken cold?!?!? ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/155 "2009-06-30T23:07:53Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Would you believe that this is the first time I’ve ever heard that calling the little fuzzy brown fruit with the green insides just a “kiwi” was offensive to New Zealanders? Seriously, I think 50% of it is that those of us in North America have no idea it’s a problem for anyone. > That said, now that I’ve been informed, I’ll try to change my habits. Eh, it doesn’t both me (Kiwi in living London) in the slightest. It’s not offensive, it’s just, well, it’s on the list of Things Other People Get Wrong Sometimes, Because We Are Not Actually A Very Big Country, along with the ‘no, we really do have airports’ and ‘no, there is no bridge between Auckland and Sydney\*’. It’s not really worth shouting about. And now I’m trying to think of strange things we do, and the only thing I can come up with is… I don’t know, actually. Trend towards hypersensitivity? We have a different benchmark for what constitutes ‘crowded’. I went back home in late January, and, on returning to London, was showing my girlfriend some of my photos, in particular of the couple of days my friends and I had spent at the beach. (Piha and Bethells). She was struck by how empty the beaches were, and I had been annoyed by how crowded they were. Me: _Look at all the other people in the photo!_ Her: What, all ten of them. In all that long beach? Me: YES! God, it wasn’t even a weekend! Her: :dubious: you people are strange. Other things… I got nothing. Little help, guys? \*There is, however, a tunnel ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/156 "2009-07-01T00:15:39Z")
To answer the OP, I used to live in Japan, and here are a few things the Japanese found strange about American culture. Some of these apply more broadly to other Western cultures, some are specifically American. \*Private handgun ownership. Firearms are very strictly controlled in Japan, and while it is possible to get a license for hunting rifles I don’t believe there’s any way for a private citizen to legally own a handgun. Most Japanese can’t understand why it’s so easy for Americans to legally obtain handguns, or why they would want them in the first place. (I frequently had to confess I did not really understand this myself.) \*Single women living on their own rather than with their parents. This certainly isn’t unheard of in Japan, but it’s not especially common. One woman asked me if American women really all had their own apartments “like on _Sex & The City_”. (Probably my favorite “Ah, yes and no…” question.) \*High school students typically going to whatever public high school is closest to their home rather than having to apply and earn admission to a particular school. \*Social events that involve partner dancing, like school dances or dancing at weddings. People see these things in Hollywood movies, but they’re pretty rare in Japan. As far as I could tell there was no such thing as a school dance at all. I’ve known Japanese college students in the US who expressed excitement or nervousness about attending their very first dance. \*Putting butter and salt on rice. Disgusting! \*Putting sugar in green tea. Disgusting! \*Root beer. Disgusting! It tastes like medicine! (I wish I had medicine that tasted like root beer, I love root beer.) \*Brightly, artificially colored foods like breakfast cereal or cake icing. Not really disgusting, just weird and unsettling. (I was rather unsettled to discover that, in Japan, Froot Loops _aren’t_ brightly colored.) \*Not taking off shoes inside the house. Disgusting and unhygienic! \*Different age requirements for drinking and smoking. Why not just have it be the same age for both? \*Different laws in different US states. One of my students observed that in some ways different states in the US are like different countries. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/157 "2009-07-01T00:37:52Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Exactly, the few times I actually got popcorn in English theaters my salty popcorn was ruined because every 5th bite or so I’d get a few sugary bites. The taste was so off putting I just wouldn’t risk it anymore and gave up. > > And whats with the crap they put on pizza? Sprouts, really? > > And eating boiled chicken cold?!?!? Freshly made popcorn in UK cinemas is just a half-arsed import from the US that arrived with multiplexes. I don’t think we were exactly sure what it was supposed to taste like. Before that, “popcorn” meant those horrible bags of caramel-flavoured Butterkist, shelf life approximately 25 years. Sprouts on pizza and “boiled chicken” sound like something out of a Bill Hicks routine, I’m not sure if you’re being serious. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/158 "2009-07-01T00:51:36Z")
> [@Spectralist](#): > > We use the real name for the fruit. The real name for the fruit is, in Canada, simply “kiwi”. > > It’s not _wrong_ it’s just different then what you call it. Demanding we change the name to kiwifruit would be like me going to the states and demanding they spell colour with a “u”. We have different dialects. That doesn’t make one correct and one incorrect. NO the real name for the fruit is a Kiwifruit…you call it a Kiwi out of ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/159 "2009-07-01T01:02:44Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > NO the real name for the fruit is a Kiwifruit…you call it a Kiwi out of ignorance. Agreed; this isn’t about spelling- it’s about applying the correct name to a product; especially when the “incorrect” name has recognised meanings that aren’t a fruit. Ultimately, it’s not a big deal. But please, remember, it’s a Kiwifruit, being a fruit that is from New Zealand (home of the Kiwi). 🙂 Kiwifruit also come from a number of different places, of course- so it’s quite possible the ones with “Kiwi” stickers on them are locally grown in the US or in Europe where they don’t know any better. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/160 "2009-07-01T01:08:19Z")
Just a quick (and polite) thought… for all those that like to eat Kiwis, I got something here _grabs crotch_ that you’re quite welcome to gobble… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906.md?page=9)