AMEN to that!
You’re thinking of same-sex friends holding hands in public. Panache is referencing gay and lesbian romantic couples engaging in public displays of affection.
No, I have lived in Europe for 30 years. I stand corrected on the Scandinavian thing, but it is still not a ‘European norm’ to leave your child outside a restaurant while you eat.
The example you found for France was a child left outside a shop which was to small for the pushchair to get into. Leaving the child outside such a small shop while you go in and look is different from leaving a child outside a restaurant while you go in and have a meal.
As one of the articles points out, even leaving a child outside a shop in a pushchair wouldn’t happen in England, ever since the Jamie Buger case which was over 10 years ago.
It is also rare to see a child being left in a car while the parent dashes to a cash machine since cars containing small children were stolen.
It really is more down to individuals rather than being the’ done thing’, Sweden and Denmark apart.
I wouldn’t call it a Scandinavian norm, either. This morning, when I left for work, I saw the lady who lives downstairs leave her 4-month-old outside the front door to our apartment building, sleeping in his carriage. This is a fairly normal occurrence in Finland. However, you don’t usually see parents leave awake infants outside alone for any great length of time.
My grandads were an Alabama coal miner and a North Carolina Tobacco farmer.
I DARE you to get more southern than that.
Ya’ll got me there, but my Grandfather was from Alabama or Georgia depending upon who he recounted his origins to. 
His Wife was from Illinois, but please don’t tell anyone.
If it’s obvious they don’t like their jobs, they’re not doing the pretending very well. And they need another job.
Ooh, I thought of one that I don’t think has been mentioned yet!
Bargaining.
In the U.S., the price of something is whatever amount is listed on the price tag. In almost every case (except things like second-hand shops or arts and crafts), the salesperson has no ability to adjust the price down. He or she will be embarrassed if you try and will think you are a cheap jerk for trying (and for embarrassing him/her). In some other cultures, bargaining is expected and a person who pays full asking price is a fool.
Plus sales tax!
French think talking about money = crass.
I use them all the time. Not only is it way cheaper and tree-saving, but most importantly, when I blow my nose with tissue I get chapped crusty bits around my nostrils, and when I use fabric my nose stays baby-soft.
(Everyone needs a baby-soft nose!)
It’ll never happen, one month maybe, end it?..forget about it. The 2008 Olympics are about face, and that is all, China wont change. I promise you, any westerner spending more than 2 weeks in China will understand; everything your mother stopped you doing as a child is common in China.
In the U.S., there are differences between the NASCAR South, the ‘proper’ South, the Northeast corrider, the Midwest and the Left Coast, just to name a few.
In the NASCAR south, you could come to a party with your own cooler and case of beer which is intended only for your personal consumption and no one would see this as rude, but in the Northeast, you’d be a freak, unless you live in a very rural area.
In the Northeast, we expect everything done as soon as possible, but if someone from New York or Philly travelled out West the sheer turtle’s pace of some clerks and others would be perceived as rude.
I travel internationally and deal with many folks from around the world, and my personal ‘style’, which is quite American, is seen as rude or confusing. My personal style is to interject comedy and to lighten up any mood in a meeting room, or on a conference call. Those familiar with American business get along fine with this, but those who aren’t don’t understand any of it and seem to be put off by it, and I’ve been perceived as rude.
Not nessesarily so. If you are buying a lot, discounts are often available. A question like “is there a case price?” are perfectly reasonable. And, sometimes if you are buying quite a bit of unrelated items, you can get stuff like free delivery.
I’ve never witnessed that in Switzerland (except in gays parades).
I think it’s gratifying to live in countries (add Switzerland) where you can leave toddlers alone or see young girls walking alone and safely in the streets. Well, maybe not in large cities.
Indirectness. I lived in Japan for a while and it drove me mad that no one would just come out and tell me anything, especially given that my grasp of the language and culture was pretty weak and could reasonably be expected to make blunders.
For example, one unseasonably warm spring day, I wore a short-sleeved shirt and skirt to the school I worked at to be comfortable. Everyone, and I mean everyone, asked me, “are you cold?” “Aren’t you cold?” “You look cold.” I was baffled–it was 85 damn degrees out–what was their problem? Turns out it wasn’t yet time for the students to switch to summer uniforms, so I was basically rubbing their faces in the fact that I was comfy and they were sweating to death in their winter uniforms. Couldn’t someone have just said so? Nooo, it might have hurt my feelings. As though I’d much rather feel like a jackass when I finally figure out the secret code.
Interestingly, as much as I hated (still do hate) the indirectness, it took me the better part of a year to shake off the habit once I returned to the States. I had a lot of moments of being coy but then thinking, “Geez, are you stupid or what? Do I really have to spell it out for you?”
Well argued. In fact, much more so than your prior post. I cannot find anything in this post to take exception to. However, I stand by my conclusion that this is an issue that is off-topic for the thread, in that, as you noted, this goes way beyond “rude” and has to with with cultural hate, not merely insensitivity to local custom.
Dave Barry wrote about this once (in his book on Japan)…he was talking to a travel agent, saying that he wanted to take a train from town A to Town B. There was no such train, but the agent wouldn’t say so. He just kept saying…“so, you want to go from A to B?” “Yes.” “By train?” “Yes…” “A to B…???” and on and on…
We have no bargaining culture in the UK, but in smaller shops (or for services) you’ll often hear people say “how much for cash?”, as many vendors like the idea of avoiding the tax man (and avoiding credit card fees).
One trait I’ve seen mentioned elsewhere on SDMB that ticks off Americans is the habit of certain cultures (I’m thinking Somali?) to click fingers to attract attention - in the UK, and I guess the States, this would not go down well!!