Take a shower. Every day. Wash your hair as well as your body. Wear deodorant. Brush your teeth twice a day, more if you eat spicy or garlicky food. Wash your clothing between wearings. Shave your legs and armpits if you are female. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES EVER wear a Speedo bathing suit if you are male.
America thanks you. That is all.
I saw a movie about them and another thing they had to deal with is in their culture they get together and do everything as a group. Whereas in the US its more based on your individual effort so they had to learn to do things alone.
Also they were used to back in the Sudan being outside and doing large group dances and I guess that put off some of their US neighbors and they were told to stop.
When my Danish relatives visited they couldnt get over how much stronger the water pressure is in the shower.
From my observations, some folks of the lower classes from South of the border have to be taught that standard US plumbing CAN handle used toilet paper.
And I observed that some immigrants from Somalia needed to be told several times that you do have to follow your supervisor’s directions, in spite of her being a female.
Race is a sensitive subject in the U.S. People will get angry with you if you say the wrong thing, and it’s not always obvious to a newcomer what the wrong thing is. It might be a good idea to avoid the subject until you get an idea of what the issues are.
They need to be taught how to speak 'Murican. :mad:
+1 on this.
I once knew a guy that couldn’t figure out why he was having problems being accepted by Americans. You could smell him from 20 feet away.
The problem is that telling this to someone, no matter how gently, can backfire. There is not always a good way around it.
American slang.
Once a group of us co-workers were sitting around and everybody was bitching about our boss, Dick. Our Russian co-worker spoke up, and said that she had worked many places, with many different people and one thing for certain was that every office has its Dick.
When everybody burst out laughing she sat there confused, not understanding what was so funny.
In another case I know a guy (and he is a real jerk), all of his co-workers called him mf’er. When he asked what it meant they told him it was a term of respect.
He found out the truth when he went to church and called the priest a mf’er.
This may be outdated, but I remember several years ago, my company hired a man originally from China. He had been in the US for a few years getting his degree, and his wife had joined him here.
His new manager recommended that he go to a resale shop and buy a couple of suits, (remember, this was years ago, when men wore suits or sport coats to work) and then, once he had saved some money, get some new suits.
He picked out some pretty ugly suits (light green plaid, bright blue, etc.) at the resale shop, but he was such a nice guy, nobody said anything. Then we noticed his suits were getting smaller and smaller. He could hardly move his arms, and the jackets rode around his waist. One of his coworkers asked him if he’d noticed it. It turned out his wife, not being familiar with wool, and was throwing his suits into the regular laundry, then ironing them.
There are orientation classes for national employees being transferred to the US from Angola. They usually last for a few days and go over the array of legal and cultural tasks that the families will have to take care of when they arrive. Most of them know a good bit about the US, having watched TV shows or contact with US expats they work with so things usually go by pretty fast before they call me into the room to answer any additional questions for those headed to the offices in California ( San Ramon and Bakersfield ). Many questions are centered around what to bring when they get invited to parties, when to take the family to Disneyland, and other things to see. Hot topic items like religion and politics are not a priority since the Angolans are inclined to view these as a private family matter, and the US views on guns are covered in a separate security briefing.
Time expectations. That for most Americans when you’re told the party starts at 7, you’re there around 7. If it’s a dinner party, definitely, if it’s more of a drop in, maybe a little later but really, 7. People from other parts of the world might take “the party starts at 7” to mean “come around 10”.
A handy conversion chart from Fahrenheit to Celsius would help, too.
Canadian here. I spent countless hours explaining to an immigrant that being part of a constitutional Monarchy with Elizabeth 11, Queen of Canada as our head of state does not mean we have to blindly follow her orders to war if she wanted to retake the USA.
In the 1980s I explained to people from many places, including the southern USA ,that the reason everyone had their car plugged in at Lakehead University in the winter was to keep the engine block heaters going. They were not electric cars.
I’m not a fan of watching people snipping stem ends and so forth from bulk fruit and vegetables in stores, but I would never tell someone to stop. If they don’t want to pay for the banana stems, well i will not tell a tiny old grandmother who doesn’t speak English but does have a knife what to do.
Geez. How many people think the UK has designs on the US? Also, don’t most people realize that the Queen is a mostly ceremonial head of state? This person sounds a little goofy, not just ignorant.
I think the most important things to learn are more general-- how to navigate bureaucracies, what to expect from and how to manage the emotional roller coaster of cultural adjustment, how to improve language skills when you are in the fray, how to make social connections across cultures, and how to process ideas and practices that don’t make immediate sense.
Peace Corps publishes a book called “A Few Minor Adjustments” that was a revelation to me. It’s all about how to make sense of the really tough parts of cultural adjustment, strategies for resisting the urge to hide and isolate yourself, and how to understand why you are feeling the things you feel as you adjust. Culture shock follows a very predictable pattern, and it’s easy to recognize when you know what to look for. But without that knowledge, it can be horribly isolating and difficult.
And this varies by social group. In my experience, showing up right on time is likely to mean you get to spend an awkward hour or so with a host who is likely still setting up and not ready for company.
A little bit from Column A, a little bit from Column B. A large part an early 20 something from a country that has a very poor history of democracy, and he hates both the USA and monarchies.
Thais tend to shower multiple times daily. They consider Westerners stinky and wonder why they don’t shower more often.
Not a problem for Thais. Mom-and-pop shops are going by the wayside here with the advent of huge hypermarket chains from Britain. They’re even popping up in rural areas, and the government keeps trying to find ways to help the small neighborhood stores remain solvent, seemingly to no avail.
Mine would be:
-Never run red lights, ever, no matter how traffic seems.
-Don’t ask Americans how much they earn or what their possessions cost.
-Don’t haggle at Walmart and other chain stores. (although I would love to see this happen!)
-Wash/dry clean your clothes after every wearing. Also, how to load a washing machine correctly. Nothing like student apartments for having all the washers broken from overloading.
-Never ask a woman why she doesn’t have children.
-Just because you hear profanity and F-bombs all over the place in movies doesn’t mean it’s acceptable language everywhere in the US.
-What clothing goes together “correctly.” I’ve seen tennis shoes with suits, plaid and florals, and tube socks with skirts and dresses. Also, what levels of formality go with what occasions. It seems like Asian women tend to wear too dressy clothing for a given occasion, and Asian (especially eastern Asian) men arrive underdressed.
Don’t vote Republican!
Common sense is just another way of saying ‘what seems obvious to me’ - and what seems obvious to me may only be obvious because of local familiarity.
I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a door that didn’t have some floor on the other side of it.