USUAL in your country but NOT anywhere else.
-
Southern Europe here where the sun is also a deadly laser. Only parasols you can see are held by Asian tourists. Most people don't even wear sunscreen.
-
what is that you usually do or see in your country or area but is weird to do in other area you have traveled or vice versa??
like it is unusual to wear footwear indoors in asia.Civilians openly carrying handguns
-
Monoculture. I live in Canada, and it's pretty rare for a person, and especially a group, to have only one culture they draw from to firm their habits and identity. Even immigrants have their home and whatever mishmash of a culture their work ends up with. Its somewhat easy to tell travelers apart from residents by them having a discernible accent. If I can tell your accent is Irish, and not just some combination of Irish, British and Ukrainian, then your not here permanently.
And honestly that's what I love about Canada and why we are the best country in the world. We're a mosaic rather than a melting pot. Each culture that comes here contributes something to the Canadian Zeitgeist that gets disseminated to everyone else, like spicing up an otherwise boring W.A.S.P existence.
When my family moved here from Portugal, they managed an apartment building in order to have a place to live while my father worked construction and my mother was a housekeeper. (Yeah...yeah...I know...it doesn't get any more Portuguese than that)
Anyway, I was just a toddler and the family was immediately befriended by the older Ukrainian lady next door and we soon became a part of her extended family for everything from christmas to birthdays, etc. My first memories are of toddling down the hall in my pjamas first thing in the morning to "Auntie Anne's" apartment. She was more my grandmother than my biological grandmothers who lived in Portugal at the time.
Through them, we learned kaiser. My mother learned how to make peirogies, cabbage rolls, etc...
We are without a doubt the most Ukrainian Portuguese family to have ever existed and I love it.
Sorry...got nostalgic there for a moment. Auntie Anne passed away decades ago and I still think about her sometimes.
-
The societal problems if the US has been covered by others, but here are some culture shock ones I've experienced, in no particular order:
- still use personal checks
- put down knife after cutting your food, move fork to dominant hand
- drive through everything, including alcohol purchases
- horse and buggy on highway
- doorknobs instead of handles
- almost everyone has air conditioning, so doors and windows stay closed in summer
- double hung windows
- carry water bottles everywhere
- gas stoves and ovens are by far more popular than electric by a good margin
- in sink garbage disposals
almost everyone has air conditioning, so doors and windows stay closed in summer
When you walk outside and are practically swimming in the humidity that ac is a godsend. My windows mostly stay closed so I don't drown/suffocate lol
-
The police kills more people every year than the amount of people killed in mass shootings since 1983. They also repeatedly ignore reports of people who go on to commit school shootings.
You should look into common sense pig control. I think that would save more lives than just being hysterical about AR-15s.
2024
Police- 1270
Mass shootings- 500ish (actually a down year)
While I agree we need police reform, let's be accurate.
Both problems need extensive work.
-
Easy: school shootings, together with politician denial about the causes of this, guns, and lack of regulation for who owns them, make owning guns easier than getting a driver's license.
Super sad, but here we are.
That was my first thought too.
-
Monoculture. I live in Canada, and it's pretty rare for a person, and especially a group, to have only one culture they draw from to firm their habits and identity. Even immigrants have their home and whatever mishmash of a culture their work ends up with. Its somewhat easy to tell travelers apart from residents by them having a discernible accent. If I can tell your accent is Irish, and not just some combination of Irish, British and Ukrainian, then your not here permanently.
I had a prof in college from Canada, whose parents were German and Korean, and you could hear both accents at the same time. I never encountered such a thing. Also funny that he didn't have a single bit of Canadian accent.
-
East and Southeast Asia in general. Umbrellas are not just for rain, but protection from the sun as well.
They don't protect you against the sun, unless you've got one with a special layer on it.
-
They don't protect you against the sun, unless you've got one with a special layer on it.
Pretty sure they meant it protects you from the heat of the sun. Like a cowboy hat or rice hat protects you from the sun
-
2024
Police- 1270
Mass shootings- 500ish (actually a down year)
While I agree we need police reform, let's be accurate.
Both problems need extensive work.
Oh whoop, wrong. There's been only 14 deaths. Which one of these are actual mass shootings and not something the FBI defines as one but the media doesn't? Like a bunch of gangbangers shooting at each other, wounding nobody, and causing a stampede that results in people twisting their ankles? That's considered a mass shooting by the FBI.
I pulled the numbers straight from here. Since 1983, 1176 people were killed in mass shootings.
Also, implying that the "mass shooting problem" requires "extensive work" is not good optics. All that America needs to do is suppress extremist right wing bullshit and mass shootings will cease to exist. Controlling the police on the other hand would require a lot more political power and a lot of reforms, but it would both reduce the amount of deaths AND curb down mass shootings at the same time because literally every single mass shooter only got to commit it because the cops didn't care.
-
Apparently Germany is one of the few (the only? Who knows) country to prefer carbonated water.
It's literally called "Danish water" here in Denmark, though I don't like it
-
what is that you usually do or see in your country or area but is weird to do in other area you have traveled or vice versa??
like it is unusual to wear footwear indoors in asia.Tipping as a social obligation when eating at dine in restaurants which in turn allows the waiter to be paid less by the employer and theoretically lowers menu prices.
-
I haven't seen anyone using parasols/umbrellas when it's too sunny in UK, but it's pretty common in Korea. I don't think I've seen them in Europe in general either. No idea for anywhere else to be honest.
Oh believe me it's coming. UK pays weather roulette a lot, and an umbrella is the perfect weapon
-
Apparently Germany is one of the few (the only? Who knows) country to prefer carbonated water.
"klassik oder ohne?"
"mit scharf bitte, danke" -
what is that you usually do or see in your country or area but is weird to do in other area you have traveled or vice versa??
like it is unusual to wear footwear indoors in asia.Two front doors for a single terraced 2 bedroom house.
-
Italy: always offering (and accepting) food or drinks while visiting. It’s impossible and/or incredibly rude to pass by a friend’s house without getting at least a coffee or a glass of water.
Netherlands: cold lunch. Traditionally, you’d have only one hot meal a day, and lunch would be sandwiches. I don’t mean to say that sandwiches don’t happen in other countries, but that hot lunches are basically unheard of in NL.
US: everyone has one or multiple cars. Walking to the grocery store means you are basically destitute. (That was quite the culture shock!)
wrote last edited by [email protected]As a clarification, that last one is definitely NOT true about all places in the US, it very much depends on which area you live in. In NYC few people own a car even if they're quite well off. No one here drives to get their regular groceries.
-
The societal problems if the US has been covered by others, but here are some culture shock ones I've experienced, in no particular order:
- still use personal checks
- put down knife after cutting your food, move fork to dominant hand
- drive through everything, including alcohol purchases
- horse and buggy on highway
- doorknobs instead of handles
- almost everyone has air conditioning, so doors and windows stay closed in summer
- double hung windows
- carry water bottles everywhere
- gas stoves and ovens are by far more popular than electric by a good margin
- in sink garbage disposals
put down knife after cutting your food, move fork to dominant hand
what the fuuck
-
Apparently Germany is one of the few (the only? Who knows) country to prefer carbonated water.
Ugh i hated that about Germany. When you ask for a water they bring you a seltzer. If you want water you have to specifically ask for "still water". Like what?! That's crazy nonsense. Water is one of the most basic elements of life as we know it, you can't make the word for water mean anything other than what it's always meant. I mean obviously you can, but it seems insanely dumb
-
I lived in NJ. When i randomly said i didn’t have a car, some colleagues gave me pitying looks. I heard NY is its own little microcosm, but it seemed in general US is very car centric, so much so that there were areas I literally couldn’t reach by foot.
-
Cheating on your spouse with someone at the company julefrokost (christmas work thing).
Denmark 🫤
https://cphpost.dk/2016-12-07/news/a-shocking-affair-danes-lead-european-infidelity-charts/
I remember something similar happening in the US recently...
