The strangeness factor in America (when I say America, I mean United States of America) is everywhere. For a foreigner it is sometimes funny, sometimes outrageous and sometimes downright annoying! Without labelling the quirks, I am going to go ahead and simply list them.
To turn on a switch, you have to lift it up.
Turn the key in the anticlockwise direction to lock and clockwise to unlock.
Except at homes, the doors have to be pulled outwards by someone trying to enter. I still stand outside restaurants or stores and try pushing the door!
Candy means chocolate and jelly means jam.
No tissues, only paper towel.
In restaurants, there is the appetizer, which is the appetizer and then entrée, which is the main dish, generally a protein and sides which are carbs (like rice, bread, pasta) and vegetables. You will always be served water with ice or ice cold water. Every step of the way you can customize your food, like if you order a steak then you can ask for it to be rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, well done. If your appetizer is a salad, you can choose from 20 different dressings. Your sides can be salted, not salted, peppered, not peppered, cooked or not cooked. Of course your drink will only have about a hundred or so ways in which it can be served. The drinks generally don't have size small, starts with medium, large, extra large and free refills. If at all you find small it will be about 700ml or so.
I am not going into coffee ordering right now because I'm not much of a coffee drinker. For those ardent lovers who want to learn, http://www.wikihow.com/Order-at-Starbucks
Mandatory 15-20 % tip at the end. You ask for the check ( by the way they don't do cheQUE, only check, even for the bank document) and pay by bills or card.
Vehicles are left hand drive and if you come from a right hand drive country, it will take a while to get used to driving or even catching buses. Chances are you will be standing on the wrong side of the road to take a bus! Highways are freeways and on freeways, you don't overtake but pass. This had me confounded. The sign generally reads, stay on right except to pass. It took me forever to figure this because in the rest of the world, you let others pass.
Fill gas, not petrol in gallons, not litres(which is liters, by the way. Like centre is center here). Measure distances in miles, weight in pounds and temperature in Fahrenheit.
Shopping is complex and time consuming. For instance you have to choose from thirty different types of bread, jams, eggs, cheeses, meat, fish, cookies (biscuits that are sweet), crackers (biscuits that are salty), snacks like chips, nachos, tortillas, salsa, hummus, cakes. There is also the organic and non organic. Everything comes in a multitude of varieties.
To find your size of clothing or shoes is nothing short of completing a course in college, which by the way is called school. No items in a grocery store will have prices on them and they change every week! To keep track of your spending becomes a real challenge.
The national sport is football, in which by the way the ball is never ever kicked.
Standard voltage in homes is 110V.
Format for writing date is mm/dd/year and this always messes up my circuitry!!
As abruptly as I started, so I end. I am not sure if every foreigner finds most of the above listed different. Maybe you can add to the list if I have missed any.
To turn on a switch, you have to lift it up.
Turn the key in the anticlockwise direction to lock and clockwise to unlock.
Except at homes, the doors have to be pulled outwards by someone trying to enter. I still stand outside restaurants or stores and try pushing the door!
Candy means chocolate and jelly means jam.
No tissues, only paper towel.
In restaurants, there is the appetizer, which is the appetizer and then entrée, which is the main dish, generally a protein and sides which are carbs (like rice, bread, pasta) and vegetables. You will always be served water with ice or ice cold water. Every step of the way you can customize your food, like if you order a steak then you can ask for it to be rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, well done. If your appetizer is a salad, you can choose from 20 different dressings. Your sides can be salted, not salted, peppered, not peppered, cooked or not cooked. Of course your drink will only have about a hundred or so ways in which it can be served. The drinks generally don't have size small, starts with medium, large, extra large and free refills. If at all you find small it will be about 700ml or so.
I am not going into coffee ordering right now because I'm not much of a coffee drinker. For those ardent lovers who want to learn, http://www.wikihow.com/Order-at-Starbucks
Mandatory 15-20 % tip at the end. You ask for the check ( by the way they don't do cheQUE, only check, even for the bank document) and pay by bills or card.
Vehicles are left hand drive and if you come from a right hand drive country, it will take a while to get used to driving or even catching buses. Chances are you will be standing on the wrong side of the road to take a bus! Highways are freeways and on freeways, you don't overtake but pass. This had me confounded. The sign generally reads, stay on right except to pass. It took me forever to figure this because in the rest of the world, you let others pass.
Fill gas, not petrol in gallons, not litres(which is liters, by the way. Like centre is center here). Measure distances in miles, weight in pounds and temperature in Fahrenheit.
Shopping is complex and time consuming. For instance you have to choose from thirty different types of bread, jams, eggs, cheeses, meat, fish, cookies (biscuits that are sweet), crackers (biscuits that are salty), snacks like chips, nachos, tortillas, salsa, hummus, cakes. There is also the organic and non organic. Everything comes in a multitude of varieties.
To find your size of clothing or shoes is nothing short of completing a course in college, which by the way is called school. No items in a grocery store will have prices on them and they change every week! To keep track of your spending becomes a real challenge.
The national sport is football, in which by the way the ball is never ever kicked.
Standard voltage in homes is 110V.
Format for writing date is mm/dd/year and this always messes up my circuitry!!
As abruptly as I started, so I end. I am not sure if every foreigner finds most of the above listed different. Maybe you can add to the list if I have missed any.
5 comments:
When the kids here say as 'The world' that means they are refering only to USA.
Really nice! I still struggle with the date sometimes! There are days when I just stare at the paper when asked to enter the date :)
Just some observations.. maybe you've already googled/spoken about it, but just in case:
The 15-20% tip is because the wait staff in US makes less than minimum wage (as low as $2-$3 per hour from what I have heard). Tips are what they live on, so no tip means not much money for that day. It is a twisted way of the restaurant owners pushing the load of paying for the staff on the customers. I have read many debates but still am not convinced why wait staff can't be paid minimum wage or above.
They do kick in football! At kickoff to start the game and also after a touchdown for the extra point. Still not really "football" for us, they just wanted to be different!
No tissue, only paper towel - as in they are called paper towel? Because that still gets me. Or you mean facial tissues are not common on the west coast? Here we have tissues on every counter/desk/table.
As for other differences:
1) Kids don't call you uncle and aunty. I am Ms. Vinitha sometimes, just Vinitha most of the time. I don't mind it at all, but my parents found it weird when they were called by name so often.
2) Hugs for hello and goodbye. Again..Parents were weirded out :D
3) When we met people for the first time back home, it was very common to ask about what their parents did, how many siblings, where were they "really" from, etc. Here you don't ask such personal questions until you really know the person. First conversation is more about work, hobbies, etc.
4) People have right of way while crossing roads. Not just at stop signs and lights, but even at the lot for stores/malls, on smaller roads etc. You don't have to be scared about being run down by a car when you try to cross.
I guess they are all more about people and relationships that things or experiences. But just some of the things I noticed when I first moved.
You know.. a lot of this could be New Englander thing. Just like with any other big country, social norms are so different in different parts.
Yes Kumar! They do, well for all purposes their world is self sufficient and it is drilled into their heads that they live in the world of America 😊
Nice observations Vini! Sorry, for some reason I didn't get a notification that you had commented, just saw these now.
Yeah, I know the reason behind the tip and I think it's one other face of ruthless capitalism 😞
Didn't know about football, guess I have never watched a match end to end but thanks for educating me.
Yeah I mean that they call tissue paper, paper towel. So in my school if I would ask the kids to not waste too much tissue while drying their hands they will tell me that is paper towel, not tissue paper!
Your 1,2 and 3 spot on! Although we still don't do too much hugging yet. Maybe we are not on that level of friendship yet with many. But 4, I am not sure. In principle, pedestrians have right of way and Seattle is a very gentle city, good drivers, but even then, as a pedestrian you have to be cautious. There are times when a car hasn't seen me and if I wee not cautious I would have been run over!
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