Tc: 16 People On Things They Couldn't Believe About America Until They Moved Here

[China]

16 People On Things They Couldn’t Believe About America Until They Moved Here

 

A lot of people around the world have ideas of what America is like, possibly thanks to Hollywood, or their local news channels, and maybe from what they’ve heard from families and friends. But then, they came here, to the grand old United States and their minds exploded.

 

1. Rakib Islam

I am originally from Bangladesh and here are a few things that I find hard to explain to peeps back home.

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• Fruits and vegetables are way more expensive than meat and poultry.
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• That, generally speaking, the poor is more obese than the rich.
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• A lot of couples adopt children, sometimes in spite of having their own, and treat them exactly like their own. (To me, this alone is a marker of a great people)
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• By and large, people do not carry cash.
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• That you address your boss (and some of your professors) by some abbreviated variation of their first name. And that applies to pretty much everyone, regardless of how much older they are than you.
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• Parents can get arrested for physically punishing their children.
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• Severe poverty, homelessness, etc, no matter how limited, actually exist. Even in America.
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• A name as common and as easy to pronounce as mine is almost invariably incomprehensible to most Americans.
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• America is literally HUGE. My home country is roughly the size of Florida, one of the fifty states.
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• In spite of the society being openly hedonistic and liberal, the social norms and standards still have very strong conservative religious influences.
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• People don’t really care about the FIFA World Cup even though USA qualifies.
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• The importance of credit rating/ credit score.
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• Return policy.
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• The history behind Thanksgiving.
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• Black Friday and the frenzy associated with it.
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• Amazingly friendly, hospitable and helpful people. Yet, a very conveniently private lifestyle.
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• That, American foreign policy is a very inaccurate reflector of public consensus.
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• Grinding. The dance form.
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• That you cannot purchase alcohol unless you are 21 but can purchase a gun if you are 18.
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Click on the link for more

[Bang]

Lunchtime reading for the day!

Thanks.

 

~Bang

[Mr. Sinister]

 

When I taught overseas for a couple years (South Pacific island nation), this is what my close friends expressed disbelief over:

• That I have never, ever, ever seen anyone firing a gun from a moving vehicle. They think this is happening constantly.

 

I lol'd

[Corcaigh]

Here's ten at random from my own perspective as an immigrant from a place that is not a Third World ****hole:

 

(1) Food portions are just ridiculous in size. Early on when we went to eat out we ordered appetizer, entree and dessert each. I ate it all and thought I was going to die. Mr Creosote was a real possibility

 

(2) I can't buy a bottle of liquor in a supermarket, or after 9pm on a weekday. And when we arrived there were no opening hours on a Sunday ... since relaxed. The gym and gun store is open 24/7 but an Irishman can't get a bottle of whiskey?

 

(3) Genuine helpfulness - where I came from most folks have the patience with strangers of a New Yorker trying to board the subway during rush hour. Here, if you ask for directions in the city the typical citizen is not going to mug you and steal your wallet. When a store attendant here asks if they can help you they are not just taking a closer look at you to make sure you are not shoplifting.

 

(4) Extreme food options when ordering - for the love of God I'm perfectly happy with the ham sammich you have listed on the menu. Give me everything listed. No I don't want to have a conversation about which of the 35 ingredients I do, or do not want to customize today.

 

(5) Open doors, delivered packages - it was a shock when our realtor was showing us a round before we bought our first house and she would leave her car open with her purse on the front seat. I'm sure that doesn't happen in urban areas, but even in the suburbs in the old country people wouldn't leave doors unlocked, garages open etc. And being genuinely amazed the first time I ordered a PC by mail (costing several thousand at the time) and it was left on the doorstep in plain view as no-one was home. 

 

(6) Poverty in rural areas living side by side with opulence. Rusting trailers with abandoned furniture and appliances outside, with McMansions next door.

 

(7) House sizes are extreme in the burbs and countryside, often poorly furnished relative to the property size. A preference for more space more than nice things

 

(8) Divided by a common language. When you ask me what I want to drink and I say wawter, not waaahder, is it that ****ing hard to comprehend what I want? Similarly, on my ham sammich I would like some tomahto. Unless I say tomaytoe is it impossible for you to work out which of the options I am asking for?

 

(9) Importance of individual liberty ... to drive through red lights and put the lives of others at risk. Freedom to be a complete douchebag at no consideration of others.

 

(10) Celebrate everything - but I quite like this as taking any excuse to be sociable and get together. We didn't mark high school graduation where I came from, just an assembly with awards for the best. Here I attended my son's preschool graduation and grandparents had traveled long distances to be there and entire boxes of Kleenex were needed to wipe away the tears of joy at their little darling's accomplishment.

[Riggo-toni]

It's because the gun store is open 24/7 that we're more cautious about when we let you Irish buy whiskey...

[Riggo-toni]

When I was in Italy at a language school there was an article the class read about TV in America that stated the average American watches 10 hours of TV a day and the average home has at least 5 TV sets (this was in 1990, before everybody's phone and tablet became a part time TV, and before everyone's bigass TV got pushed aside for a dirt cheap HDTV flatscreen) . When I protested that the average home has 2 TVs and pointed out that it was physically impossible for someone to work 8-9 hrs, sleep 8 hrs, eat, and watch TV for 10 hours, noone seemed to believe me. They insisted that Americans had TVs in every room of the house. None of them were speaking from actual experience, but it was in the article, and they had seen it in American movies.....

[Rocky21]

That was a great read China.  Thanks for the link. 

[DC9]

(2) I can't buy a bottle of liquor in a supermarket, or after 9pm on a weekday. And when we arrived there were no opening hours on a Sunday ... since relaxed. The gym and gun store is open 24/7 but an Irishman can't get a bottle of whiskey?

 

You can buy liquor from the supermarket if you lived in Alaska.  But it's obviously not commonplace across the US, or anywhere else that I've seen.  I think they do that to minimalize the need/burden to travel with all of the snow, though.

[JamesMadisonSkins]

First shock to me when I left the country for the first time to go on an ASB trip was walking into this central american grocery store (in a nice area of town) and having a liquor section and airplane bottles in the front near the checkout lanes. 

 

Also ... was shocked by the open sale of alcohol. You could buy a bottle of beer basically anywhere, and drink it just about anywhere.

Also ... I've caught myself wondering about perceptions of the US before. I honestly think one of the coolest, most fascinating things you can do is host a foreign student or a tourist and show them around. I would gladly take them to an urban/modern setting where you have the more fit, active people of society and then drive them 45 minutes out of the city and to a walmart, and show them the opposite side. Having been born and raised in NoVa and having since moved to a rural area ... has it never been more obvious and apparent that fat people not only exist, but are the majority in the rural communities and this is the image that most around the World tend to see (fat, lazy slobs v. active, healthy people). 

[zoony]

Pretty funny to hear someone from India be critical of anything in a foreign country.

[zoony]

 

(10) Celebrate everything - but I quite like this as taking any excuse to be sociable and get together. We didn't mark high school graduation where I came from, just an assembly with awards for the best. Here I attended my son's preschool graduation and grandparents had traveled long distances to be there and entire boxes of Kleenex were needed to wipe away the tears of joy at their little darling's accomplishment.

Good post. I will do Europe

1. Ice is not valuable. Learn the recipe, make it, and distribute it freely you bass ackward idiots

2. Deodorant works. Use it

3. Stop confusing culture with history. They are two entirely different things. Culture is something you used to have. History is what you have now.

4. So the entire city closes down at 5 pm? Yah, that makes it convenient. Nice job you lazy ****s

5. 32 hour work week, 2 hour lunches... Could you be any more worthless if you tried? Actually, that's jealousy talking, I admit it

6. In Europe, the countryside is the playground of aristocrats and the wealthy. In America, it is rednecks and trailers. In Europe only the cultural elite hunt and fish. They will outfit themselves in $10,000 hunting atire and a handmade Italian firearm to go onto private land and take game. In America, it is a guy named Cletus in Wal Mart camouflage with a Remington

7. Europe has a societal pride that is lacking in the United States. For instance, there is very little littering in places like Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium. It doesn't make sense, why would you litter in your own country? In the United States, **** it, the liberals will clean it up. Of course, this European attitude lends itself perfectly to nationalism and World Wars, but, whatever. You take the good with the bad

[dfitzo53]

The idea that fruits and vegetables (in general) are way more expensive than meat and poultry (in general) is just plain incorrect.  I'm not sure how a person would even come to that conclusion.

[SkinsHokieFan]

The thing that I always hear from people who come over here are how big the grocery stores are and how much stuff you can get.

 

A Wegemans could feed a small city in practically every other country in the world

[Corcaigh]

Good post. I will do Europe

1. Ice is not valuable. Learn the recipe, make it, and distribute it freely you bass ackward idiots

 

 

 

Bill Bryson has written a little on the differences ... he grew up here but then spent most of his adult life in England (I think).

 

In England, if you ask for ice in a pub you will probably get a single cube with your warm coke, and the ice cube may have a wasp stuck to it. Here you get most of a ****ing iceberg and little or no soda, but you're expected to drink ten free refills to use the ice up.

The thing that I always hear from people who come over here are how big the grocery stores are and how much stuff you can get.

 

A Wegemans could feed a small city in practically every other country in the world

 

It depends on where you are from. The typical Sainsbury's or Tesco's in the England suburbs would put Giant and Harris Teeter to shame. Wegman's is a bit of a monster.

 

But to add ... you wouldn't get a large supermarket every few miles. Seriously, four Harris Teeters in a couple of mile radius of the middle of Ashburn.

 

[Predicto]

The idea that fruits and vegetables (in general) are way more expensive than meat and poultry (in general) is just plain incorrect.  I'm not sure how a person would even come to that conclusion.

 

They shop at Whole Paycheck...  err Whole Foods?

[Elessar78]

• deleted

[btfoom]

The thing that I always hear from people who come over here are how big the grocery stores are and how much stuff you can get.

 

A Wegemans could feed a small city in practically every other country in the world

 

Absolutely.

 

We had a Japanese exchange student spend 2 weeks with us last year.  She was completely amazed by the size of the local grocery stores.  We spent about 1/2 hour just walking through the aisles and looking at all of the different choices.

 

I laughed when she went into a near frenzy upon seeing some 'Hello Kitty' candy and small cakes. She bought 5, just to take home.

 

Though, to be fair, she thought it was funny that none of the kids here have their own pocket translator.  She had this really cool device, slightly larger than an IPhone, that let her speak the Japanese words for something and get an 'English' translation back.

[Forehead]

 

Though, to be fair, she thought it was funny that none of the kids here have their own pocket translator.  She had this really cool device, slightly larger than an IPhone, that let her speak the Japanese words for something and get an 'English' translation back.

 

Did it work?  I've seen English - Asian language translations before, and they never seem to work right, regardless of which language it is.

 

As for mine, this is my very limited observation since I haven't spent much time in other countries as an adult.

 

1. Firm Prices here.  I was amazed at the barter system that is prevalent in other countries, that you can argue stuff down.

 

2. Healthcare...complain all you want about American health care, but I spent a few weeks in Detroit doing border work with Canada a few years back (I've told this story before).  What struck me the most was how many ambulances come through the border into the United States.  I spoke to people on both sides about this, and got a variety of opinions, but what it generally boils down to is that doctor's salaries aren't as high in Canada since prices are more regulated, and that in emergencies, such as heart attacks, etc., people are more likely to come to the United States for treatment since higher salaries attract more skilled specialists.  I think it's safe to say that for basic healthcare costs, Canada and many other developed countries trump us, but the United States can't be beat when it comes to important, high-end procedures. 

 

For what it's worth, I never saw a single ambulance go into Canada from the United States the entire two weeks, and I was at both major checkpoints (The Bridge and the Tunnel) for 12-14 hours a day.

[JamesMadisonSkins]

Forehead ... not to thread jack at all ... just an observation. Many of my Canadian friends are amazed with our health care system. With this whole Obamacare thing they are just amazed that people are up in arms. They say they haven't even thought twice at any point in their lives about accessibility to health care because it has always been readily available.

 

Also ... I wonder if the reason ambulances were coming across the border (and I have no idea what the area is like) might have something to do with Detroit being a major metro area and having larger/better hospitals v. over the border where there may be some rural establishments? Less of a Canada v. USA thing and more an accessibility thing, if that makes sense. 

[The Evil Genius]

You can buy liquor from the supermarket if you lived in Alaska.  But it's obviously not commonplace across the US, or anywhere else that I've seen.  I think they do that to minimalize the need/burden to travel with all of the snow, though.

 

Blue laws enacted by religious zealots are a ****ing nuisance.

 

I was stunned when I visited my folks a few weeks back and saw the alcohol locked up. I had totally forgotten about how backwards the laws were.

[balki1867]

I had a classmate from the UK when I was in business school.  During one of the first weeks of school, we had an orientation event in a local park and he made a comment along the lines of, "Wow this place is nice.  I should bring my girlfriend here and have a picnic with a nice bottle of wine," to which we all naturally reacted, "You can't do that."  He was completely bewildered and asked why.  We had to explain to him that in almost all of the US, you can't just go out with alcohol and drink in a public place.  His reaction was one of the best I'll ever remember.  I'm paraphrasing to remove all the profanities, but he basically said: "Wait.. you mean to tell me I can walk down the street with a loaded gun hidden on me, but if I have an open beer they'll bust me for that?!?!"

[Forehead]

Forehead ... not to thread jack at all ... just an observation. Many of my Canadian friends are amazed with our health care system. With this whole Obamacare thing they are just amazed that people are up in arms. They say they haven't even thought twice at any point in their lives about accessibility to health care because it has always been readily available.

 

Also ... I wonder if the reason ambulances were coming across the border (and I have no idea what the area is like) might have something to do with Detroit being a major metro area and having larger/better hospitals v. over the border where there may be some rural establishments? Less of a Canada v. USA thing and more an accessibility thing, if that makes sense. 

 

I don't know, and what I posted isn't meant to come across as ironclad fact, just my observations and then some assumptions based on my discussions with other people I was working with.  Across the river from Detroit is Windsor, Ontario.  It isn't Toronto, but it is a 200,000 person city and not rural at all.

 

From a doctor's standpoint, it makes a certain amount of sense.  You spend all the the time, money, and studying to become a specialized surgeon.  Would you rather make your hay in the US, where you can command a sizeable salary, or a country where it is regulated?

 

Another thing...there is a ton of cross border living, US Citizens who spend months at a time in Canada and vice versa.  It might be that the majority of the people coming across were U.S. citizens who prefer to be treated here, whereas the Canadians already here might be fine with the care they receive in our country.  Frankly, I can't imagine why.  Windsor is apparently one of the safest cities in all of Canada, low crime rates, nice parks.  On the other side, you have Detroit.  Go figure.

[JamesMadisonSkins]

Ah, thanks Forehead ... didn't know what was across the border in Canada. Makes sense.

[Mongo2365]

You can buy liquor from the supermarket if you lived in Alaska.  But it's obviously not commonplace across the US, or anywhere else that I've seen.  I think they do that to minimalize the need/burden to travel with all of the snow, though.

Here in New Mexico you can buy booze, beer, wine at the grocery store, 7-11, Circle K, gas station, package liquors. 10 years ago we still had drive thru liquors in some places.

[DC9]

Blue laws enacted by religious zealots are a ****ing nuisance.

 

I was stunned when I visited my folks a few weeks back and saw the alcohol locked up. I had totally forgotten about how backwards the laws were.

 

Dude, I was taking a class in Columbia, SC about 10 years ago and I woke up on a Sunday morning and went to grab some school supplies for the week at Wal-Mart and they informed me that "on Sunday, you can only buy food here before noon." 

 

I felt like I wasn't in America.

Here in New Mexico you can buy booze, beer, wine at the grocery store, 7-11, Circle K, gas station, package liquors. 10 years ago we still had drive thru liquors in some places.

 

That's cool (and actually more convenient).  The way it worked in AK (they had them at gas stations as well) is there was a door for shoppers under 21 and a door for shoppers over 21.  Obviously the door for shoppers over 21 years old would lead to the liquor and wine.

 

That is one of the biggest things I miss about being up there.  ABC stores are such a pain in the butt here in VA.