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.
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.
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:
That’s because of your power grid/building code is optimized for 120V - and you need more juice for cooking.
We actually get 220V to the house that gets split up into two different phases of 110. Kitchens and laundry rooms get 220 for ranges and dryers. IIRC the gas appliances are because of marketing and lobbying but I could be wrong.
A lot of these are really regional (alcohol drive-throughs, horse and buggy, air conditioning, gas appliances) . I think it’s been years since I saw anyone write a check for anything, though, with the exception of something to put into a birthday card. Horses also aren’t allowed on highways, but they are allowed on country roads that people drive pretty fast on.
Double hung vs single hung windows it not something I would have noticed, but I suspect you are right.
Doorknobs, I dont know why we seem to like them. I guess the only benefit vs handles is that you won’t snag your clothing on them when walking by. That doesn’t beat the convenience of being to open a door using your elbow while carrying something.
The water bottle thing is relatively recent thanks to all of the companies somehow becoming trendy.
I mostly threw these out of the top of my head. You’re mostly correct:
Ive never even been to the US but a big one for me is the lack of electric kettles. Theyre in basically every home here in the UK.
They’re not as common. I think most people either use a coffee maker (for coffee), or their microwaves to heat water. However, I have an electric kettle in my office for tea. One thing you may notice in the US vs Europe in that regard is that the standard outlet is 120V, so most small appliances can’t pull as much power as their 240V counterparts in Europe. So my electric kettle is probably a little slower than yours.
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
When I moved to the PNW, it was a shock to me that most people did not have air conditioning, especially in apartments. My first apartment had none, and summer was pretty unbearable. I think it’s climate change doing it’s thing and maybe it wasn’t needed before.
Born and raised in the PNW, it’s a combination of climate change and more development of green spaces. Trees and wetlands do a LOT to keep the local temperature down, high-rises and parking lots do the opposite.
Had several coworkers in the PNW when that monster heat dome sat on them a few years ago. I too was shocked at how many didn’t have AC. My boss, who makes bank, had just had it installed the previous year.
Yeah, the heat dome was what made me finally get a heat pump installed. It was 117°F (47°C) and we had to huddle around a crappy dual hose portable a/c
what the fuuck
Yeah, this is not typical.
Thats “American style”, while keeping the fork in the non-dominant hand is “European style”. Allegedly, it dates back to when meals were served “service à la française”, which is when all courses are brought out at once, which is obviously the more common method of home cooking. Restaurants started doing “service à la Russe”, which is where courses are brought out one at a time.
With service russe, you have new sets of silverware with each course (or they are arranged in order), so if you are eating a course that doesn’t need a knife, you won’t be given one, and you’ll have your fork in your dominant hand. If you need a knife, that goes in your dominant hand, and you leave it there for the duration of the course.
With service française (or regular home cooking), you just have one set of silverware, and you only use the knife when you need it, so you might switch your fork to your dominant hand when you are done needing the knife.
For example, in America, no one eats a steak switching hands for every bite (cause that would be dumb and inefficient), and in Europe, you probably wouldn’t eat a meal that doesn’t need a knife with a knife in your dominant hand (cause that would also be dumb and inefficient).
knife is always on the right, not the dominant hand. it’s to make sure you don’t bump into your neighbor by both doing the same movement at the same time.
I wonder are there cultures where you hold the knife in your non-dominant hand because switching the fork around always seemed inefficient.
This whole conversation is weird to me. Fork in my dominant hand and knife in the other. Never seen anyone put their knife down or switch grips.
the fork should always be on the left, and the knife on the right, no matter your handedness.
(According to certain styles of manners, which are of course entirely arbitrary and subjective)
yeah but i grew up with them so they’re objectively correct
That’s the spirit!
I was discouraged from doing that as a kid so ended up just cutting everything beforehand and then switching hands because it was faster.