Culture shock: US customs that puzzle new arrivals

[Satchmo Distel]

I will start with a caveat that it depends from where you're arriving and in what circumstances, plus of course your race, class and gender.

There is a documentary on refugees from Sudan in Pittsburgh that makes good points about hostility towards blacks who walk around in groups, and the lack of help towards people who are lost or vulnerable. Full film

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r5N_qKbHHWw

In my case, an immigrant from the UK, it's the social Darwinist approach to tax, poverty and healthcare and the hostility towards the idea that workers should have more vacation time. The undercurrent of racism does not differ much from the UK experience IMHO but the taboos on certain insults are stronger. As an academic, it seems easier and to be fired for certain forms of political speech, such as in this case

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...=.f705ae7ba825

But it depends who's listening; the vast majority of students are just there for the grade and filter out anti-Trump statements, for example. Breaches of norms on racial and sexual speech in a lecture would and in some cases should lead to firings, depending on context.

[ad hoc]

Democracy :the number of random positions that are elected. From police chief to fence post monitor

That if you haven't been elected to your job there is a fair chance that you have been appointed by someone elected

Bacon and syrup together. In fact most breakfasts. Dr pepper. Root beer. Coffee that tastes of vanilla /cinnamon/whatever

[Gerontophile]

Getting funny looks because I can use a knife and fork. At the same time.

Getting funnier looks because I used them to eat a pizza. Yes, yes. I will use my hands when no cutlery available.

The necessity of having to drive.

[ursus arctos]

A lot of these are just as alien to me, which causes me to add the degree to which a lot of fundamental aspects of daily life depend to a great extent on just where one lives.

[imp]

In the supermarket at the meat counter: "Excuse me, but do you have a joint of lamb?"

"Sir, you want A JOINT?"

[Satchmo Distel]

Sticking the fork in the middle of a steak and then cutting around it. What the absolute fuck?

[WOM]

Having to run inside and pre-pay for gas, on the presumption that otherwise I'm going to steal it.

Having to enter my 'zip' code on pay-at-the-pumps on the presumption that I'm using a credit card that's stolen.

[Satchmo Distel]

Equal shock when I go back to Europe and someone comes out and starts putting gas in my car.

Or watching Two Lane Blacktop from 1971 where that old procedure appears.

[ursus arctos]

Still mandatory in New Jersey, should you feel pangs of nostalgia

[Cal Alamein]

Also Oregon.

[San Bernardhinault]

Excellent. Satchmo has started the thread that I have been meaning to for 5 years.

So, custom number 1:

Actually starting threads that you mean to.

Custom 2:

Putting the away team first in sports things. I mean, what the fuck, America?

[San Bernardhinault]

The Zip Code thing is utterly bonkers, right? Because if you've found a dropped credit card, or nicked one, the odds are surely that the driver is local. So you just enter the zip code of the gas station you're at. I reckon you'd succeed 50% of the time.

And knives and forks - what kind of demented inefficiency is it of Americans that they cut, then actually put down the knife, transfer the fork to the right hand (assuming you're right handed), and eat? Is it because you're so cack-handed that you can't use a fork with your left hands? Or is it due to some old puritan habit that tried to get you to eat slower, despite the immense, heaping portions of food?

[Incandenza]

I believe that dates from baseball box scores. As you know, the visiting team bats first, so when printed in a newspaper box score, you have the away team first and reading the score you see the (literal) top and bottom of the inning scores.

[San Bernardhinault]

Actually, I'd never put it together that the away team bats first.

So, I guess I accept that in baseball.

But it's still daft in all other sports.

[Amor de Cosmos]

No New York visits Chicago, not Chicago hosts New York. Perfectly cromulent.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Entrée is actually the main course. Can't figure that at all.

[San Bernardhinault]

Oh! That drives me utterly insane, Amor. It confuses the hell out of me, although I'm pretty sure that I've read somewhere that there is actually some logical explanation for it.

Another one for me, that I raised on the baseball thread (baseball, let's be honest, is the source of much of this for me), is that it appears that they use a baseball once. For one pitch. One single throw, and then it's done with. Not for 90 overs. Not 540 balls. Not even for 120 pitches like a white ball in a T20 game. There's no subtle change over time, no scuffing of the ball and interesting swing as a result. No slowing down in the outfield as it softens, or waiting for a new ball. And god knows what the cost is. To someone coming from cricket, this is just crazy and unfathomable. Even tennis (where balls are pretty cheap), the professionals play 6 or so games before swapping them out. But they're so precious in baseball that they just use the ball once.

[Gerontophile]

They only change the baseball if it gets hit, or hits something else. Or if the pitcher isn't happy. (Tennis is first 7, then every 9 after.)

[Lang Spoon]

The Entrée is actually the main course. Can't figure that at all.

Aye, what the hell is that aboot? Have had Americans condescend to me like I'm the biggest rube in the world for thinking entrée (in Europe!) meant starter.

[Lang Spoon]

Democracy :the number of random positions that are elected. From police chief to fence post monitor

That if you haven't been elected to your job there is a fair chance that you have been appointed by someone elected

Bacon and syrup together. In fact most breakfasts. Dr pepper. Root beer. Coffee that tastes of vanilla /cinnamon/whatever

Pancakes, streaky bacon and maple syrup is a food of the Gods. The back bacon version I once had in a Dublin cafe, not so much.

[anton pulisov]

Not including tax in the price. Extremely annoying.

[ursus arctos]

The use of baseballs has changed significantly in my lifetime, and even more over the history of the game.*

Into the 20th century, baseballs were treated rather like cricket balls. Among other things, they were collected from spectators when hit into the crowd and only changed when they genuinely disappeared.

The key event in changing that was the 1920 death of Ray Chapman after he was hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays, and the ball was found to be very much used, dark and therefore more difficult for Chapman to pick up. The first notable change was that fans were allowed to keep balls hit into the stands.

That said, well into the 1980s, it was standard for balls to be used across innings and for ball boys/girls to return balls to the pitcher, not to toss them into the stands. The same went for the ball used to record the last out of the inning (which was often left on the mound). The change was part of the increasing emphasis put on offence, with batters being given pretty much absolute freedom in asking for balls to be changed. Unlike in cricket where a well used ball generally favours the offence, in baseball it always favours the defence, as it is both more difficult to see and easier for the pitcher to manipulate.

* It so happens that the rule of the home team batting last also does not date from the very beginnings of the game (or the professional game). It originally was the home team's choice to bat first or last and later the subject of a coin toss (as in cricket). Even at that time, however, the tradition of listing the home team last was already in effect, for the precise reason that Amor notes.

[S. aureus]

AP beat me to the tax thing. I've lived in this country 28 years now and it still irritates the crap out of me.
Actually, I imagine we've probably had a thread on 'things about the US that are really irritating', haven't we?
Puzzling:
Being able to turn right on red.
Indeed, having pedestrians and cars being allowed to go at the same time at traffic lights.
Probably more on the irritating than puzzling end of the scale, but the number of people who are utterly incapable of bagging their own groceries.
Liquor laws in some states.
When I first got here, getting carded buying beer (I was 22 at the time, and had never been questioned about my age when buying alcohol before). I think I just looked at the clerk like he'd kindly asked me to donate him one of my kidneys. So, I suppose, having to have a photo ID around pretty much all the time.
Pre-meds.

[San Bernardhinault]

I love right on red.

But, on a related note, I am frustrated like crazy at Americans inability to build roundabouts, and on the few that exist their inability to use them correctly.

I agree with everyone on the tax thing, of course.

And, slightly related, I hate that I am expected to tip everywhere, and never know the right amount for the circumstance. I am also confused as hell that the US has a minimum wage for everyone except for serving staff, and that a customer in a restaurant has to guess what the right amount is to pay the servers rather than just have their employer paying a fair salary in the first place.

[Gerontophile]

The total lack of recycling.