Culture Norms in your own society.

[Masaya]

ok, so I know everyone lives all around the world, so I'm pretty curious to see what's ok and whats not ok as far as "norms" go within your society. I'll start off, by explaining the US, and I know I"m not the only person from here. Since birth we've been taught a few unwritten rules.. for example.. elevators! Most of us are taught to be quiet (most of the time) and look forward towards the door. And I'm very postitive that if you were to constantly look at the back.. standing away from the door, people would get very uncomfortable. Or another one, I've noticed would be the un written rules of waiting in line. The rules of how if a new lane opens up, the person who's 2nd in line, or to be served next is suppose to go. And if someone else from the way back goes.. everyone sort of gives them the stare.. Anyways I always thought that was interesting.

However please tell me everyone, different culture norms from other countries or even more from the US. I'm sure alot of us can relate to them!
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[Oboro Tennosuke]

This is quite a promising topic, I think: it's weird no one responded yet.

Well, let me tell you something about Italy then:

-It is a frowned-upon "norm" for freshmen at HS to be bullied...everyone does that right? Well here if you're lucky, you'll get scribbles on your face/backpack/clothes with colour markers...if you're not, eggs, flour and duct tape are on the way. By the way, this is not some ritual performed by the dumbest seniors...EVERY senior does it.

-Okay something else....In all Italy's bathrooms, you'll find a device the rest of Europe does not have (I don't know about the rest of the world) : It's called "bidet", basically it's a oval sink some 20 cms high, used for washing feet and nether regions. It's surely better than toilet paper...

I will post some more later maybe...
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[kuwaizair]

This culture seems to be changing and yet, stll hold facets of other subcultures.
I'm cynical and judgmental, so me telling you the norms here is well...not going to land you a real answer. I obserbe where I'm not.

we have pet cemertaries and kiddy proms. Kids now adays are being taught by the media to be over sexed at 10, some parents are ok with their little girls wearing mini skirts. thats wrong.
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[Marshmallow]

NEVER use a urinal directly next to an occupied one. If there's an odd number, and you're the only one there, take the one closest to the door, if it's taken, go to the opposite end. Never, ever voluntarily go to a middle urinal unless in a case where there are five urinals, and both 1 and 5 are occupied, in which case it is acceptable to use 3. If someone goes to 2 or 4 while you are at 3, they are sick indeed. NO TALKING IN THE BATHROOM. Eyes forward at all times.

Obviously these rules apply to males only.

[Sophita]

If you're on the northern side of the Mason-Dixon line in the US, when walking outside, walk with your eyes down or at eye level (try not to look up too much; makes you look like a tourist) and never, ever say hi to anyone on the street unless you know them personally. A nod is acceptable for aquaintences. I've heard it's different in the south, but I've only been a tourist there, so I wouldn't know.

It is far more acceptable to enquire about someone's religion in the southern US as a means of daily conversation than it is in the northern. If you bring it up just as a sort of general conversation question in the north, you'll be liable to make people more uncomfortable.

Never, ever touch anyone you don't know fairly well in the US. You will INSTANTLY make them feel uncomfortable. Shaking hands is permissable, but no kissing, hugging, etc. unless you are good friends.

Always look people in the eye when you talk to them. It's actually considered somewhat disrespectable or rudet unless there's a good reason for it (religious practice, blindness, etc.).

Tipping is not included in the bill in restaurants for the most part. General good tipping is 20% for great service, 15% for average, 10% for lousy service, and 2 cents if you never want to go there again. :mrgreen: You only have to tip at restaurants where you're actually served food - fast food never warrents it.
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[Masaya]

[RedCydranth]

I'm from Western New York, and we have a few weird things that I'm sure most other places don't. Allow me to elaborate.

Hockey and Football 101. The city of Buffalo has a fairly busy subway system. And almost constantly there is silence among passengers. However if anyone in your car is wearing a Bills or Sabres Jersey, they have the right of way. It is a sign of respect in our community to don a jersey. It for some reason is never said or written, it just happens. Rarely is the train so crowded that there aren't any seats, but if there happens to be a man or woman wearing a Jim Kelly jersey or an old Dominic Hasek jesey is standing beside you, you are frowned upon if you do not offer them your seat. We here in Buffalo have tremendous team spirit.

Also, as New Yorkers, we are very hush hush about politics, religion and other personal welfares. Maybe its because we're all hardened Democrats, but we love to not talk to eachother. it takes trememndous courage to ask anyone for the time, and often, dispite seeing a watch on the person's hand, they will tell you thay do not have the time. However if you say "Did you see the Bills' Game last Sunday?" You'll make yourself a new friend. It is actually a warning posted in several places in Buffalo, not by city officials, but by good sumaritains and Bills Fans, that "For your health, it is not reccommended to wear any Paraphenalia of the following teams: Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, Philadelphia Flyers, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys." Apparently since the Jets and Giants are New York teams, we can forgive you for wearing them, and I think we forgave the Redskins and Dallas Stars, but I'm usure.

Western New York Eats. We know how to eat. No doubt about it. Aside from perhaps Chicago and New York City, i think Buffalo is home to more italians than most other metropolitain areas. this of course leads me to the fact that Western New York has some of the finest Pizzerias ever. Of course, no matter where you are from, you take pride in your kinds of pizza. But, I'm a man of travels. I have been to other areas and I am what i consider a fair judge of taste. I know when what I'm eating is good or crap. I vacationed in Boston, and when I was there I heard many local rave about a pizzeria in the area and claimed it was "New England's Best" and so, I traveled the road to wherever it was, with my mother. We came to the restaurant and asked what was their best and most popular pizza, the signature pizza so to speak. The guy told us it was a "Boston deep dish" and I'll give boston credit, their pizza was good, However if this restaurant was in WNY, he'd be out of business because there wasn't anything special. I honestly don't know what is in some of the pizzas in my area that make them so good. it could be heroin for all I know. Whatever, if it makes the pizza taste good, I'm in.

And of course, where there's Pizza, there's wings. No real pizza party is complete without a side of wings. I grew up hearing Buffalo had the best wings in the country. I thunk to me child brain, what can make our wings so much better than other wings? its just a chicken wing deepfried then rolled in hot sauce right? And I grew up on Picasso's wings (Picasso's is a local pizzeria with exeptional food) and I grew accustomed to the Buffalo style wings. I moved to Maine when I was in 8th grade, and I only lived there a short period of time, but while I was up there, boy did I learn how to appreciate good wings. My mother and I went to a local pizzeria, knowing their pizza sucked and ordered a box of 30 wings. We received our wings and opened them up. What we were looking at weren't chicken wings... they appeared to be kiwi wings...or sparrow wings. They size of these wings were small. but we plodded on. Being from Western New York, we want our wings spicy. We said give 'em your best shot. The hottest you got. What we got, was I kid you not, Frank's Red Hot sauce.. at the most. We were not pleased one bit. If this was their hot, what was their mild? here in Western New York our wings are HUGE..(That word, HUGE, is a Buffalo tradition BTW) And we smother them in hot sauce. Not Frank's Red hot, but some real zinger sauce. If you take the standard "chicken wing" outside WNY and compare it to ours, its like comparing a golf ball to a baseball. and the flavor is by far better.

Another Western new york thing is our Hot Dogs. We, under no circumstances, buy our hot dogs boiled. Boiled Hot Dogs are a sacrilage. We charbroil those puppies. Nothing will ever beat a charbroiled dog with the works. We charbroil everything that's german, except sauerkraut of course. Liverwurst, Bratwurst, italian Sausage, Polish Sausage, Breakfast Sausage, if it is in any way related to the sausage, on the grill it goes. Again, when i lived in maine, My grandmother served me boiled hot dogs and they were dyed red. I didn't mean to be rude, and my mother immediately appologized for my behaviour, but I had never conceived of preparing a hot dog in such a fashion. Firstly, what was the piont of dying the damned thing? Secondly.. boiled? There's no flavor, no crispy skin. I basically asked what in gods name she did to these poor hot dogs. Later that summer my mother and I charbroiled up some dogs for my grandmother (who lived in maine her whole life... she's officially my step-grandmother, but she's my grandma) and she didn't know what to make of them. I guess different cultures prefer different things. Boiled and Dyed... absurd. Charbroiled is totally the only way to go.

Onto the drinks. We here in Western New York do not drink soda. No siree. No such thing as soda, its Pop. Not Soda-Pop, Pop. "Go buy a 2 liter of pop." "I need a can of pop." if anyone says soda, we correct them. We also have a unique kind of pop in these parts. its called Vernor's. Its a Ginger Ale that... is actually made with Ginger roots. Its strong and if you drink it quick, its fizz will flare up the back of your nostrils and make yor eyes water. My aunt who, of course, lives in Maine, asks us to bring a case of it every time I travel to Maine to visit. And we onvlige her, because pop up there is pretty bleak. Firstly they drink Soda up there. Not pop, which is a strike against them. Secondly, somehow RC is popular. I though that was a southern thing, but I guess Maine has a thing for Royal Crown.. gross. Strike 2. And the big swing and a miss with pop there is this stuff they call Moxie. Personally, i don't mind it, but man does it taste like crap. I think the best way to describe its taste is rootbeer mixed with motor oil and furniture polish. Now I reckon you havent tasted either motor oil or furniture polish, and that is for good reason. And this is the same reason i reccomend you stay away from Moxie. Vernor's > Moxie.

Lastly on the topic of drinks is beer. I'm going out on a limb here and guessing the majority of the veiewers of this site aren't old enough to consume alcohol, but have snuck a drink here and there. Regardless of age, you should know what beers reign supreme in your area. Here in WNY, we take pride to our brothers to the northside and drink Labatt's. The people who hate the canuks (canadians, not the hockey team) drink Bud. That is primarily it. Miller, Old Milwaukee, OV etc.. not big in these parts. Even Molson and Coors fail. I, personally, find beer abismal to drink and prefer a good Screwdriver or Amaretto Sour, but hey, that's just me. Oh, and here's a little bit o' trivia. We here in WNY are the only place in the country that buys toofers. Yep, we go to the store and pick up a Toofer. You, most likely are looking at the screen perplexed and confused. Well, allow me to enlighten you. Somehow those canadians got more lazy than us down here in the states and saw that beer comes in a pack of 24. So, isntead of saying all those words... twenty-four pack, they shortened them down to 2 words "two-four". Well apparently their drunken stupor landed the sluured too-fur instead of two-four and it became toofer. So, now we here in WNY are catching the canadian dumb drunken slurring bug and call a 24 pack a Toofer. tada!

Yep.. those our the quirks of where I live, and I've conveniently added a few quirks of Maine/Boston area in there too. Now I'm sure someone from New England can better explain Moxie and why their chicken wings suck so darn much. But I tried.
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[Seraphym]

[Futch]

[Vincent Chase]

I guess I'm the first Canadian to post in here. Though we sit just north of the United States, and generally share everything with them, we have some subtle differences that I think you should know about.

1) Canada is officially bilingual (English and French), with all of the country speaking English, except for Quebec. If you go to Quebec for a prolonged period, you might want to pick up some French.

2) If drinking beer, and you will be, most Canadains will choose Molson Canadian, which ironically is now brewed by American-based Coors. If in Canada, opt for a real Canadian beer like Alexander Keith's to blend in.

3) Hockey is life, to live is to play hockey. There are six hockey teams spread across Canada, and the fandom and rivalries are fierce. Alot of people wear jerseys and have no problems, so express yourself with a nice jersey. Watch the games and have a party.

4) We don't want to be known as 'The country next to America'. Calling Canada 'America Jr' will upset people, but we are generally welcoming to Americans, and Toronto is the world's most multicultural city and not the gigantic melting pot called 'New York'. Our politics are so different because Canada being more Liberal on things like Gun Control, Drugs and Religion and the government is even called 'Liberal', whereas calling a person 'Liberal' can be grounds for getting shot in USA. Plus, you can drink when your 19 here, I meet lots of 19 year old American people when I go to the bar :wink:

5) The Canadian ideal is to have alot of land up north, where the beauty is stark yet magnificient, scenes like this are common. People build cottages and go up there ont he weekends to have parties, take it easy, and barbecue stuff, and it is awesome.

6) We don't have the Death Penalty, but I think we should.

7) We have free health care, so if your traveling and you hurt yourself, lose your wallet just before you call the ambulance. Free health care is the sole reason I will never reside in the USA.

8) In Winter, when you aren't playing hockey, you must play in the snow. It's a magical experience until it gets cold. When you come in, expect pancakes with pure maple syrup, orange juice and Canadian (pemeal) bacon, the tastiest of the bacons. After a big snow, the woods look like a surrealist painting, and it's unbelievable.

9) Though we don't envy America, we envy your wicked backstory (Revolution-Now has been crazy). Canadian history pales right next to American history.

10) We still have some British ties, but in a good way; Victoria Day (May 22-27 weekend every year) is the official start of summer and a weekend that usually gets 'Legendary' classification attached to it. The Queen is also on our coins, and yes, the two-sided Twonie is still in circulation.

[Masaya]

[Hawk Thanatos]

Well Ill post here since nobody from Australia has yet but it might be a bit of a stretch saying we have a culture of our own (except for the Aborigines). Anyway I feel sorry for you Americans with the whole 21 drinking age; here it's 18 but a lot of people start drinking before that anyway and in terms of what everybody drinks it's usually whatever they've grown a taste for and what they can afford.

I never really understood the freshmen thing at highschools of other countries, here it's just numbers (Year 8's-12's) and any bullying etc tends to be within your own yeargroup. This american guy came to my school last year and one of the first things he tried to do was set up a robotics club which didnt last very long, it's not that we don't like americans it's just your government and the fact that our government is always kissing your government's ass. Anyway, he said that pledge of allegiance thing once: Australia has nothing like that at all. We like the rest of the world but we'll probably make fun of you anyway, especiallt the poms and kiwis (New Zealanders, ask an aussie about new zealanders and we'll tell you that they all like to have sex with sheep).

We're pretty relaxed down here so a handshake is the norm when you first meet somebody and I've never seen someone do that kiss on both side of the cheeks thing. Hugging and kissing in public isn't worried about but hugging a stranger just depends on the person. While there are many religious people here not much fuss is made over whether you speak about it or not unless somebody is offensive about it.

A good old barbeque is probably the most common get together between friends and most people in Australia, male and female alike, follow the AFL (Australian Football League, the national sport) and when the grand final was on recently the streets here in Perth were practically deserted since our team was in the final (we lost :( ).

Anyway I once read this on an immigration website for Australia and I found it hilarious so I'll post it here:

"Many Australians live close to the beach and the sea. This has led to a tradition of wearing very casual or little clothing on the beach and surrounding areas, particularly on hot days. This does not mean that people who are dressed to go to the beach or swimming are prostitutes or inviting others to touch them. Uninvited touching is unacceptable, regardless of what clothes people are wearing. People are protected under the law from physical assault."

I guess it just goes to show how different some cultures are. Oh and I'll tell you a secret about australia: there aren't actually kangaroos everywhere in the cities, although we may be one of the few countries that eat it's national emblem.

[RedCydranth]

Masaya, your culture there is much different than the one I experience and we're only across the lakes from eachother. You being in Wisconsin, me being in Western New York. Teachnically the only state between us, as the crow flies, is Michigan. However from your last post I can see many differences.

You say you hug as a sign of trust. Here, to show trust, we use a handshake between strangers. Hugging is too personal. If a stranger came up to me and hugged me I'd think less of him because he's too touchy feely. Thats the way New York is. Hugs are for family. Only on special occasions too, or church. Its okay to hug in church. Perhaps we don't hug because of the fear that someone is really a good pickpocket. I dunno. Its just the way we are.

Also, you mentioned the common languages taught here in the USA is Spanish and German. Again, that is a regional thing, not an entire united states thing. In my area, aside from english obviously, you have the option to earn either French or Spanish. You can't take German. If you go to a private school you can take Latin too. German isn't even offered anywhere around here. I know a lot of people from around the area and we've spoken about language and they never had an option for german. I always thought that French would be more advantagous to us being in the north than those in the south. We border canada, who has a lot of french speaking civilians. However I learned in school when i took french that the french we learn in the US is continental french, not quebecois. I'd imagine that in Louisiana that french is an option there as well with all the cajun backgrounds they have. I know for a fact that in Maine, French is the preferred language to be taught in schools. Many Quebecois have made their homes in Maine, my grandmother being one of them. She speaks beautiful french, dispite me only catching the occasional word. its truly amazing how different Continental french and Quebecois french really are.

I can agree that I too see a lot of canada bashing. I don't see areason at all to mock them. Aside from the cliché "eh?", theres nothing to make fun of them "aboot". Seriously, we only have their accents to make fun of... At least their prime minister isn't a complete idiot like our leader.

Another similarity is the high amount of draft dodgers here. I know for a fact that all but one of my friends woul flee the country and go to canada if there was ever a war. I am included, but I don't ever see them being so strained for help that they recruit the deseased. USA is full of cowards, its hillarious.

One of the weirdest things about Niagara Falls Ontario is that at night there aren't any canadians around. it all the american teenagers coming over to party and drink. Clifton Hill (their main street) is full of overpriced restaurants, clubs and strip joints. Among then are tourist traps like a wax museum and a Ripley's Beleive it or Not. But there are good points to Niagara Falls Ontario. Casinos. We here in the US can't gamble until we are 21. We can die for our country, but we can't drink or throw our money away. So, at the ripe age of 19, teens flock to the casinos in canada to blow their paychecks. Casino Niagara and The fallsview are the two casinos located in downtown Niagara Falls. Overlooking the entire city is the wonderful Skylon Tower. Ah, Niagara Falls, the canadian city built with American money...

I guess part of the Westen new York heritage is going to canada to spend your money. Not because its cheaper, oh no... Its wicked expensive. (ooh! i just used another borrowed canadianism..wicked is a canadian term for really..like really big would be now wicked big. its not the same as how Ron Weasley uses it in Harry Potter. Ron only uses it to show that something is cool.) Prices are usually 1/3 more expensive. Like a snickers bar that costs us 35-50 cents would be 75 cents there. But we go there and buy clothes and stuff just because we can i think. I personally don't because im poor. haha.

Gambling has become something that is a social norm here too. Since the casinos sprung up in canada, the american government took notice to the number of people who go over there and spend money. So, New York government gave the Seneca indian nation a portion of land in Niagara falls USA to build a casino. And thus Seneca Casino was born, and so far its make a LOT of money, the funny thing is, New York State has yet to see much revenue from it. Something is wrong. And now in downtown Buffalo, there is talks of a Lakeside Casino. It appears as if Gambling is something we're gonna have. We like to spend ourt money on frivolous things.

hawk, I kinda guessed there weren't kangaroos hopping around downtown sydney. I pictured them more to be doing their thing in the outback or outside of the towns. Its not like we here in america have bald eale nests in every tree, in fact we have very few bald eagles. Their numbers have risen over the years due to laws and conservationalists. The majority of Bald Eagles are concentrated in the Northwest now, i believe. The do live all throughout the orth sparsely. I know there's a recorded bald eagles nest in Alleghany State Park, here in New York. I've seen one flying with my own eyes. But they're an extremely uncommon site.

I've always wanted to try Kangaroo, what does it taste like? I picture it to taste like deer. Venison is really good, especially if cooked properly.

I guess thing are really different even though you live in the same country. Wisconsin and New York, a world apart.
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