Having spent the last 6 years overseas I'll let everyone in on a little secret.
What we consider rude in America isn't in many places. In fact it's rude to NOT do certain things in other countries.
A prime example is in China. In China people quite often say things like, "You are fat." or "Your breath is bad." or "Your hair/clothes/etc. are ugly.". In America this is like the kiss of death for proper form. In China this is the height of proper form. They tell you that you are fat so that you will lose weight. They tell you that you have bad breath or a bad smell or are ***** so that you will clean yourself and look respectable. They ****** that you behave badly or are ***** or unkempt because you are unaware of your faults, so the only polite thing is to make you aware. While most Americans tolerate these sorts of things up to a point and only then find a very round-about way of telling you these things. I was quite shocked the first time I heard someone in China approach a friend of mine and just say they were fat. I laughed a little because this was something that everyone saw and knew but no one said anything. While this one man cut the the chase right after he introduced himself. It was glorious.
Also, the pace in America is very frantic and highly (almost o...
Having spent the last 6 years overseas I'll let everyone in on a little secret.
What we consider rude in America isn't in many places. In fact it's rude to NOT do certain things in other countries.
A prime example is in China. In China people quite often say things like, "You are fat." or "Your breath is bad." or "Your hair/clothes/etc. are ugly.". In America this is like the kiss of death for proper form. In China this is the height of proper form. They tell you that you are fat so that you will lose weight. They tell you that you have bad breath or a bad smell or are ***** so that you will clean yourself and look respectable. They ****** that you behave badly or are ***** or unkempt because you are unaware of your faults, so the only polite thing is to make you aware. While most Americans tolerate these sorts of things up to a point and only then find a very round-about way of telling you these things. I was quite shocked the first time I heard someone in China approach a friend of mine and just say they were fat. I laughed a little because this was something that everyone saw and knew but no one said anything. While this one man cut the the chase right after he introduced himself. It was glorious.
Also, the pace in America is very frantic and highly (almost obsessively) organized, while in many other places in the world organization means they know whats happening the next day and that's it. I've seen this in many Americans who have come to several of the places I've been. They start all ready for work at the usual American frantic pace and are greeted by a litany of 'tomorrow' after 'tomorrow'. They don't understand that the rules of work that we grew up with and have incorporated into our very being simply doesn't exist in many places. Perhaps only the British, Canadian, or Australian folks can truly relate, but even they are a bit taken back by how work-obsessed most Americans are even casually.
Americans are used to a level of excellence from workers that most consider too exacting. Work gets done when it gets done and sometimes workers take a break after working only a few minutes. That's just the way it is. But in America people work until the job is done and it's done right the first time. This expectation in many other countries is almost fanciful. So often many Americans bring the expectations of excellence for other Americans to other countries and get greeted with shock and resistance against what they think is haughty behavior, but to most Americans is thought of as simply normal.
Finally, quite often the young and privileged are the ones that do most of the traveling around the world. Most Americans do not regularly travel to different countries. It has been my experience that these 18-24 year old kids often go to different countries just to party and get drunk. Traveling abroad is almost a waste on them because they could do that at home and save their parents about 20 grand. Also, there are quite a few folks out there who claim American citizenship but aren't American. They do this because of working abroad and certain benefits. I've met quite a few 'Americans' who were anything but.
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