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As someone who recently moved from The Netherlands to USA, I found this article to be really great at explaining the reason why many Europeans find Americans to
by Nevin1901 3y ago
As someone who recently moved from The Netherlands to USA, I found this article to be really great at explaining the reason why many Europeans find Americans to be fake. I myself had experienced all of the social experiences the author talked about, and found myself confused as to what a "friend" was in The USA. I also find it very interesting how the author described emotions as cultured - not just something which was the same to everyone.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts and experiences with different cultures.
- floxy 3y agoCultural differences aren't limited to international interactions either. Here's an interesting thing about exclamation points. Apparently there are (at least) two cultures of exclamation point usage in English. Apparently one culture uses them frequently as a marker of expressing general excitedness. The other culture sees them akin to yelling, which is appropriate only a small fraction of the time. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38942179 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38942179
- bombcar 3y agoYou forgot the exclamationistas, related to the commakazis, who just pour them!!! everywhere!!! whether!!! it makes sense!! or not!!!!
- ks1723 3y agoInterestingly I became aware of a similar cultural difference regarding punctuation: I frequently use three dots ‚…‘ in more informal emails at the end of a sentence to indicate that I am not sure about something yet or still wondering about it. Like „I guess we could discuss this tomorrow…“ or „Yeah, I might be able to do this…“ Some month ago an Italian PhD student of mine (I’m from Germany) asked me if I was upset or mad at him. I had no idea why he was asking and was completely taken aback by this suggestion. But turns out, in Italy (at least the northern part of it), the three dots typically indicate that you are upset or at least impatient with the receiver. I still wonder how many of my Italian collaborators I have sent strange impatient emails in the past…
- __jonas 3y agoHate to break it to you, but it has the same subtext here in Germany
- ks1723 3y agoHmm, interesting. I really wonder how I could miss this all my life. (Would have made them here as well, but not anymore) Edit: spelling
- __jonas 3y agoTo be fair, maybe I was a bit quick with this claim, I think it works across languages and is more of a generational thing, strange Reddit link (sorry) but I feel like this explains it pretty well: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fs1rtwqhly8s71.jpg https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fs... With the ellipsis I do feel like the tone is very context dependent.
- ks1723 3y agoHa, it’s just that I am old ;-) Thanks for the link!
- dotnet00 3y agoI think the ellipses have that connotation in a lot of places and kind of like with all-caps and exclamation marks, it doesn't seem as strongly connected to culture. Some of my Indian friends use it the same way as you do, which often throws off some of my American friends, who interpret it as impatience, and vice versa.
- Lio 3y agoA nice Indian lady I used to work with was horrified when I pointed out that her use of the "eye rolling" emoji is seen as rude and dismissive by lots of people. It's always worth being aware of these differences if you can be and also giving people the benefit of the doubt too.
- PaulDavisThe1st 3y agoI REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU COULD MEAN BY THAT.
- rufus_foreman 3y agoThis exactly!
- xhevahir 3y agoThis article about Russian's habit of yelling is interesting: https://classical-russian-literature.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-russian-game-of-yell.html?m=1 https://classical-russian-literature.blogspot.com/2020/07/th... I haven't been to Russia but some of it reminds me of encounters I've had in Greece.
- negus 3y agoAs a Russian living among Greeks I can not say that I experienced any unusual rudeness. But yes, permanent smiling may be considered to be deceptive and insincere by some Russians. But anyway: people tend to express themself in many different ways. It is great to be tolerant to others, while trying to be polite and culture-aware yourself.
- xhevahir 3y agoThe interactions I had--some of them, I should add--in Greece were combative from an American perspective and not a Russian one. If the scenes described in the link are typical of Russian life, then the Greeks I encountered indeed probably would not strike a Russian as rude.
- technothrasher 3y agoHere's a cultural question I've been wondering since I visited Amsterdam as an American- I was walking along an up hill street in the evening, and I saw a young lady talking to her friends and smoking, with a baby in a stroller. The stroller started to roll down the hill slightly and she didn't seem to notice. It then picked up a little speed, so I moved to intercept it, and rolled it back up to her. When I delivered her child back to her she just looked at me with a slightly blank look, then gave a very quick barking laugh, and turned back to her friends. We didn't exchange any words. I moved on and went about my business, but to this day I have absolutely zero idea what her reaction meant <shrug>.
- holoduke 3y agoA bit ashamed probably, but definitely not the reaction you would expect from a Dutch person who almost lost her pram. A normal reaction would include a 'thank you' and maybe a joke to justify the act.
- mpol 3y agoWe live in a bizarro world. Not sure if that was what she meant, I wasnt there. But if I responded that way, this would be the meaning.
- dr_dshiv 3y agoHill? In Amsterdam? Suspicious detail!
- DonHopkins 3y agoAmsterdam is a city of many mountains: the bridges over the canals.
- yread 3y ago> Amsterdam > up hill street ? Do you mean a highway ramp or a bridge?
- alejo 3y ago
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- christkv 3y agoThere is a huge different between a blue collar New Yorker and a Palo Alto techie in culture though. I’ll take the nyc rudeness over the fake politeness in California. As a European I fund New Yorkers much easier to connect and befriend people than people from both the pacific coast.
- red-iron-pine 3y agoSame. NYC types will tell you to go fuck yourself on the street for walking on the wrong half of the sidewalk, and will give you the finger for basically any reason. But in private I found most of them to be warm, vibrant people. And, paradoxically, when I slipped on the street, random strangers were immediately jumping to my side to see if I'm okay and helping me up. To paraphrase an old boss who was from NJ: we respect you enough to stab you in the front, and never in the back. California, by comparison, was just as ruthless as Wall Street corpo raiders, but with a thick veneer of BS smattered all over it.