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I am trying to learn Russian, and in communicating with people in the USA who are from Ukraine or Russia, they often ask me "why is X done this way"? So that i

I am trying to learn Russian, and in communicating with people in the USA who are from Ukraine or Russia, they often ask me "why is X done this way"? So that is why this book is interesting to me.

snitko 14y ago
I've been on a visit to the US recently and while I do know quite a lot about it, some things I didn't know and it was an interesting puzzle to try to come up with reasons why certain things are done this way and not the other. So, a couple of points to keep this post interesting: * You're mostly out of luck if you don't have the exact amount of money to ride a bus. Machines don't give change. Probably because everybody has a pre-paid ticket and tourists are expected to take a cab or rent a car. * Showers are all built into the wall. Impossible to find a shower that you can hold in your hand. Seriously inconvenient if I want to shower my feet, for example. * In Russia, it's the police who ask you for an id all the time. In US, it's bartenders. * Lots of homeless people everywhere. They look much healthier than russian homeless and most seem perfectly capable of making money on some job, that requires minimum skills. But they don't work. Also, they're very entrepreneurial: unlike russian homeless, they approach you very actively and ask for a change or something else. * Probably that's why people look at you very suspiciously when you approach them on the street to ask for a direction. * Flight attendants and airline pilots still speak English I can hardly understand, although it's their native language. * No kettles (been discussed here and on reddit before) * Tipping baseline is very high. Although I'm a capitalist, I consider this practice to have nothing to do with capitalism. Because if you think about it, it's just business owners redistributing responsibility of paying their employees to me, the customer. Might be a good idea, or might piss me off: I hate calculating how much I should tip after having three beers. It does make the system less centralized, but it also reduces customer convenience. And I was also not sure where should I tip and where it's not very common. For example, no one in Europe tips a person at a bar serving you one beer. It's just beer, for god's sake. Not so in US. Now the problem for me is that when I go to another country where they don't tip, I feel very guilty for not tipping. It's a very hazardous practice for some reason.
- cynwoody 14y ago
  I like your critique of tipping.
- xentronium 14y ago
  > In Russia, it's the police who ask you for an id all the time Police rarely ask anyone with slavic appearance for an id. That mostly happens to people who look like gypsies or those from Caucasus (for some reason "caucasian" means "generic white race" in English and "people of the Caucasus" in Russian).
  - jganetsk 14y ago
    The idea of the "Caucasian race" comes from a German philosopher in the 18th century. It has to do with him considering the Georgian people (from the Caucasus) to be the most glorious looking white people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race#Origin_of_the_concept http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race#Origin_of_the_co...
- gadders 14y ago
  Come to the UK! We have kettles! We don't have mixer taps so much though, which I believe continental Europe considers strange.
  - damncabbage 14y ago
    As an Aussie who has to occasionally suffer without mixer taps, I must ask: What do you do when it's cold and you want to wash your hands with warm water? Your choice is freezing-cold from one tap, or boiling hot from the other. Why separate them?
    - gadders 14y ago
      I mostly use cold water, tbh. Or if it's really important, put the plug in and fill the basin with a mixture.
  - redtomorrow 14y ago

I am trying to learn Russian, and in communicating with people in the USA who are from Ukraine or Russia, they often ask me "why is X done this way"? So that is why this book is interesting to me.

snitko 14y ago

I've been on a visit to the US recently and while I do know quite a lot about it, some things I didn't know and it was an interesting puzzle to try to come up with reasons why certain things are done this way and not the other. So, a couple of points to keep this post interesting: * You're mostly out of luck if you don't have the exact amount of money to ride a bus. Machines don't give change. Probably because everybody has a pre-paid ticket and tourists are expected to take a cab or rent a car. * Showers are all built into the wall. Impossible to find a shower that you can hold in your hand. Seriously inconvenient if I want to shower my feet, for example. * In Russia, it's the police who ask you for an id all the time. In US, it's bartenders. * Lots of homeless people everywhere. They look much healthier than russian homeless and most seem perfectly capable of making money on some job, that requires minimum skills. But they don't work. Also, they're very entrepreneurial: unlike russian homeless, they approach you very actively and ask for a change or something else. * Probably that's why people look at you very suspiciously when you approach them on the street to ask for a direction. * Flight attendants and airline pilots still speak English I can hardly understand, although it's their native language. * No kettles (been discussed here and on reddit before) * Tipping baseline is very high. Although I'm a capitalist, I consider this practice to have nothing to do with capitalism. Because if you think about it, it's just business owners redistributing responsibility of paying their employees to me, the customer. Might be a good idea, or might piss me off: I hate calculating how much I should tip after having three beers. It does make the system less centralized, but it also reduces customer convenience. And I was also not sure where should I tip and where it's not very common. For example, no one in Europe tips a person at a bar serving you one beer. It's just beer, for god's sake. Not so in US. Now the problem for me is that when I go to another country where they don't tip, I feel very guilty for not tipping. It's a very hazardous practice for some reason.

cynwoody 14y ago
I like your critique of tipping.
xentronium 14y ago
> In Russia, it's the police who ask you for an id all the time Police rarely ask anyone with slavic appearance for an id. That mostly happens to people who look like gypsies or those from Caucasus (for some reason "caucasian" means "generic white race" in English and "people of the Caucasus" in Russian).
- jganetsk 14y ago
  The idea of the "Caucasian race" comes from a German philosopher in the 18th century. It has to do with him considering the Georgian people (from the Caucasus) to be the most glorious looking white people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race#Origin_of_the_concept http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race#Origin_of_the_co...
gadders 14y ago
Come to the UK! We have kettles! We don't have mixer taps so much though, which I believe continental Europe considers strange.
- damncabbage 14y ago
  As an Aussie who has to occasionally suffer without mixer taps, I must ask: What do you do when it's cold and you want to wash your hands with warm water? Your choice is freezing-cold from one tap, or boiling hot from the other. Why separate them?
  - gadders 14y ago
    I mostly use cold water, tbh. Or if it's really important, put the plug in and fill the basin with a mixture.
- redtomorrow 14y ago