What shocks Foreigners the Most about the US? (apartment, crime)

[kettlepot]

Originally Posted by eskercurve

I'm American, and that shocks me too!


My wife is Japanese and here is her comments:

"Everything is big, it feels spacious! Land in Japan is premium, so everything is squished and smaller. Also, people are very fat. But the thinner Americans are gorgeous and the women have big boobs."

I noticed the same thing after coming back from Japan, except the boobs thing. I guess it never really occurred to me.

That's your story, and as long as your wife is looking over your shoulder reading this, you're sticking to it!

[Unknown Memory]

Originally Posted by moonshadow

That's exactly it! You feel like you're home but on another level you know you're not. I had a similar experience when I was in England and Ireland BUT I put that down to having English/Irish ancestors. No such ancestory exists for me in the US so I did have to try to find other reasons and I can only come up with the similarity of Western culture.

When I first arrived in LA a friend came to my hotel to pick me up and take me around the city for the day sight seeing. We wandered out to the car and I immediately walked around to the "passenger" side of the vehicle and waited for him to get in and unlock the door for me.......HE was on the other side of the car waiting to open the passenger door for me to get in. I stood there patiently waiting till I hear from the other side of the car, "sweetie, this side" and a little chuckle and I look through the car window to see that I am indeed on the driver's side staring at the steering wheel and he is laughing at me through the windows on the other side of the car.

Nice. Hehe.. It's ok. ^^; That's a pretty common mistake among everyone (who aren't use to the opposite side of the roads in another country).

For me, I've travelled a lot so seeing people drive on both sides became normal for me. But, I'll probably make the same mistake anyways if someone offered me a ride in a country where people drive on the left side. I'll be going to the driver side, unconsciously! >D

[MarcNZ]

Originally Posted by michigan83

In regards to our "geographic ignorance":

We live in a huge country with only two bordering nations. There are few places, if any, in the World where it is less essential to daily life to be well-versed in world geography. We have everything we need here, and we have to travel thousands of miles to be anywhere other than the U.S., Canada or Mexico. I don't think it stems from Americans being "stupid" or "ignorant".

I think that's a good comment but I would extend it to say maybe it's because you live in a huge country AND have a very large population. I lived up in Canada for a year, which is also a physically huge country and they have to travel a long way to get anywhere else too, but I never once had to explain where New Zealand was (and NZ is such a tiny place, I don't even except most people to know anything about it). New Zealand itself has no bordering countries and we have to fly well over a thousand miles just to get to our nearest neighbour Australia, and many more miles to get anywhere else.

Part of it I think is that in countries with smaller populations (like NZ, Australia, Canada...) we receive media from many other countries than our own (TV shows, movies, news). Our own populations are just not big enough to be self sufficient in this respect so we are more use to looking outwards on the rest of the world.

I don't think anybody was suggesting Americans are "stupid" and I certainly hope my comments didn't sound like I was implying that (because I wasn't )

[tablemtn]

I heard someone from Norway react with shock after watching a local evening newscast in a moderate-sized city as the newscasters went through the five homicides reported in the past day. With respect to the murder rate, the US is hardly the worst in the world, but it is about the worst in the developed world, and that can be somewhat shocking to people.

[moonshadow]

Originally Posted by Unknown Memory

Nice. Hehe.. It's ok. ^^; That's a pretty common mistake among everyone (who aren't use to the opposite side of the roads in another country).

For me, I've travelled a lot so seeing people drive on both sides became normal for me. But, I'll probably make the same mistake anyways if someone offered me a ride in a country where people drive on the left side. I'll be going to the driver side, unconsciously! >D

I guess that's the bit that got me shocked with myself. I KNEW I'd need to get in on the other side of the car because I'd thought about it before I even left home, I'd been to countries where the driver's side is opposite to here before and had no problem AND I'd even got into the passenger side of the car without a second thought coming from LAX to my hotel. MAYBE it was because the car was angle parked? YEAH! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Originally Posted by MarcNZ

I don't think anybody was suggesting Americans are "stupid" and I certainly hope my comments didn't sound like I was implying that (because I wasn't )

+1.

Besides if you want to see stupid, I welcome anyone to come watch me try to order cawfee in the US. I have to get the poor girl behind the counter to hold up cups just so I can choose what size I want.
(I am sooo learning fluid ounces before I go back to the US at the end of the year! )

[GLS2010]

Originally Posted by mattyj46

Spent some time in the US in December 2007, beleive it or not I was shocked at the amount of fat people I didn't see, I honestly cannot remember seeing a single fat person while in Reno,NV and South Lake Tahoe,CA.

Apart from that the USA was all what I expected it to be, and loved every minute of it!

THANK YOU! This post helps prove that the stereotype that the majority of Americans are fat, is NOT true. I'm so tired of reading people say "Americans are fat" online, then going out in public and seeing only a small number of overweight people. Most people in the states look like there in shape..

[pw72]

Originally Posted by tablemtn

I heard someone from Norway react with shock after watching a local evening newscast in a moderate-sized city as the newscasters went through the five homicides reported in the past day. With respect to the murder rate, the US is hardly the worst in the world, but it is about the worst in the developed world, and that can be somewhat shocking to people.

This has very little to do with reality. The local news media in the U.S. are quite like the tabloids in England. Everything is sensationalized to increase ratings. The crime rate in the U.S. has been rising due to the recession, but this practice has been going on in local tv for 25 years. "If it bleeds, it leads" is how U.S. local TV news has been operating for quite awhile.

[tablemtn]

Well, it reflects a certain reality. I mean, Quebec City had zero homicides in 2007 - their local news couldn't have reported on five murders in a single day even if they had wanted to do so.

[Thomas R.]

It's a mix. America does have a higher murder rate than Western or Central Europe. (Several Eastern European nations are more murderous)

However there are states in the Northern Plains or New England that aren't any more murderous than Sweden. Like the Dakotas, Minnesota, Vermont, Maine, and a few others (Going by the UN's stats and the World Almanac. Although Norway is less murderous than any US state) My guess would be though that if you watch local news in Minnesota or Portland or whatever you see "a lot" of murder because local news here tends to play that up. Especially in areas where maybe not much else is going on.

[eskercurve]

Originally Posted by kettlepot

That's your story, and as long as your wife is looking over your shoulder reading this, you're sticking to it!

Yes, yes I am.