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Let’s face it: The United States is a weird place. We have grocery stores the size of apartment buildings, a Starbucks on every street corner and soft drinks the size of a small child. Often we take these things for granted because we’re surrounded by the crazy and bizarre in our everyday lives. After all, this ‘Murica, home of the deep-fried Oreo.
Visitors be warned: Here’s a list of four things that shock visitors to America.
They’re handy, convenient and biodegradable and useful to clean up messes and spills. It’s as American as a pool party on the 4th of July. So you may be wondering how something as benign as a paper towel could attract so much attention.
For many foreign visitors, the paper towel is just another example of American extravagance and waste. Why use recycled bits of paper to wipe your hands when you can use a cloth napkin over and over again?
In an interview for Vice Magazine, a Korean immigrant explains her shock when she saw America’s obsession with the paper towel. “The whole paper towel thing struck me very strongly as soon as I came to the US,” she says. “In Korea, paper towels were used for very few selective kitchen tasks, mostly to wipe off oil from frying pans.”
READ MORE: 22 Instant Happiness Fixes
McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King and yes, even Chipotle. For some people, fast food is the American Dream at its finest. Books like “Fast Food Nation” and documentaries like “Supersize Me” have done a lot to educate Americans about the health consequences of our fast food obsession. The American public is now more aware than ever about the risks of heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Still, special occasions will see us with giant turkey legs and bacon-wrapped hot dogs.
An immigrant from South Africa explains the difference between the food he grew up with and the food here in the U.S. “We were so ignorant coming from South Africa, eating home cooked food every night over there,” he tells Vice. “Then, once we got here, we ate those corn dogs almost every day for lunch, little pizzas for snacks, and sugary cereals for breakfast.”
Although street harassment is not just an American issue, it is far too commonplace here. American women grow up hearing stories from their mothers about women who are harassed on the streets for wearing the “wrong” clothes or looking a certain way.
Young girls are taught how to behave and what to look out for when they are alone. They are taught how to defend themselves with pepper spray or keys held between their knuckles.
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A Canadian radio reporter talks about her experience as a queer woman in New York. “I was hugely shocked by all the street harassment. And as a queer woman, I didn’t realize that I had to police myself in certain areas here … I’ve learned not to hold hands or display affection in certain neighborhoods because of it.”
The interactions between students and teachers aren’t something we usually think much about. The rules for interacting with teachers seem to vary depending on the teacher and type of school. In high school, we might be taught to raise our hand before answering a question, while in college, we might be invited to our professor’s house for dinner with the family.
When it comes to these interactions, there is no cultural standard that tells us what is appropriate and what is not. One math teacher explains the difference between school in the U.S. and school in China. “Students eat in [my] classroom, which is forbidden in China. Often you are rewarded here for being an extrovert. Basically an introvert cannot survive in your classroom. In China, I don’t have to clean [my] chalkboard. It is the students’ responsibility to clean the classroom.”
READ MORE: Are American Teachers Disrespected?
