What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S. • Hacker News Board

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#51

Post by loxs » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 7:40 AM UTC

xelfer wrote: post #34

AYBABTME wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are those odd tipping practices? I'm from Canada (Ontario/Quebec), and the standard is to leave 15% of the bill as tip. Less is considered being extremely rude. In other countries, the tip is included in the bill. In other countries, tipping is rare and made in very specific circumstances.

As an Australian any kind of expected tip is odd.

As an Eastern European, I concur. Here (Bulgaria), it's common to round up (only to the degree of 1 leva (0.50 euro)) for taxis and restaurants. This is "normal". If you tip higher, for example if you round up from 47 leva to 50, it's mostly regarded as a "tip", which means the server will be delighted. Anything more than that, is mostly regarded as unwise and unnecessary. Most of Eastern Europe (with the exception of notable tourist destinations like Greece and Turkey) is quite the same.

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#52

Post by javajones » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 7:40 AM UTC

nextstep wrote: post #20

martythemaniak wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Article also fails to mention that using something like factcheck.org will typically get you branded a liberal.

Reality has a well-known liberal bias.

Well according to TV viewing habits conservatives tip the scales for reality.

http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/related_new...

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#53

Post by ernesth » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 7:43 AM UTC

jordanb wrote: post #45

alain94040 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting to see that according to your source, European standards are 3 to 5 times more strict than the US. Depending on your definition of "rest of the world", maybe you meant water in the US is higher quality than India? Probably true.

It's perfectly safe to drink the water out of virtually any tap in America. If you do much traveling, you'll find this is very untrue of the rest of the world (not just India). Even in Europe water quality varies between "great" and "I wouldn't drink that" on a country-by-country basis, and sometimes on a city-by-city basis. Remember that "Europe" isn't a country and there aren't any such things as "European standard…

> It's perfectly safe to drink the water out of virtually any tap in America. [...]

> Remember that Europe isn't a country

Is America a country?

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#54

Post by Hemospectrum » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 7:50 AM UTC

christiangenco wrote: post #41

Hemospectrum wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. In Japanese, for example, you'll sometimes hear conversations littered with なんか (nanka) and かしら (kashira).

Do the Japanese really say "desu"?

Yes. For example, if you wanted to tell a stranger "that person is a police officer," the most natural translation is probably "ano hito wa keikan desu." In other contexts, you might replace "desu" with the informal "da" or the ultra-polite "de gozaimasu" (or "de gozaru" if you're a samurai). In practice you wouldn't say it too often. Other grammatical structures (like "-te iru") are more appropriate counterparts to maybe 75% of English sentences involving "to be."

It is nonetheless grammatically possible to contrive every sentence to end in "desu." This is an unusual habit, though. It's a little like beginning every utterance in English with "it seems" or "Simon says."

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#55

Post by carlob » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 7:52 AM UTC

AYBABTME wrote: post #31

ericras wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American who does this in pretty much every conversation I have, this is a difference I would never have thought of. Semi-related: Do other countries have fragments of speech used as filler such as "like" and "you know"?

In Quebec's french, we will replace nearly any word by a swear word (criss/osti/tabarnak/caliss), which can be used as a noun, a verb, an adverb, and adjective, etc. Basically, like smurf-talk. Also there's a one-to-one relationship between english's use of "like" as a filler by our use of "genre". In this case, "genre" means "similar to". So one could say "J'ai genre... mangé une criss de grosse poutine" in the same…

It's really interesting how all of the swear-words you mention are communion-related and how in France's French you'd be hard pressed to find any swearing other than somthing-Dieu that is religious in nature.

It's really telling of how religion has been removed from French culture during the Revolution.

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#56

Post by pajju » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 7:53 AM UTC

Interesting read.

Are there any good wikis or Internet Communities - guiding Visitors to learn new cultures, behaviors, ethics in different places?

It's nice to see a comparison chart on - cost of living, labor costs, a basic meal, hotel rooms(Comparison charts should be - City vs Another-city and Country Level comparisons)

And I would definitely pay $$ for such a service.

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#57

Post by arethuza » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 8:05 AM UTC

jordanb wrote: post #45

alain94040 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting to see that according to your source, European standards are 3 to 5 times more strict than the US. Depending on your definition of "rest of the world", maybe you meant water in the US is higher quality than India? Probably true.

It's perfectly safe to drink the water out of virtually any tap in America. If you do much traveling, you'll find this is very untrue of the rest of the world (not just India). Even in Europe water quality varies between "great" and "I wouldn't drink that" on a country-by-country basis, and sometimes on a city-by-city basis. Remember that "Europe" isn't a country and there aren't any such things as "European standard…

"In Italy, for instance, ask a local before drinking."

Maybe in some very out of the way spots - but I've been to Italy a lot for work and pleasure and I've never heard that advice before. Some times tap water tastes vary because of local geology or water source, but that applies everywhere.

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#58

Post by tuukkah » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 8:06 AM UTC

ernesth wrote: post #53

jordanb wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's perfectly safe to drink the water out of virtually any tap in America. If you do much traveling, you'll find this is very untrue of the rest of the world (not just India). Even in Europe water quality varies between "great" and "I wouldn't drink that" on a country-by-country basis, and sometimes on a city-by-city basis. Remember that "Europe" isn't a country and there aren't any such things as "European standard…

> It's perfectly safe to drink the water out of virtually any tap in America. [...] > Remember that Europe isn't a country Is America a country?

Yes, it's the country also known as the States or more formally the United States of America: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/America#Proper_noun

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#59

Post by adrianhoward » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 8:12 AM UTC

jisaacstone wrote: post #15

"food, which they praise for its quality and variety (and portion size) in a tone of near-disbelief" huh, really? Whenever I get back from traveling I feel the opposite. Sure in places like NY you can get any kind of food. But in my mono-cultural hometown there is little besides hamburgers or pizza.

It also depends on what food you're used to. I'm from the UK and did the whole cross-country US road trip thang when I was in my twenties. I remember it was the little odd differences in supermarkets and restaurants that freaked me out.

For example - at the time (early nineties) almost no Indian food anywhere. In the UK even small villages often have an Indian take out. On the flip side - in the US you have texmex everywhere. It's still fairly rare over here (and of a.... erm.... different level of quality :-)

Bread was another one. At even small rural shops you had soughdough, rye, bagels, etc. In the UK you get white bread and brown bread ;-)

And the portion sizes... wow... so different. I remember going out with a family chatting away snacking away and suddenly realising that I was now "full" on the "free stuff you eat before your meal"...

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#60

Post by marcosvm » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 8:16 AM UTC

ericb wrote: post #6

No mention of our odd restaurant tipping practices? I thought they are unusual compared to the rest of the world...

Well, in Brazil 10 percent is already included in the check, it's "optional" but everybody accepts it. Usually that's not related to good or bad service, it's the common practice. And this money doesn't go to the server but to the 'proprietor'.