111–120 of 161 posts
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I don't think we do this in Greek. Come to think of it, it's weird, when I talk in Greek I use no filler, but when I speak English I litter it with "like" and "you know" like a valley girl. At least I don't say "ohmigod"...
'ela, na su po kati....' roughly: 'hey, let me tell you something...' I hear this all the time in Greece.
I don't mean to generalize, but this is my own experience. Sincerely, I don't know how the US manages to be the second most touristic country in the world. Travelling to the US can be a nightmare - customs, TSA, metal detectors, body scanners, etc. As a tourist, I've never felt as unwelcomed as when travelling there. Maybe it's just a cultural thing, but I seriously got the feeling that people who work at airports, s…
I moved to eastern Europe for a while and was struck by how cold and aloof people were to each other in day to day life. It took me some time to adjust; I had to tone down how I spoke with people I didn't know. No compliments or talking about the weather or coming weekend. This was easier as I started learning the language as I was naturally more self-conscious and reserved. Paradoxically (or not?) I started to make…
This article reminds me of when I landed a job in the US (at the time I was living in Canada). As a part of the relocation package I was sent a book "Culture Shock: USA". Quite an entertaining read. The most memorable quote was "In the US, it is usually typical for a husband to accompany his wife to the hospital when she gives birth".
Yes I remember reading one of the guides created by an American University to their foreign student It goes in such excruciating details to things like dating, etc I suppose this is for the benefit of students from some forgotten city in southeast asia that may think of getting a goat to impress the ladies Still, it sounds awfully patronizing sometimes.
> Of the many pieces of advice proffered, four of the most common are: [...] don't drink and drive (they take it seriously here!) That is absolutely not my impression of America. Americans I have met have a shockingly casual attitude to drink driving. I've also seen it been portrayed in a positive light on American TV (e.g. fictional protagonist regaling a tale). In Ireland drink driving is still fairly pervasive amo…
Whatever you see on TV or even however you see people behave, if the police pull you over, you will definitely suffer serious consequences. There will not be any tolerance.
People do it, yes, because they think they'll get away with it. But if they don't there's hefty fines and/or jail time awaiting them.
That's aside from the risk of crashing, which should be enough for anyone.
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Yes I remember reading one of the guides created by an American University to their foreign student It goes in such excruciating details to things like dating, etc I suppose this is for the benefit of students from some forgotten city in southeast asia that may think of getting a goat to impress the ladies Still, it sounds awfully patronizing sometimes.
It might be because the things that you find obvious, simply aren't so obvious all around the world.
They gave the guide to me as part of an interculturality course.
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Not only large cities - but rural areas too. The reputation for shitty food really happens in the vast stretches of suburbia that straddle the awkward territory between city and country. The US has, overall, amazing food. In large cities there is not only immense diversity (after all, the US is more diverse than most Western nations), but also a culture of experimentation at all price ranges. It's possible to eat ama…
> It's only when you get into strip-mall-landia where things start appearing incredibly boring and monocultural A famous economist / foodie has written an entire book about how you've got it EXACTLY backwards: http://www.amazon.com/An-Economist-Gets-Lunch-Everyday/dp/05... The best food, he asserts, is in strip malls. You just have to know a few tricks to find it. Great book. Go read it.
And of course, Cowen includes a section on exactly how hard it is, and how creative he had to be, to get decent Chinese food in rural Virginia.
It is obviously not true that the best food overall can be found in exurban and rural strip malls.
> Of the many pieces of advice proffered, four of the most common are: [...] don't drink and drive (they take it seriously here!) That is absolutely not my impression of America. Americans I have met have a shockingly casual attitude to drink driving. I've also seen it been portrayed in a positive light on American TV (e.g. fictional protagonist regaling a tale). In Ireland drink driving is still fairly pervasive amo…
Irish also and absolutely agree, none of my peer group would even consider driving after drinking in Ireland, but in my experience it's much more common and accepted in the US - you can even see thi in action in US television / films.
So Ireland is just like "Darby O'Gill and the Little People", then? :-)
In virtually all U.S. states, driving while intoxicated will result in a stiff fine, the loss of driving privileges for a very long time, and quite likely some jail time to boot.
This has changed dramatically over the last 20-30 years.
One thing I remember from a long road trip I took in the nineties across the US was, on multiple occasions, being told that I was "brave" or "courageous" when it came up in conversation that I was an atheist (okay - technical agnostic, working atheist if you want to be picky :-) Everybody was nice. Nobody was mean about it (I got a lot of hassle over being a vegetarian though) but it was felt odd for two reasons. Fir…
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If you're talking about water just lying around, maybe so, but US water standards are if anything ridiculously stringent compared to much of the rest of the world [1]. Read that page carefully, and observe that while the US standards may appear at times to permit things somewhat higher than other standards, the US (along with Europe) strongly enforce them, so it's not that comparable. As for the air, it is generally…
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.
In other words, Europe is the only other jurisdiction that even has actual standards, as opposed to "guidelines".