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

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

#91

Post by jeltz » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 11:22 AM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #79

simonsarris wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but visitors that buy guidebooks do not go to your mono-cultural hometown. They go to New York! Even in my (relatively) small-medium town in New Hampshire[1] there's an amazing variety of high quality restaurants. A lot of people abroad in their own similiar-sized towns don't get to ever try authentic Mexican, or Cajun, or American comfort, or sushi, or Greek, etc, all of which are available here. For most touri…

An aside: As a Greek, I tend to stay away from "Greek" restaurants abroad, because it's almost never Greek food. For example, people here generally eat lamb only once or twice a year, and I didn't know what hummus is until I had it in London (in one such "Greek" restaurant, no less). I think it's more about the stereotype that is expected of the restaurant rather than actually being authentic. For example, Greek gyro…

Lamb gyros is usually called döner kebab (the turkish name for gyros) in Europe, while pork gyros usually is called gyros.

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

#92

Post by wazoox » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 11:25 AM UTC

bdunn wrote: post #89

wazoox wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the portion sizes... wow... Yes, Umberto Eco wrote an interesting article on the cultural significance of "more" to Americans. This is quite obvious in restaurant portion sizes among other.

I love Eco's fiction but am now just getting into reading his essays. Which is the one you're referencing?

I'll have to dig the book out to find. It must me in one of the article compilations such as "How to travel with a salmon" or "Travels in Hyperreality".

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

#93

Post by colkassad » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 11:29 AM UTC

_pferreir_ wrote: post #77

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 friends much faster once I started becoming more aloof myself. I have to say, it was a bit of relief not having to worry about small talk on the elevator. I also noticed that I valued my friendships much more.

On that note, the personal space thing is spot on. When speaking to friends and colleagues, they enjoyed getting a foot or so away from my face...when drinking this distance would dramatically decrease.

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

#94

Post by msh » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 11:50 AM UTC

martythemaniak wrote: post #16

guruparan18 wrote: post #10

The article mentions fact.check.org, however, it looks like the correct site is factcheck.org.

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

In denmark liberale are considered to be right wing...

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

#95

Post by potatolicious » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 12:25 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #79

simonsarris wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but visitors that buy guidebooks do not go to your mono-cultural hometown. They go to New York! Even in my (relatively) small-medium town in New Hampshire[1] there's an amazing variety of high quality restaurants. A lot of people abroad in their own similiar-sized towns don't get to ever try authentic Mexican, or Cajun, or American comfort, or sushi, or Greek, etc, all of which are available here. For most touri…

An aside: As a Greek, I tend to stay away from "Greek" restaurants abroad, because it's almost never Greek food. For example, people here generally eat lamb only once or twice a year, and I didn't know what hummus is until I had it in London (in one such "Greek" restaurant, no less). I think it's more about the stereotype that is expected of the restaurant rather than actually being authentic. For example, Greek gyro…

No cuisine survives importation to another country, really, but authenticity can be overrated.

I remember growing in Taiwan and having "pizza" there - it doesn't really resemble the pizza you might find in Italy, nor the Americanized version. For one thing, pizza was high-class, eaten at a sit-down place with cloth napkins, forks, and knives... and toppings featured things like lobster and crab.

The reverse is true too - there is no such thing as "chicken balls", that crazy east-coast invention that claims to be Chinese, nor General Tso's chicken either. In fact, mostly everything you find in an American Chinese restaurant would never be found at the dinner table in China. But if you think that's crazy, wait till you try Chinese-Indian food. Hoo boy.

But that's the great thing about the new global society - we can remix, borrow, replace to our heart's content. I had Peking duck tacos a couple of weeks ago, it was delicious. And there's this food truck near here that has an amazing (Korean-style) roast pork Chinese bao that's garnished with Japanese pickled radishes with some Mexican flavor thrown in to boot. Sublime.

Food is, in the future, extremely unlikely to stick to its geographic and ethnic roots, and what an amazing change that is.

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

#96

Post by Kudos » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 12:58 PM UTC

> 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 amongst my parent's generation and in rural areas. But with younger people drink driving is totally taboo thanks to strict laws and a lot of education. Our media would never broadcast anything that was positive of drink driving in any way.

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

#97

Post by moron » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 1:04 PM 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?

Indeed we are!

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

#98

Post by kazuya » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 1:11 PM UTC

Surprisingly, most of the descriptions apply also to Japan. Except you need to replace forks with chopsticks, cowboys with ninjas.

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

#99

Post by nfg » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 1:22 PM UTC

Kudos wrote: post #96

> 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.

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

#100

Post by Muzza » Sat, Jun 02, 2012, 1:32 PM UTC

ericras wrote: post #12

bufordtwain wrote: post #8

Before coming to the USA for the first time I read the following in a guide: "Americans often communicate via inflected grunts and groans, such as "uh-huh" for yes and "uh-uh" for no.

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"?

Alltså we have typ that in Swedish as well änna.