A very interesting view of America from the outside.

[Pæs]

The linked one about Russia is very revealing....about Russians.

Wow... No kidding. Russians randomly show up at peoples houses?

You never do that?
For me it depends on the wishes of the one i visit, with some friends i can just drop by and vice versa. Others have asked me to call first.

If people randomly showed up at my house they'd stay on the porch until they left.

Same here, but my Dad drops by his mates' places unannounced all the time, and they do the same to him.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

"Far less booze." I need to invite these guys to one of my dad's family reunions. They ain't never seen a hillbilly keg-truck round-up.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

The linked one about Russia is very revealing....about Russians.

Wow... No kidding. Russians randomly show up at peoples houses?

You never do that?
For me it depends on the wishes of the one i visit, with some friends i can just drop by and vice versa. Others have asked me to call first.

If people randomly showed up at my house they'd stay on the porch until they left.

Same here, but my Dad drops by his mates' places unannounced all the time, and they do the same to him.

Whatever floats their boats! So long as they git awf mah lawn!

[Cain]

"Far less booze." I need to invite these guys to one of my dad's family reunions. They ain't never seen a hillbilly keg-truck round-up.

At Polish weddings, everyone drinks vodka until no-one can stand up any more.  So normally about three days.

Russians think the Polish are pansies.

[Chelagoras The Boulder]

These are really fascinating. I also feel scrutinized now.

I feel better.

"Americans have very good manners."   

Huh, i've spoken to a few foreigners on the subjects of american manners and they've generally had good things to say about us as a people. It's generally only on the subject of our politics that people visiting the states want to facepalm. It's almost as if the idea that the rest of the world hates us is a narrative we're fed in order to help support our governments blindingly stupid decisions.

[rong]

I was thinking about the impression that American's have good manners (with respect to driving) and I realized that we have such good manners, not because we are nice, but because we have strictly enforced traffic laws. 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I was thinking about the impression that American's have good manners (with respect to driving) and I realized that we have such good manners, not because we are nice, but because we have strictly enforced traffic laws.

Here's a damned interesting thing I and my American coworker and my half American self kind of hit upon this today just in shooting the shit.

we are very, very big on assigned seating.

She is a Boston University student. She notices that non-Americans aren't picky about where they sit, but Americans are, since BU has a fairly nationally diverse student body. This came up because of seating at work quirks. I helped confirm this. My Gen Bio II class is in the same room as my Gen Bio I class. They're on entirely different days, at entirely different times, and with a different professor, but the commonality, aside from Gen Bio II following Gen Bio I, is that both classes I got are in room D301. I sit in the exact same seat as last semester, and I made sure of that. I am the ONLY person in Gen Bio II who sits in the back row, and I only chose the back row last semester because I screwed up the schedule and came a week later than most others.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I was thinking about the impression that American's have good manners (with respect to driving) and I realized that we have such good manners, not because we are nice, but because we have strictly enforced traffic laws.

Here's a damned interesting thing I and my American coworker and my half American self kind of hit upon this today just in shooting the shit.

we are very, very big on assigned seating.

She is a Boston University student. She notices that non-Americans aren't picky about where they sit, but Americans are, since BU has a fairly nationally diverse student body. This came up because of seating at work quirks. I helped confirm this. My Gen Bio II class is in the same room as my Gen Bio I class. They're on entirely different days, at entirely different times, and with a different professor, but the commonality, aside from Gen Bio II following Gen Bio I, is that both classes I got are in room D301. I sit in the exact same seat as last semester, and I made sure of that. I am the ONLY person in Gen Bio II who sits in the back row, and I only chose the back row last semester because I screwed up the schedule and came a week later than most others.

It's the 3-class rule.

By the third class of the term, the seat most people are sitting in will be the seat they will remain in for the rest of the term. I have no idea how it is in other countries, but that's definitely a thing in the US. Most people feel super weird changing seats after the third class.

Psychology students may change seats just to make everyone uncomfortable.

[Cain]

I sat wherever the sun couldn't shine in my eyes and make my hangover feel even worse, and where the professor was least likely to look in order to ask a question from the reading I hadnt done.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://mentalfloss.com/article/55140/10-japanese-travel-tips-visiting-america

These read like satire. The fact that the author felt the need to talk about how things are done in Japan, to a supposedly Japanese audience, kinda triggered my bullshit meter.

[Telarus]

He links to the source. I think you're catching a whiff of "Google Translate garbled this badly, I have to re-phrase".

[Cain]

Yeah, although I checked the sources with another translator service (Bing) and while they indeed roughly corresponded to what was written down, there definitely seemed to be an element of "translated with comedic effect foremost in mind".

[LMNO]

I sat wherever the sun couldn't shine in my eyes and make my hangover feel even worse, and where the professor was least likely to look in order to ask a question from the reading I hadnt done.

The first time through, I sat in back, nursing a hangover and thinking I knew more than anyone.

The second time, I sat in front and wrote down everything the professor said.


Guess which strategy produced more A's?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yeah, although I checked the sources with another translator service (Bing) and while they indeed roughly corresponded to what was written down, there definitely seemed to be an element of "translated with comedic effect foremost in mind".

That may be what I'm picking up on.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The linked one about Russia is very revealing....about Russians.

Wow... No kidding. Russians randomly show up at peoples houses?

You never do that?
For me it depends on the wishes of the one i visit, with some friends i can just drop by and vice versa. Others have asked me to call first.

If people randomly showed up at my house they'd stay on the porch until they left.

Same here, but my Dad drops by his mates' places unannounced all the time, and they do the same to him.

This was a perfectly normal practice prior to the popularity of cell phones.