Cultural Differences?

[Tabitha]

We don't really have a lot of cultural differences. I'm from right outside of Washington D.C. originally and he's from south Georgia. While there is quite a difference in the two areas, with him it's not as noticeable because he's a college grad currently in law school, so he's been out of the area for the most part since before we met. He doesn't even have the southern accent going on.

The biggest thing is that he'll say a word that I've never heard sometimes, or he calls all brands of soda "Coke". Things like that. Oh, and I had never even touched a fishing pole before I met him haha. Still not my thing.

[DemonxOisin]

The boy loves Mexican flavours yet has never had a real proper Mexican dish. I told him I'm going to fly him here, pelt him with Mexican food (making him try a bit of everything), and therefore get him so addicted to it that he can't help but spend more time out here. The plan is completely fool proof, of course. The best way to a man's heart is through his stomach, they say. ;]

LOL. It´s OBVIOUSLY foolproof. The same happened to me! My best friend dragged me to Mexico and force fed me all their dishes... And now I´m a complete addict. I will even eat fried grasshopper now o.o

---------- Post added at 01:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:46 AM ----------

one thing he complained about was the tax here lol

Okay but I complain about the tax and I live here lol. And the plugs over there are a pain -.- (I´m seriously not normally this whiny xD)

[Haley53]

Fried grasshopper? o.o What does that taste like? xD

[milaya]

Well me being from North Europe (Denmark) and my SO being from Japan, our cultures couldn't be more different. So it's actually hard to write some down, since they're just all... different (-_-'') but since I understand a lot about Japanese culture, there's also a lot I just don't notice anymore.
But... some things could be:

- In Denmark, at least in my family, you shouldn't give a big fuss about being sick, especially if it's a cold, flu, etc. Because it's something that will pass. Where in Japan they go to the hospital for anything. I mean anything. They go to the hospital even for a flu and there seems to be medicine for everything. So whenever I get a cold or something, my SO worries a bit too much.

- Japanese people are taught to always smile, even when life sucks. Which means my SO often smiles even when we're fighting. Can you imagine how annoying it is to fight with someone who just keeps smiling, even though you know he is actually quite angry?! Sometimes I just want to kick or something.

- In Japan there's a book for every subject that might exist. Seriously. I've seen so many titles ... (-_-'') some are more obvious like "To you who's never had a boyfriend/girlfriend", "How to understand people with the blood type B", "How to read faster" etc. But, I wouldn't be surprised to see titles such as "How to eat ice cream the best way" or "To you who has never had a girlfriend, or a car, or a job, loves to play computer games and still live with your mother". Every time I complain to my SO about something I can't do, he always replies with "what about reading a book about it?" "There is no such book!"

- Of course food. I love Japanese food and could eat it everyday for the rest of my life so no big problems. Just that my SO can only eat bread for breakfast for a certain amount of days. After that he starts talking about Rice and how it's better... (-_-'') He doesn't mind just eating white rice with nothing, but after having eaten that a lot of times... I now feel sick with just the thought of it. So I have to spend a lot of time cocking "extra dishes" in the morning.

- With just the hint of rain, Japanese people get out their umbrella. And everyone has an umbrella. So when it do rain... everybody uses an umbrella which can be a bit annoying on a crowded street.

There's a lot of other things...

[DemonxOisin]

Fried grasshopper? o.o What does that taste like? xD

Honestly, it tastes like a mix of lemon and salt. I´m not making that up :P If you can get past the fact that you can feel the exoskeleton, legs, and then soft insides in your mouth, they are actually not bad. But you would eat it in a quesa or something else so hide that :P

[DemonxOisin]

Wow, what a difference! With us, you know how most cultures kind of have one tasteless, filling thing that kind of tends to get served with every meal? Like rice, bread, etc... For the Irish, I kid you not, it´s potatoes. Growing up, I had them with almost ever meal :P My SO just kind of... tolerates them... And you´re dead right, plain white rice gets to me too. (and it´s also a Mexican thing to serve that with every meal >.<)

The thing you said about how he always smiles is creepy o.o I´m kind of used to flamboyant displays of emotion, so that would kind of scare me lol.

[Enric]

My SO is sasak, the main culture of Lombok island (Indonesia), asian and muslim. And I'm catalan, christian and european so our cultures are very different. We have so many differences that I never would finish of telling all. xD In part I like having cultural differences, it makes everything more interesting. So I just will tell the food part now.

They have many exotic fruits that I even don't know. The rice is their main ingredient but they also vegetables, spices, noodles (almost their only kind pasta) and chicken daily. They don't eat pork or drink alcohol because the islamic traditions. The tea is the most common drink. Milk products and coffe aren't very usual. They fry with coconut oil. They seldom eat burgers, pizza or sausages. Their common meats are cow, goat, duck and specially chicken.

The opositte here. We eat rice but no very often. We don't have many spices and we seldom eat spicy food. Cheese and other milk products are eaten daily or almost, the same about pork. We fry with olive oil and we use it for our typical sandwitches and salads too. Alcohol is almost compulsory here, the people drink alcohol in their social life and its used in some sweets or for roast some meat. Tea is new and strange in my land, but the majority of people drink coffe daily or even different times per day (my mother drinks 8 cups per day). We rub tomatoes in the bread, we burn creams, we grill snails, we have a strange way of eat green onions. I think we eat much more junk food than they.

[DemonxOisin]

I love hearing all these differences in cuisine! (Although they are making me hungry ¬¬)

[Haley53]

Honestly, it tastes like a mix of lemon and salt. I´m not making that up :P If you can get past the fact that you can feel the exoskeleton, legs, and then soft insides in your mouth, they are actually not bad. But you would eat it in a quesa or something else so hide that :P

Considering your description of it made me internally cringe, I'll take your word for it. ;P

[DemonxOisin]

Considering your description of it made me internally cringe, I'll take your word for it. ;P

I´m not sure whether to apologize, or to say trolling accomplished? xD
For the record, my pride was at stake. They MADE me try it o.o

[milaya]

Wow, what a difference! With us, you know how most cultures kind of have one tasteless, filling thing that kind of tends to get served with every meal? Like rice, bread, etc... For the Irish, I kid you not, it´s potatoes. Growing up, I had them with almost ever meal :P My SO just kind of... tolerates them... And you´re dead right, plain white rice gets to me too. (and it´s also a Mexican thing to serve that with every meal >.<)

The thing you said about how he always smiles is creepy o.o I´m kind of used to flamboyant displays of emotion, so that would kind of scare me lol.

Danish people also have potatoes with every meal. XD I also don't really mind eating rice everyday... just that sometimes I prefer not to get them for breakfast XD especially plain white ones with no extra dishes. Also if I'm in Japan for longer periods my stomach, which is used to friendly potatoes, isn't happy about digesting rice three times a day (-_-'') It's like everything just ... stops. I really hope my digestion learns to cope with rice better when I do move to Japan in a near future.

The smiling thing annoys me a lot and often causes our fights to get bigger. Because I get even more angry and asks him to show his real feelings, but then he throws in the "this is how I was raised"-card.
Overall Japanese people are really bad at showing emotions. Before I thought it meant that they didn't say "I love you" much and such, but my SO does that all the time. It's negative feelings he doesn't share. If something bothers him, he doesn't say it... at least until we're having an argument about something completely different. (-_-'')

[yayagrl]

I like this post and wish I had something to contribute, but both my SO and I are Typical americans. I believe our only differences would come from out 14 year age gap, but I think it helps that I have a love for late 70's, 80's and early 90's movies and music. There are a few things that he'll bring up that I don't know about, but I normally google it. (I google everything hehehe) I know he loves westerns, maybe that comes from living in southern Texas the first decade of his life. i don't know. As for the food stuff it's definitely making me hungry. Except for the grasshoppers

[Haley53]

I´m not sure whether to apologize, or to say trolling accomplished? xD
For the record, my pride was at stake. They MADE me try it o.o

Well kudos to you, I say! I'm open to trying a lot but insects are not one of those things...

[HollzHeartsChris]

I'm English and my SO is Hispanic, so there's quite a few differences just there The food I have over here is so different to what my SO has: he eats a lot of Mexican food, and eats things like tamales, tacos, burritos, potato soup and tortillas on a pretty regular basis, whereas I've never even tried a tamale or some potato soup before lol. What I have is mainly generalised, and I have no definite diet because I have a pretty wide choice to select from. I'm pretty sure over there in Arizona, my SO has this too, but his diet is quite different to my own in some ways mainly due to the fact his mum has some Mexican in her I think. She cooks him and the rest of the family a lot of Mexican cuisine which is currently making me hungry just talking about it xD

My SO calls his aunts his "Tia"s, if I remember correctly, and refers to his grandfather as his "thata". I apologise if I've spelt these wrong lol. His family is fairly close in contact and they often have get-togethers especially at Christmas and Easter, whereas I only have my parents. The majority of my family I have no contact with, for personal reasons. He has a lot of different cultures integrated into his life as well, mainly because he's not only hispanic, but also has some Cherokee, Irish, German, Welsh, and English mixed into him as well as a couple of other different cultures I can't recall. I'm mainly English, but my mother was born abroad so I have some of that in me too. I have some Welsh in me too.

I'm sure there's lots more cultural differences. I just don't think I could name them all lol.

[Laura_N]

I'm in the US and my boyfriend is in Finland.

Also, when I'm over there, people are very reserved in the streets (unless they're drunk!). I'm used to smiling at people and petting dogs when I'm out and about, but people barely look at each other there. There's SO many cute doggies I'd love to say hello to, but it just doesn't feel welcomed.

I don't want to imagine how my SO will feel when she first time visits me in Finland... She's already complaining I'm too quiet. Sure, I am, but so is everyone else! Nice to hear your experiences about Finland by the way, from a foreign view.

My SO is Scottish, but her parents come from India and Pakistan, so there are quite some cultural differences. I don't recognize the food she eats, and because she's also a muslim we really have differences with those things. As they don't celebrate Christmas we haven't really talked about it, but she thinks we have some nice New Year's traditions, like "New Year's Tin". She can also say very few things directly whereas I'm used to just popping a question in the air all randomly or being straightforward if I have something to say. And like I already said, I'm quite quiet and shy when it comes to company that I'm not used to being around. I'm sure I will have difficulties keeping my mouth shut once I'm used to being around her more, but she's very confident and chatty already.

Then there's all those little things... Eg in Finland you take your shoes off when you enter someone's house. And here we save petnames like dear or darling etc. to people who we actually love and have a romantic relationship with. You don't smile at strangers like Moon said. And Finns tend to be very punctual - my SO is more laid back and something she says she'll do soon might not be that soon after all.