Cultural Differences?

[DemonxOisin]

Hey everyone, hereīs a much lighter discussion topic than my last one :P

Iīm from Ireland (living in Canada), and Miguel is Mexican. Obviously, there are some pretty big cultural differences between us because of that. So I was wondering, why donīt we all talk about the cultural differences that we have between ourselves and our SOīs that just make us laugh? Silly things. For example, My family goes through gallons of tea a day, where as Miguel has never even owned a kettle in his life o.o Or another, when he came to visit me in December, my father lent him his slippers to wear during his stay. Being from a warm country, he just thought "oh, thatīs nice of him." Being from a cold climate though, I know that it represents so much more. This action totally translates as "welcome to the family" where Iīm from :P

So for those of you whoīs SO is from a completely culturally different place from you, please share! Tell us where youīre both from, and some of the funny things each other you do/think/whatever because of that.

Letīs celebrate our differences!

[Haley53]

My partner is from Ireland, and I'm from California. I swear, we don't even get weather like that during our winter season! Let alone during our summers (we had a rainy summer this year, but I wouldn't say it even compares). And I would say that that's one of the biggest differences between us. I warned him of how I'm going to be painting him white with sunblock while he's over, to which he protested because of the additional time (a couple minutes at best, hah!) it would take by telling me he'd survived warm climates in Spain. As far as I'm concerned, the heat over yonder is more humid than anything. In California, we have pure, dry heat. We had a slight tiff over this, seeing as I don't want any part of our holiday being ruined by his being cooked into a lobster, and I think he's finally conceded and is going to allow me to slather him in sunscreen.

In addition to this, he's not really used to the idea of free refills or American sizes. For example, Burger King's "super-size" soda in Dublin was about what you get for a "medium" size here. I will admit that American Burger King's and Carl's Jr.'s have abnormally large soda sizes - at McDonalds, for instance, their large is our medium, so it's not quite so drastic of a conversion - but it still surprised him quite a bit when I explained our size break down! He was also shocked to find that you can get a large or super-sized soda here for cheaper than their small/medium sized sodas in some cases. Being completely honest, though, I think I was also quite surprised at how expensive it was for such a small and slight amount of soda! And I did not like having to pay for refills, either.

Their bacon is different than ours. It's closer to Canadian bacon, which I'm sure you're aware, is taken from a different part of the pig than American bacon - probably a healthier part, tehehe, but isn't that what makes our American bacon so good? I think I was a bit pickier/fussier about it, simply because the way my mother and I eat our bacon is crispy to the point it's almost burnt whereas it seems the norm over there is softer and more stringy. Did. Not. Like. He's convinced he won't like American bacon. Other differences, though, include the fact that our "biscuits" are supposedly their "scones," though he's never tried a biscuit with folded egg, cheese, and bacon like they serve at our McDonalds. He says he can't imagine a "scone" with anything savoury, so that'll be something for him to try when he gets here. Sausage is more popular there. I'm not a huge sausage fan, but I had some good ones while I was over, especially batter-dipped ones, yum!

Oh, and everything closes too bloody early. I live in America. Everything here is open late. Liquor stores and many grocery stores and supermarkets are open until 11pm or midnight. Normal closing time on a normal weekday for a normal shop is probably about 7pm or 8pm. Privately owned stores close around 6pm to 7pm. Depending on where you go, some places close earlier on weekends, such as smaller shops and even the mall, but others are open even later on the weekends than during the week days. In Dublin, it seems the latest everything was open was on a Thursday? Strange to me, but even stranger to have places closing up at 6pm! The boy, of course, is used to it, but as someone who runs late evening/nightly store runs with her mother, it was an adjustment for me.

I think those are the main ones that come to my mind. :P He's not come out here yet, so I can only guess as to what's going to surprise him most about coming to California from Dublin.

Edit: One thing that I missed most was Mexican food. Being from California and having a high hispanic population, we have a lot of Mexican restaurants, taquerias, taco stands, etc., and I genuinely think I would die without it. We did find one Mexican stand while we were there, at which I ordered a burrito... It was extremely spicy with no form of a cooler (like guac or sour cream) and they didn't even include beans! I've never had a burrito without beans before, so that was surprising! Oh, and they don't have macaroni & cheese there apparently, either! I had to introduce baked macaroni to the boy and his family; everyone loved it, proving that my American tastebuds aren't entirely off. ;]

[Minerva]

I'm American, my SO is English.

All I know is "She wore pants with suspenders and a jumper" means two TOTALLY different things to each of us.

And don't get me started on fanny...

hehe

[DemonxOisin]

WHAT!? A burrito without beans?? Itīs not even... sigh.

Haha, and I think language barriers between 2 countries that supposedly speak the same language are hilarious. Miguel is very fluent in Canadian English, but omg, he canīt understand any of my relatives hehe

[Haley53]

WHAT!? A burrito without beans?? Itīs not even... sigh.

Haha, and I think language barriers between 2 countries that supposedly speak the same language are hilarious. Miguel is very fluent in Canadian English, but omg, he canīt understand any of my relatives hehe

I agree! I probably fit the American stereotype ranting about why my burrito didn't come with beans... I seriously would have settled for canned at that point! I'm such a Mexican food snob, haha. But it was essentially rice and chili peppers and salsa stuffed into a tortilla. It was good (though too spicy for me to thoroughly enjoy) but not what I'm used to. :P

And due to having so many friends abroad, I've learned language/certain words okay, but I will say, there are some words I had to stop my boyfriend and be like "lolwtf?" over. Like "stroppy." I get that it's slang but I'd never heard the word before, haha. And boy, in Ireland do they talk fast! I was always so grateful when we went somewhere touristy because they spoke much slower and like what I'm used to... I'm convinced his uncle thinks I'm stupid. By the time I processed one thing he said, he was already onto the other, so he was basically firing questions off a mile a minute while I was one-word answering because that's about all I could get in. XD

[DemonxOisin]

LOL! Yeah, we are maybe a LITTLE fast... xD Iīll be honest with you though, Iīm from near to Dublin, and I really need to pay attention to understand people from the west of Ireland! Haha itīs pretty bad. Also, I wanted to comment that "lolwtf" is a very accurate description of the reaction hahaha.

Donīt worry, dating a Mexican as I am, I am also a Mexican-food-snob. Just recently I got into an argument about what the proper definition of a quesadilla is with my mother haha. Itīs so bad, but what can I say? Love me some Mexican food.

[Minerva]

Haha. I like to think I'm up on British slang, but every once in a while he says something I've never heard before. Funny enough, "strop" was one, heh. Of course, it goes both ways. The other day I said I had a French dip for dinner, and he was like, a what?

One thing it's sweet that he doesn't really have a concept of how large America is (his first visit is in November). I live in the Chicago area -- firmly midwest: very swampy, lots of forests and lakes and prairies, hot in the summer, cold in the winter. He asked if we could drive to the desert. I said yes, but it would take 4 days. Heh. He also asked about public transportation from O'Hare to where I work in the suburbs. I had to explain America's public transport is no where near as extensive as the UK's. Once again, we're talking 4 days, hehe.

[Moon]

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

Christmas! They do the whole thing on Christmas Eve, and you're supposed to spend Christmas calmly and quietly. Why even have Christmas at all then, just have Christmas Eve Makes no sense to me at all and we tease each other about it all the time. We're trying to plan for him to be here at Christmas this year, wow is he gonna get some culture shock, ha ha!

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.

Also, like Eclaire said, the stores close so early, I'm not used to having to rush around to get everything before the stores close, it's weird. And the same for the Mexican food...it's awful, really awful, in Finland! I love the place to death, I do, but they need to get a few Mexicans over there to open a real restaurant! I can't wait til he gets here and I can introduce him to it

Speaking of food, they don't slice your pizza over there. The first time I visited and we were out with friends, I got handed one of those unsliced pizzas, and I thought they somehow forgot to slice mine. When I saw nobodies was sliced, I just looked at it like "WTF am I supposed to do with this?!?!" We laugh about our pizza difference, Raine tells me Americans are so spoiled and pampered we can't even slice our own pizza, and asks if we can we get it pre-chewed for us too.

We love our cultural differences, they're fun. We're so much the same that its nice to have them to explore.

[DemonxOisin]

LOL. My SO went through that when he moved to a small town in BC, Canada, from Mexico City. Oh good grief, so many expletives were used to describe the transit system xD
Also, I laughed at the second reference to 4 days :P

[DemonxOisin]

Moon, your post was lovely, it totally made me smile! (especially the pizza things haha) Thanks for sharing ^.^
Cultural differences are lovely, arenīt they? :3

[books]

I'm American/Italian (dual citizen) and my SO is from Nicaragua- we actually have a lot of cultural similarities but when it comes to food, we are pretty different.

To start, in Nicaragua, they have one type of pasta (spaghetti) and they like to eat it with ketchup (it's warmed up and melted with some salty cheese). It's pretty gross.
I had already had the experience of being served this before I met my SO's family, so I was prepared. I told him "make sure you tell your Mom NOT to serve me spaghetti". Thankfully, I have not had to eat this at his Mom's house and make that fake "oh it's so delicious face".

Then there's the coffee. Crazy that Nicaragua produces coffee yet most people prefer to drink nasty instant coffee which is then watered down and loaded with sugar. This was by far the hardest thing to adjust to while I was there as I am a huge (real) coffee addict. I did return with my little espresso pot after a visit to my family and had a much easier time. High maintenance coffee drinker here!

No olive oil! It's really hard to find and expensive...I gave my SO's mom a bottle when I went to visit.

Nicaraguans love to fry everything. Fried eggs and cheese are pretty much daily staples. I told my SO to enjoy it while he can,because once I move there I am not frying him anything! (yea I'm mean whatever)

[DemonxOisin]

OMG! I can totally relate to you! I had actually forgot some of the cooking ones.

Canola/corn oil all the way for the Mexican. And not only is it disgusting, but yes, they do majorly over use the stuff. I was raised on olive oil too o.o And he also loves to put ketchup on anything -.- Honestly, why? There are so many better toppings out there.

Also, sandwich means 2 different things for us. To me, a sandwich is bread, BUTTER, some kind of meat, maybe cheese. And if you like, you can toast it too. To him, Itīs bread, ketchup and mustard, and sometimes meat. WHAT.

And another thing. Iīm not sure if this is a Mexican thing, or if itīs just him, but he has never used a barbeque before. Itīs ridiculous, in the summer I live off the barbeque :P

[Haley53]

Ketchup on a sandwich? o.O; Then again, I'm not a huge ketchup fan... or a sauce fan for that matter. In Italian restaurants, I'm the 20-year-old child ordering pasta with nothing, not even butter or a bit of garlic sauce. I'd even prefer my pizza without sauce or at least without a red sauce (I once had this amazing grilled pear and apple pizza with a gorgonzola cheese sauce). Surprise, surprise, that any sort of red sauce is probably the boy's favourite, yet he hates tomatos and I love them, go figure.

Moon - Your post made me smile! That's so funny about the pizza... I think the only main pizza difference when I went to Dublin was that they put sweet corn on their pizza there and I don't think I've ever seen/heard of that. But I will say:

I love the place to death, I do, but they need to get a few Mexicans over there to open a real restaurant! I can't wait til he gets here and I can introduce him to it

This this this! 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. ;]

[kiara_silver]

Im from the US and my SO is over in the UK. Aside from little word changes like chips and french fries. Or crisps and chips one thing he complained about was the tax here lol Over there whatever the price says thats what you pay and here they don't include the tax. That bugged him lol He also says were more loud lol like on 4th of july the huge crowd everyone awwing and cheering the fireworks. Or when they had shows on earlier that day and people laugh and cheer, he says its not as lively back home, they don't care lol
Haven't been there yet, but can't wait to go and experience the differences myself.

[squeeker]

I'm from Canada and my SO is from England so there aren't too many cultural difference besides a few different slang words and one thing I remember about England that was different was everything was smaller!! Like the flour comes in smaller packages and their largest size flour bag is like our smallest that we can get and their smallest flour bag is so cute! I also realized on my last trip what kiara_silver mentioned about the UK including taxes in the prices on the shelves, I hadn't realized it on my first trip for some reason but then on this one I realized when we paid for something there didn't seem to be tax. I guess I hadn't noticed it before because they still have tax, it's just included in the shelf price, which made it much handier when we were trying to predict how much our shopping bill would be! Oh another fun one is their electrical plug ins over in the UK, they are so different and usually have a little switch to turn it on or off which is pretty cool! lol cultural differences can be fun!!!