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Space Pirate Nithiel wrote on 2014-02-21 06:28
I recently found an.. I guess you would call it article? Post? Anyway. It was listing tips for traveling to America taken from foreign travel guides from Japan and Russia. And some of the tips in the guides were just.. So odd. Like. They are giving people tips for things we don't do here.
One of the tips in the Japanese one said that if you want to speak with an American you must understand sarcasm, and whenever you want to use sarcasm you have to use air quotes to show that it is sarcasm!
One of the tips in the Russian one said that everywhere you go no matter what is going on in America you MUST smile at ALL times.
These travel guides are telling foreigners to come over here and do things that would get them put in a mental institution.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/55140/10-japanese-travel-tips-visiting-america
http://mentalfloss.com/article/54461/4-russian-travel-tips-visiting-america
So, has anyone else heard any odd tips or rumors about America from another country?
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Shanghai wrote on 2014-02-21 06:45
It's coming from the perspective of a Japanese which in their language, words can't really be emphasized or said in a tone to be sarcastic. Sure there's formal and informal dialect, but you can't drastically stretch or make words sound different in tone like you can with English. I can definitely see why the Japanese think we have too much leisure time; most Eastern countries are a lot more work-focused.
I remember my Japanese book spouting out several inconsistencies in how the Japanese act, and when I went to Japan it made it even more obvious. People can't simply(and correctly) generalize another culture due to how different individuals are and how we perceive things.
(I use air quotes.) :llama_whistle:
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Ketchup wrote on 2014-02-21 07:00
What about that clapping stereotype
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Space Pirate Nithiel wrote on 2014-02-21 07:06
Quote from Shanghai;1200451:
(I use air quotes.) :llama_whistle:
Do you? I've never seen anyone use them in real life. :whoops:
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Chockeh wrote on 2014-02-21 07:08
Americans have a reputation of being ignorant assholes over here.
I heard that during one of our Olympics hockey game (last Olympics?), America trashed the Canadian flag before the start of their match. People just say it's the American style.
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Shanghai wrote on 2014-02-21 08:04
Quote from Chockeh;1200460:
Americans have a reputation of being ignorant assholes over here.
I heard that during one of our Olympics hockey game (last Olympics?), America trashed the Canadian flag before the start of their match. People just say it's the American style.
Burning other team mascots is apparently pretty common in universities and colleges here for Homecoming games.
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Hanna wrote on 2014-02-21 08:04
Americans are really sarcastic and it's almost exclusively American so a lot of cultures don't understand jt
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Space Pirate Nithiel wrote on 2014-02-21 08:13
Yeah, I get that. But I think teaching them that is a bad idea. If you are telling people that whenever you say something sarcastic you have to use air quotes to let people know it's sarcasm, then they come over here and NO ONE(Except Shang) is doing that, how will they know that something is sarcasm? xD
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Shanghai wrote on 2014-02-21 08:14
Quote from Space Pirate Nithiel;1200476:
Yeah, I get that. But I think teaching them that is a bad idea. If you are telling people that whenever you say something sarcastic you have to use air quotes to let people know it's sarcasm, then they come over here and NO ONE(Except Shang) is doing that, how will they know that something is sarcasm? xD
It's a visual indicator, and sometimes visuals are the best ways to get something across to someone. It's something to expect.
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frncsjhnhawaii wrote on 2014-02-21 17:23
I want to ask my girlfriend what she knows on this topic since she's studying about the tourism industry and has a lot of Japanese and Korean foreign exchange students.
On the Russian Article:
#3 made me lol. It's sort of sad to say but my experience living in a suburban neighborhood was more of feeling a little isolated. Not that I couldn't make friends or anything like that, but the neighborhood felt a little dead. Like I don't see neighbors interacting with each other as much as I see in the inner-city where there are a lot of new immigrants. I guess the whole thing about privacy and being left alone is a cultural thing that I don't understand as a second-generation Filipino immigrant myself.
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TLCBonaparte wrote on 2014-02-22 00:15
[Image: http://i6.mangareader.net/eyeshield-21/319/eyeshield-21-159287.jpg]
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Kouki wrote on 2014-02-22 23:51
I wish #4 of the first one was true.
#10 is kind of true, I think, at least compared to most countries.
PS: I never did that thing with my hands for sarcasm. D: I used to not understand it as a small kid, but it just naturalized into my head as I kept living in America and my cousin taught me a lot of the ways of America. It's all in the tone, and obviousness that you can tell if it's sarcasm. xD