What is your biggest cultural shock from visiting America?

What is your biggest cultural shock from visiting America?

There were two.

1. Straightforwardness and openness in public

Before my visit to the USA I’ve never understood the concept of small talk. I’ve heard of it on numerous occasions, especially during my English lessons, but I never really got it. What’s the point of talking if there’s nothing to talk about?

Then I came to America to work and travel, and everyone started talking to me.

People asking me “How are you?” (or “How ya doin’?” in Virginia) didn’t shock me - I knew that it was just a way of saying “hi”. What did shock was that everyone was doing that - even some random people I didn’t know passing me on the street.

I’m 206 cm (6′9″ for Americans) tall. That’s a lot, and I’m constantly reminded of it by handrails on buses and trams or by doors in houses. But living in Poland, I hear one, maybe two questions related to my height every year. In Newport News’ Partick Henry Mall ten people asked me about my height in an hour.

People kept engaging me in conversations all the time - at work (when it was slow enough that we could talk), on buses, planes and trains, in public. Once I was called by a woman on a beach, because she remembered I had given her an advice a day before (and I didn’t even remember it - I served thousands of customers every day).

And everyone was super freaking emotional.

What an average Pole would say: “There was a spider in my room. I killed it with my slipper”.
What an average American would say: “Oh my God, you’re not gonna believe this! I came into my room and there was a HUUUUGE spider right in the middle of it! I took a slipper and started whacking the spider with all my might, until it was dead! I still can’t believe it happened!”

(I don’t want this to sound stereotypical, but the fact that most of my American coworkers - people I spent most time with - were young women, might have affected my perception of this aspect. But still, a Polish girl would usually be much less emotional, especially after the job of killing spider was done).

I’ve been in the USA for three months. For the first month it was a bit annoying to me - I even used the term “emotional exhibitionism” once or twice - but then I got used to it. And I even started enjoying it, especially when I finished my work and started my travel.

Because it was nice. And because I could ask random strangers on planes or trains about objects we were passing and learn about them this way. And then answer their questions about Poland (“Yes, it’s in Europe. Yes, we have shopping malls, they’re nothing new to us, and actually we kinda start getting sick of them. Yes, we’re mostly Christians, Roman Catholics to be exact, and no, I’ve never met a creationist in my life”).

2. Food prices.

The most affordable way to acquire food in Poland has always been buying raw products and cooking them. If I bought half kilo of mushrooms, three kilos of potatoes, six eggs and one kilo of potato starch, it would cost me 17 PLN (about the price of single Whopper meal in Burger King) and it would be enough to make Silesian dumplings for dinner for a family of four.

And it always seemed logical to me - if someone else processed the food instead of me, this person would get paid, and this money (along with other costs of production) would be added to my bill. So the more stages of processing the food goes through, the more expensive it gets. Right?

Not in America.

In the land of the stars and stripes, for some reason the more stages of processing the food goes through, the cheaper it gets. I felt like if I bought cheese, bread and butter and made a sandwich myself I’d pay more than if I bought a sandwich someone else got paid to make for me.

It was completely against any of my previous consumer habits and I needed some time to actually acknowlege this. And I still have no idea how it works (it probably has something to do with the economy of scale, but still).

I know that many Americans don’t like it and blame the cheap processed food for the nationwide obesity problem (I actually lost some weight when I was in America, and I was on tight budget, but it might have something to do with the fact that I worked 10–12 hours a day and usually I ate only breakfast and lunch during the day). I’m not gonna pretend like I know the solution, I’m just gonna enjoy my cheap potatoes here in Poland.

Overall, America was an awesome place. But it was also pretty weird.

1. Remarkably homogenous behavior in such a large, diverse population. e.g.
1. Unvaried formulaic greetings (Have a nice day. OMG. Let’s have closure. Our thoughts and prayers… Take it to another/the next level…Thanks for your service…); such phrases now seem empty of authenticity or prior contemplation
2. How can the variety of political option and opinion be contained in only two major political parties?
1. The political system inherently suppresses free expression of opinion by confining politics to only two major parties;
2. Any other “independent” party faces overwhelming “barrier to entry” due to this oligopoly.
3. Lobbies thrive when their life is much simplified by having only two levers in the system.
4. Party whips “enforce discipline” i.e. suppress a congressmen/ist from voting according to the needs of his/her constituents in a top-down manner. Should a democracy not be bottoms-up?
2. Excessive non-stop consumption. How frequently obesity occurs (very rarely portrayed on TV or in movies); how extraordinarily out-sized food portions are, often enough to feed three or four people; how a lot of Americans are continuously putting something down their throats (drinks, coffee, food, snacks…) like a life-saving intravenous drip.
3. Outside of big cities, how little Americans walk or exercise; sometimes, they see no irony in driving miles to a gym! PS.
1. There are exceptions to all generalization: Six States: California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Colorado, Utah and Montana are the most active States of the 50. Adult Obesity in the United States
2. The 20th Century era of inexpensive cars and much cheaper fuel (compared to any non-oil/OPEC rich nation on earth) has allowed extremely thin population density, and greatly diminishing the amount that Americans walk daily. U.S. Loses Spot in Top 10 Countries for Cheapest Gasoline
3. In most developed nations, the concept of the nearest merchant (grocery, pharmacy…) being further than a few hundred yards away from one’s residence is logistically infeasible without cars or cheap fuel.
4. How inexpensive material goods are. I can’t think of any other country, even “Third World” where I can get cheaper clothes, electronics, furniture and stationery of similar quality or manufacture.
5. How unrooted and unattached to family and community people are. Americans seem to think it perfectly normal to move thousands of miles every few years for work or pleasure. Profession and hedonism seem to prevail over affiliation with a place, family cohesion and social connectedness.
6. How mercantilist the country is, with mind-numbing obsession with selling/buying and with little consideration for the welfare of its working citizens.
   * For every 60 minutes of network TV, there is about 20 minutes of advertising.
   * Overnight delivery! Amazon Prime 24 or 48 hours delivery works because there are 24-hour 7/52 workers in warehouses etc.; in Europe, you expect workers to have Sundays and nights off so delivery in 4 days instead of 1 or 2 is understandable.
   * Holidays are when stores have greater selling opportunity and remain open (except Thanksgiving.); what a perversion of the concept of “holiday” for those obliged to work on those days.
   * Walmart and other retailers not only provide wages that are grossly inadequate for survival, but also don’t offer health insurance, that is ultimately paid for via Medicaid by taxpayers i.e. Americans, in effect, subsidize the labor of major retailers!
7. How exuberantly friendly people are.
1. Unfailingly upbeat and polite, Americans are super friendly…to almost everyone on first contact.
2. It’s probably the “oil” needed to lubricate the tremendous social and economic dynamism in this continental-sized nation.
1. When people move thousands of miles for jobs, they have to instantly form social networks and work with others; without the instant, overt friendly interface of Americans, that dynamic couldn’t happen easily.
2. Imagine if you moved every two years for work and every place was a village suspicious or wary of outsiders; nothing would be easy.
3. However, the reverse side of the coin is that they can be extremely unreliable as “friends”, not really wanting to know how you truly feel or dealing with problems, not willing to engage in any deep discussions, promptly forgetting about you among the thousands of their everyday encounters.
8. In certain parts of the country, it almost seems that the Age of Enlightenment - Wikipedia had never occurred, stuck in pre-18th Century mindsets regarding science, logic and humanism. Logical discussion seems beyond the range, almost an alien concept, of many who just tout set slogans and opinions, with no basis in observation or research for themselves. It’s mind boggling to find in a “Developed Nation”. It shows all the signs of Brainwashing - Wikipedia
9. Unnatural food produce.
   * Bread like marshmallow that don’t harden or get moldy for up to a week! (In France, bread lasts half a day).
   * Vegetables that look good and are firm but have little flavor or interior color.
   * Lettuce that doesn't wilt in a week (iceberg).
   * Processed food with ingredients that belong in a chemistry lab.

My biggest culture shock so far has been the USA.

Despite being a beautiful country with a lot of wonderful things to see and do, I just couldn’t figure out, how do people actually survive in this country.

Coming from a really small and quiet place, I was truly overwhelmed by the greatness and size of everything - huge building, vast space between houses, 10 lanes wide highways, countless fast food restaurants, endless shopping malls etc etc. Everything is just so big - you just come to think - do people really have time to consume all of that?

Simple example - an average shopping mall - sized like a football field. Who needs this much stuff? Why would you need 10 (20?) different cereal packs to choose from? I’m not trying to say it’s bad to have a choice, and perhaps on busy days there are enough buyers for all of those goods. But this was really unusual for me.

Fast food joints seemed to be on every corner. Sure, sometimes you really crave a hamburger. But people seem to abuse their cravings - we didn’t exactly see very fit folks eating at those joints. It’s everybody’s own choice, no doubt about that. But maybe focusing more on promoting healthy lifestyle (instead of making profit) would benefit the nation in the long run..

Tipping and prices in general seemed to be a mystery and another shock. By the end of a 2 week trip I still couldn’t quite figure it out, and just counted roughly another 1/2 of the menu price on top. I know that waiters are making pennies and didn’t mind leaving them a nice tip. I just wish it were more transparent.

Now to the most controversial topic so far. I have traveled quite a lot in my life and never, anywhere in the world, did I experience that much smell of marijuana, as I did during our California road trip. Again - I’m not trying to judge anyone, but this was by far the BIGGEST culture shock for me, personally.

People have told me that I went to wrong places. Well, guess what - I went to the most popular ones, and I didn’t have a guide with me. My only guide (when choosing for a places to visit) was Google, and it didn’t mention anything.

Next time I’ll be better prepared and know what to expect.

If you are interested in reading about the trip highlights, you can do it here: USA roadtrip best moments