Cultural Adaptations! What would you change?

Question

Like the title says!

I'm curious about what cultural experiences everyone has had in different countries and want to know what you'd like to see more of in your own!

I kinda love the whole bowing thinf (lower for those who you want to show more respect to) and wish people would stop looking at me like I'm just bobbing my head like a chicken! (From most Asian cultures!)

So what do ya'll think? ^^

Answer

I am a dual citizen. I grew up and spend most of my life in Germany, I moved to the US 4 years ago. There are good things and bad things for both countries, so please don't bash me with "then move"... This is just some of the big differences I am liking/disliking. 
While TTC/planning for family,  I wish we would not live in the US, as no paid maternity leave, no sick leave (you need to take your vacation), massive health bills even with decent insurance... basically the whole social security net not being here at all is scaring me. 
What I like about here is that we both have good jobs, own a house with a big back yard, 2 newer vehicles... things we could not afford in the same size city in Germany. I would probably also not be at the pay level that I am. 
Also in the US,  as a working mom, you're not doomed a career bitch. 
What I miss here is that friends you can depend on are barely there. Everyone calls them friends, but to me, most of them are only acquaintances. 
The commitment to words is not as big... just as an example: as a German, when I tell you that we will meet for coffee, I'll call you in a week or two to actually go meet. Here it is a "I wanna sound nice, but yeah, that's never gonna happen".

Answer

I've literally being saying it for years. I wish the US had a siesta in the middle of everyday. I just almost fell asleep at my desk 😴

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My best friend in elementary school was Indian and during the summer her grandparents came to the states from India. They would always bring us little trinkets and jewelry from India and cook great food. I don't see anything wrong with learning about a culture as along as you're doing it respectfully.

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I wish everyone took their shoes off before entering the home like they do in Japan.  I hate when people wear shoes in the house. Yuck.

Second, I wish Japanese toilets were the standard here!!  So clean.  We are about to renovate our house and will be getting all Japanese toilets.  I'm very excited about that.

Answer

I'm from England and although it's good to be polite I think we can be too polite 😂 like at a mini roundabout you can be waiting for ages for someone to go 😂.  and because people are too polite, when we go abroad it's shocking to us how impolite others can be. It seems worse because we aren't used to it, life abroad always seems so chaotic. As soon as we get home we sigh with relief at how everything is done in order 😂😂😂

Answer

I'm very active in my European culture. I am Norse pagan which is what my ancestors were before Christianity.  I do wish that more people of European decent would go back to their roots. I also wish we were taught more about our ancestry in school. That's the biggest thing I would change. I love that every race has their own culture and I think everyone should practice theirs more than what we really do.

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Have you seen how finicky French eating habits are? Even the schools? I'd love to see that here.

...Or is there any culture that doesn't insist that people smile all the damn time?

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We should try to live like the Anutans. The community helps each other with everything and they barter supplies and services. Those people are so relaxed and want for nothing.

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When I was in high school, I lived in this small town in Italy for the summer. Everything closed down from 12pm-2pm for lunch. Like every single shop. Except restaurants. I thought it was pretty annoying at the time (American sensibilities), but I would love it now.

Lunch for me these days consists of taking 10 minutes to shove food in my mouth between running to meetings or responding to emails. 😕

Answer

In Aruba they are so laid back. Talking to a lot of business people there I learned that even if you're an hour late to work you're still early with some jobs. I would change it because people have schedules that they live by. We did some time share presentations and the host was really late and walked in like it didn't matter. We went there during FIFA also and literally every store we walked in had the tv on and all employees were lost in the T.V. If someone wanted to they could walk out with whatever merchandise they wanted. We had to keep trying to keep the cashiers attention and she was just putting things in our bag without scanning it. I almost wanted to just scan and bag my items myself

Cultural Adaptations! What would you change?

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