US Norms and Global Exceptions

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Let's split this up.

Odd things:

1. In South Africa, the 10 rand is green, the 20 is brown, the 50 is red, the 100 is blue and the 200 is orange. Sure it's wee bit tacky but it makes transactions quite simple.

2. The date thing makes no sense. It is logical to write the day, then the month, then the year (size order).

3. I have heard multiple people complain that bread is sweet in America. As someone who hates sugar (if there was a temple of health, I would be the high priest), I can empathize.

4. The imperial system is a pain in the neck. There are some in the UK who advocate its return, and I can't understand why. Respect, Napoleon. Metric just works.

5. The gaps in the loo. But why, America?

6. Coffee. It's not really a weird thing across the world (only Britain and Russia prefer tea over coffee in Europe), but I prefer tea. Most days, during my lunch break, I be found in my favourite teahouse, owned by a lady from Taiwan. Nothing beats a green tea from Fujian or Zhejiang. It gives me a little boost to get through the afternoon and evening at campus, not to mention it's excellent for your health.

7. Excessively large portions. Speaks for itself.

8. It makes sense to just include the tax on the original price tag. If you buy it, you are going to pay the money anyway.

9. Red cups are an image I have in my mind about America, literally. I think I have mentioned this before.





Things that I don't think are weird:

1. Referring to the US of A as "America". It's acceptable to say, although I tend to say "The United States".

2. Advertisements on TV. I don't watch TV (except this one show called Elementary, as well as Game of Thrones), but I have seen enough to know that advertisements are everywhere.

3. Leftover food. It's rare to get a meal that is large enough that you'll struggle to finish it here, but if you don't want to eat if for some reason it's perfectly acceptable to get a "doggy bag".

4. Tipping waiters, etc. They don't earn that much money as it is, so I don't see what the problem is to just give a tip of gratitude. Don't tip in Japan, though.

5. Chatting with strangers. In South Africa, it's common to have in-depth conversations with strangers. If I'm at a shop, I'll sometimes compare prices and products with a fellow shopper when deciding what to buy. That's common. When I moved here, it really shocked me and sometimes I thought people were being funny because if you dare to speak with a fellow homo sapiens in London people will look at you like you are from another planet. British people are just very reserved.

6. "Swimsuits". People must just cover themselves decently and not subject everyone to their bodies. I went to Spain in June and decided to spend some nice time at the beach, only to find myself barraged by naked, wrinkly old people as well as some young 'uns copulating literally 5 metres away. It was all too much - not my idea of refreshing.

7. Debt for uni.

8. Baby showers.

9. No "vacation" (holiday).

The post that was quoted here has been removed

In South Africa, we have a national sales tax rate of 15% (it was always 14% until the gov changed it to 15% to increase revenue this year). It saves much effort in transactions and also when keeping the books. I can't imagine how much more work it would be to do my accounting with varying levels of tax.