Things from "your" culture you hate.

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Okay, here are some. For context, [I am a] black person in USA who interacts with white american culture a lot.

I don't know how to make this not sound racist, but f**k it. Maybe making this for stuff in 'your' culture which annoys you


1. Tipping. Tipping was originally intended as an extra/add-on and now it's some BS "unwritten" trend to tip random people for regular service. That is something which annoys me.
2. Thank you cards. So greeting someone in person is not enough?
3. "how are you" "I'm okay" social lubrication. Some do not like saying "I feel bad" or "I feel like garbage" because oh, dear at least you aren't paralyzed or dead. Yes, I'm sure the homeless person with $5 to his name should feel SOOOO happy because he's not paralyzed

Add on as you see. For your culture or your context

Last edited by Warsie on 05 Jun 2012, 12:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

A little note for those of you who don't like to tip. Boys and girls, as we know, there is such a thing as minimum wage in the U.S. Lo and behold! There is only one occupation where that doesn't apply - wait staff. I learned this the hard way. I waited at two different restaurants, one in upstate NY and one in Nashville. They both paid about the same thing - $3.10/hr. This was when the minimum wage was about $6 or $7. Wait staff DEPEND on tips to make ends meet. So open your wallets, dammit!

Tipping is actually explicitly part of how those people get paid, which is why its an unwritten rule to tip people for regular service. People like waiters and waitresses aren't required to make minimum wage before tips, because tips are supposed to make up the difference. This is also part of why if its a large enough group they'll include gratuity.

So basically, tips aren't an add on to their salaries, its part of their salaries. That is why people tip, and should tip, for regular service.

Don't really think the british have a culture.

Again. In the 1950s and before then, tipping was not required socially. The pay was adequate in that era, and in earlier times servants in the US considered tipping to be demeaning as opposed to Europe. When one group of people goes "okay tipping is mandatory" and then forces other peoples/cultures to tip too in order to trick people into being "generous" to justify jipping them off, yes I will be disagreeable.

As an American, I don't like how we are supposed to be happy all the damn time. Can't I ever have a bad day for once?

And this isn't really something I change, but I sometimes wish we Americans were more comfortable with silence, like the Chinese are.

If this was 1950 and I was being paid $3.10/hr I'd be thrilled...if this was 1950. Also, given my social anxieties, I actually prefer cards.

I also hate tipping - it's not socially required here in the UK, but here this is all the more annoying as we have the problem that many restaurants use tips to pay their staff rather than the staff getting tips for a job well done - thus tipping isn't helping the wait staff, it's helping the greedy company they work for and it's also undermining the customer service...yet there is still a social pressure to tip.

I hate how little companies care about customer service, the work culture here in Britain is atrocious so there is no culture of rewarding those who do their job well and companies don't bother training their staff, so customer service suffers but also employment suffers too.

As a Brit - our apathy annoys me, but especially when it comes to politics.
Yes all politicians are thieving amoral a-holes however we as the people of this country have political power, we shouldn't just accept this as a norm and whinge about how the government are making this countries problems worse to our friends, we should be more riled-up.

I dislike enforced fun - e.g. the day before Christmas holidays when everyone at work decides to play 'fun' games like pictionary or come into work in fancy dress - if you don't join-in then you're viewed as boring, a spoil sport, or not part of the team. Worse still when it's an activity like fancy dress to raise money for charity, as apparently donating to charity alone is not enough.

On that same line of thought I'm also not a fan of greetings cards - again a classic example is at work when someone is leaving you're expected to sign a leaving card saying good luck, even if you don't know the person or didn't like them - I hate false sentiment.

Last edited by Bloodheart on 04 Jun 2012, 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That any time you go out with anyone you're expected to get sloppy drunk. I don't drink but anytime I go anywhere, with anyone, they bug me incessantly about it.

I too hate the "How are you?" social convention, especially because people tend to ask that when it's obvious you're feeling pretty damned bad. What do they think, that you'll suddenly be cured of your blinding headache because they ask you how you are? /sarcasm

Qualified, educated people leave New Zealand when they finish study. It is called the 'brain drain'. The only people left in New Zealand are the people that don't think they have any power to control their lives. As a result, it is 'uncool' to try hard in New Zealand.
Also, the drinking culture is terrible.

Compared to New Zealand, Japan is very nice. Some parts of Japanese culture are well advanced. However, I imagine it is one of the worst places around for false sentiment. When you travel somewhere for a short trip, you are expected to buy souvenirs for everyone you work with. Likewise, on Valentine's Day, females must buy male workmates chocolate. March 14 is "White Day", in which those men must return a gift of white chocolate to all women they received chocolate from.

[Moved from General Autism Discussion to Random Discussion]

I know and hate these two aswell
But far the worse thing about danish culture is the "its not okay to be special" thinking
If you stand out in a positive way, good at sports, computers, music, business, somebody is always there to drag you down to the ground, and a bit below. We celebrate the average and that is stopping people from achieving the amazing.
We arnt allowed to follow our dreams if they are a bit beyond getting an education, luckily it seems this annoying thinking is slowly changing. But there are still way too often people who cant see a positive thing in any idea which is out of the box.
Everything ive done in my life which has made it better has been more or less by myself, because most people around me has been like, no way he can do that... Well screw those guys! I can do whatever I want and I intend to prove it

Rap "music".

I can't stand rap music and Top 40. If these were the 1960s, I'd actually enjoy listening to Top 40 because it would have been all the bands and performers that I actually enjoy. Another thing that I can't stand about my culture is the baggy jeans and backwards hats that come along with rap culture.

Speaking as a half-Mexican from LA;

Having been to Mexico on numerous occasions, and having seen how the average person lives in many towns there, I have nothing but sympathy and understanding for those who choose to move here.

That said, treating the locals in your new country as though they are stupid for not speaking your language, or having rallys where thousands of you angrily march down major streets waving another country's flag, are not the best way to encourage tolerance and acceptance from the majority.