What can we learn from foreigners?

[Camikaze]

I think you're asking questions no one else asked and everyone else understood.

Everyone else understood the problems raised by the questions, or the answers to the questions? I don't really know what the answers are supposed to be, but I suppose I could guess. The OP is probably referring to 'non-Western' foreigners. This is problematic for me particularly, because 'foreigners' to me are primarily German, and I'm a foreigner where I am, despite being from a culture/place very similar to the OP's. I find that I tend to generalise negative isolated experiences as something that foreigners (i.e. locals) don't do as well as people at home (i.e. foreigners), but it's difficult to answer a 'we' question about foreigners when from my perspective a number of the 'we' are those foreigners. I don't know what the 'other' we're meant to be talking about is.

 

[salty mud]

Foreigners = people from different countries. That's what it means.

Not entirely sure where the confusion comes from.

 

[Camikaze]

The question then is 'what can we learn from people?', because all people are from a different country to other people. I assume Quackers didn't intend for such a broad question, however. Hence the confusion.

If he did, then my answer is probably 'knowledge'. I think we should learn knowledge from other people, and that does seem to be the way that education systems are set up, thankfully.

 

[Borachio]

I'd say Mr Q was being typically parochial. Therefore his question really is "What can the British learn from foreigners?"

This makes a great deal of sense, imo, since the British are notorious litterers. And his OP highlighted the Japanese tendency to the reverse.

It's a loaded question, I think.

 

[LucyDuke]

The question then is 'what can we learn from people?', because all people are from a different country to other people. I assume Quackers didn't intend for such a broad question, however.

The question is

What aspects of foreign beheviour, social norms and such would you like to see in your country?

Foreign is "not your country". Whatever country you're from, all the other ones are foreign.


My country would be better off if we were less obsessive about driving our cars everywhere.

 

[Goodfella]

Americans can learn from Japan to eat less.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I find it interesting that you've asked a 'we' question about foreigners on an American forum. Are you asking what Americans can learn from you? What you can learn from Americans? Who are 'we' and who are 'foreigners'?

Everyone else understood the problems raised by the questions, or the answers to the questions? I don't really know what the answers are supposed to be, but I suppose I could guess. The OP is probably referring to 'non-Western' foreigners. This is problematic for me particularly, because 'foreigners' to me are primarily German, and I'm a foreigner where I am, despite being from a culture/place very similar to the OP's. I find that I tend to generalise negative isolated experiences as something that foreigners (i.e. locals) don't do as well as people at home (i.e. foreigners), but it's difficult to answer a 'we' question about foreigners when from my perspective a number of the 'we' are those foreigners. I don't know what the 'other' we're meant to be talking about is.

You're making it far more complicated than it really is. "Foreigners" means anyone who is not "us" - depending on your definition of "us." There's no right or wrong answer; feel free to give your opinion.

 

[Grisu]

What I'd like to see more of in my country is the attitude towards kids that's often displayed by southern europeans as opposed to the one you most often see by swiss/german people.

Especially in a public setting, kids are often seen as a nuisance, to be kept quiet at all times. Often it's expected to train your kid to some kind of superkid that doesn't really display any childish behaviour at all. You often get that attitude when eating out with kids for example (and I'm not talking about some super posh restaurant but your everyday average restaurant).

often the reaction of the service personel there (and many customers too) is something like 'oh no, not another family with brats ...'. In most southern european places I've been (e.g. Italy) the typical reaction is more like 'oh hi there, little ones....would you like a high chair for the smallest one? Here's some colouring pencils, etc...'. Ironically, my kids usually are much better behaved in the latter setting.

 

[Borachio]

I'd like to see a decrease in binge drinking, and more of the style of drinking you encounter in France. Where, although they seem to drink more than is good for them, you never,... well... hardly ever, see them rolling about drunk in the streets.

 

[Masada]

I don't much care about the stadium, so much as the Japanese habit of cleaning up after themselves in food places. It was... awesome to be able to walk into say MOS Burger and expect to find a table free of food and packaging, because the person before us had eaten and put their stuff away, newly wiped by the staff. I'd also like to see Australia adopting a more responsible approach to the consumption of alcohol, the French model is acceptable. I also wouldn't mind seeing Australia develop a cultural expectation that people should work sane hours and put in overtime if there's a need for it. I'm trying to think of a place I've been too where getting up for the elderly, expectant mothers, mothers with young children and the disabled in public transport is the norm but I'm yet to encounter that. The kids thing is also a good idea. I quite like the idea that kids should be polite, as a general rule, but that we should also be able to accept that fact that kids are still well kids and that under certain circumstances e.g. long boring meals kids are apt to play-up sometimes and that we can manage this.

 

[aelf]

There are just a lot of variables. Public transit seems to catch a pretty broad cross section of the population. And even downtown you have the people who do the grunt work, and they probably use the less expensive transportation options. Like Sir B said, oftentimes the stench is from the clothes, so unless they have an opportunity to change them a quick spruce up at the end of the day isn't going to cut it. They may also work with people who wind up stinking at the end of their shift and share Sir B's opinion on those who take issue with them. Or maybe it's (sub)cultural. The running joke around here used to be to avoid computer labs, especially on hot days, since the Indian students would be in there and it would smell. Which, honestly, it did.

Clothes and bodies smell different. I'm more put off by the smell of body odour, maybe because it's much more personal. I have smelled clothes that have not been washed for ages, though, and it's truly awful. There's no real excuse for that here either.

I think the actual reasons why people smell don't matter. I'm talking about people's lack of awareness of their odour and how it might affect others, and how such lack of self-awareness to me signifies pretty serious mental deficiency. I suppose you may have a point in that some are aware but just don't care, maybe because they find it inconvenient to do something about it at the end of the work day or something. But I'm still not very sympathetic as I don't find it at all difficult to take precautions. People who work in offices don't really have an excuse, IMO.

As for not wishing to mix with the great unwashed, that's kind of snooty, I think.

In the past, the "great unwashed" did unfacetiously refer to the masses. But in the context of modern hygiene and well-off societies, it's only used by those who begin with the conclusion that the person they are putting down is snooty.

 

[warpus]

Please don't draw any lessons about America from South Carolina.

Of course not, although the fact that some cities just don't build any sidewalks should be something all of America should be ashamed of.

 

[Farm Boy]

Depending on the size of town it doesn't make sense to at first, then later you need to bulldoze houses/other stuff to put them in.

 

[Formaldehyde]

What aspects of foreign beheviour, social norms and such would you like to see in your country?

Do you have anything positive to say about immigrants to your own country, especially Muslim ones?

 

[salty mud]

Their curries are nice.

 

[Borachio]

French curries are awful.

 

[salty mud]

Having a French curry is like eating a Russian spaghetti. Wrong on virtually every level.

 

[Cheetah]

I don't much care about the stadium, so much as the Japanese habit of cleaning up after themselves in food places. It was... awesome to be able to walk into say MOS Burger and expect to find a table free of food and packaging, because the person before us had eaten and put their stuff away, newly wiped by the staff. I'd also like to see Australia adopting a more responsible approach to the consumption of alcohol, the French model is acceptable. I also wouldn't mind seeing Australia develop a cultural expectation that people should work sane hours and put in overtime if there's a need for it. I'm trying to think of a place I've been too where getting up for the elderly, expectant mothers, mothers with young children and the disabled in public transport is the norm but I'm yet to encounter that. The kids thing is also a good idea. I quite like the idea that kids should be polite, as a general rule, but that we should also be able to accept that fact that kids are still well kids and that under certain circumstances e.g. long boring meals kids are apt to play-up sometimes and that we can manage this.

I'd like to amend my answer with everything this guy just said!

 

[Quackers]

I found another one.
A friend of mine went to Ireland recently and felt that the pace of life was slower. People would smile at you on the street and even say...hello. People would go out of their way to help you out. She was out there for seven days, i'm not sure if that's long enough to gain a solid impression, but if that's true for Northen Ireland than I would like to see that in England.

 

[Borachio]

Yeah. Well, you're in Brighton, Mr Q, aren't you?

You'd find the pace of life noticeably slower in the more rural parts of England.

And people are friendlier, too. It tends to be a feature of smaller populations. Mostly. Some parts of the country are naturally more friendly than others, as well.