For example, I’m a white Jewish guy but I’ve adopted the Japanese practice of keeping dedicated house slippers at the front door.
I wear a mask unless I need my mouth for something.
With a mask on, I’m 50% better looking!
I love wearing a mask it makes me feel like a ninja
Same here. I’m immune compromised and masks are a blessing.
I used to get sick once a month and now I’ve not been sick since before covid.
I cross my sevens like a German.
This is a German thing? I know tons of people here in Canada who do it.
It’s done all over Europe. They also have a fancy 1 that’s nice because it doesn’t look like a lower case l. I’m not positive that the 1 is used outside France though but it’s the standard in France. https://ielanguages.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/davidsno.jpg
I adopted this years ago so I could tell the difference between a 1 and a 7 😁
I’ve learned from the Japanese phrase ‘itadakimasu,’ which is said before eating as a way to thank the person that prepared the food. I think in the west, a lot of us grew up learning to say things like grace before a meal, but that is too religious for me and gives God credit for peoples’ hard work instead. I love the idea of ritualistically thanking the people who actually made the food. It was one of the things I appreciated while studying there that has stuck with me.
In my culture its common courtesy to thank a person after the meal, either the one who made it, brought it, or paid for it. But only if they’re present. It ain’t a ritual. Same-ish thing.
I would LOVE the house slipper bit. I’ve suggested it so many times. Wife and kids just won’t go for it. Wife says it’s rude to ask a guest to take off their shoes. I disagree but she just can’t see my point or view. If you want to enter my house, show respect and take off your shoes to keep my house clean.
I have multiple guests slippers at the door with internal shoe cleaner also to hand, but that’s mostly for show as we clean them anyway. Regular guests eventually get to choose there slippers and we’ll get what ever they want.
I just don’t get it lol. Whenever I enter someone’s house for the first time I ask “would you like me to take my shoes off?”.
It’s not that hard, and especially obvious if they have light colored carpet
From the USA: wearing a white t-shirt under my shirt or t-shirt. Helps preventing sweat stains under armpits. Really hot in the summer though
Try and get 100% cotton. It’s the polyester that makes it hot.
In the SW USA in summer it can get 117F (47C) and let me tell you, my dude, 100% cotton is still hot as hell.
I don’t know this for sure, but to me it seems like the whole suit and tie and jacket thing was a northern European tradition and eventually an eastern USA tradition where it’s cold. That shit don’t work in the desert, and those who continue to claim “professionalism” and maintain such stupid customs are fools, in my opinion.
I’m not middle eastern but those dudes have the correct answer to the desert. I really wish the thawb would catch on in the Sonoran Desert of the southwest USA.
Wow I just posted a comment that was for another thread by accident! My apologies.
I’ve adopted something called Kaizen and the 5S for manufacturing which is pretty much a philosophy of making things more convenient to reduce waste, time and energy doing something and making sure items are placed in the most efficient place possible.
I used to be pretty organized and it has been great following something like this.
Before I quit drinking I believe I was following Russian culture with my vodka intake.
Drinking cheapest vodka possible chasing it with cheapest bear possible, then fight, sing, fight again, vomit all over the place, and fall asleep face down in a bowl of salad?
American, here. Got a bidet, and I am never going back. The fact that this isn’t standard in American households is disgusting.
I set all my digital clocks to 24hr mode, something I picked up after living in Europe. Would never go back.
Likewise. I just found it much easier when trying to schedule my day. Not having to account for the switch from 12-1 makes the math simpler.
One of us! Now shift to metric!
I’m a big white guy but I wear sarongs all the time, having grown up on Java and wore them as a kid. Soooo comfortable and versatile.
I am not Jewish, but I have adopted the practice of placing stones/pebbles on my parents’ gravestone each time I visit.
Is that cleaned up or are there a pile there after a while?
Stretching. I think this originally came from southeast Asia, its so far back that its hard to discover. But I stretch every single morning. As a Native American I need that to limber up so I can dance, which I enjoy doing.
A few jump to mind.
I say No Worries quite a lot.
I use chopsticks as much as a fork at home.
I take my shoes off inside.
I’ll order a Pint.
What culture says “no worries”? I’ve heard it so much I thought it universal by now.
I was what I think we would now call a “weeb” in my junior/senior year of high school, and had studied Japanese culture before making a short trip over there in the summer. One of the things I learned was that blowing your nose in public is seen as bad manners, and it really stuck with me. When you think about it, it is pretty gross to loudly blow snot into a tissue (bonus points for carrying a handkerchief!) in front of others, like (as an American) we’ll just do this at the dinner table without batting an eye.
To this day, I try not to blow my nose in public places or in front of folks if I can avoid it, because it has grossed me out ever since learning how Japanese culture perceives it.
I’m American and I don’t think anyone in my social circle would blow their nose at the dinner table. Yours might just be gross.
Wtf? That is super gross. I’m Canadian and I don’t know anyone who would do it at the dinner table. I’ve seen my boss do it at his desk but he turns to face the corner next to his desk first.
Ime most people go to the washroom to do it, or at least make sure they’re not near anyone else.
It seems to me to be worse manners to just leave your snot as leaking out or making you sniffle. Better to get it over with rather than make people listen to that for minutes to hours.
How could I adopt a practice from a culture that isn’t my own? What constitutes ownership of a culture other than its adoption, and what is culture other than a set of adopted practices?
This seems unnecessarily pedantic given the harmlessness of cross-cultural pollination but I’ll take the question in good faith.
Obviously all cultural practices are necessarily adopted from individuals, groups, and other cultures. What I mean is that some cultures have practices that differ from the ones that are commonplace in the ones you may have grown up in or currently live within. I’m asking about those practices, the ones that aren’t necessarily homegrown or common in your own life.
So the culture one grew up in one’s “own” culture. Reasonable definition.
I grew up in Illinois. My mother made stollen each Christmas because she had encountered it in Germany as a traveling 20-something and she kept it.
It’s not my culture as an American, but as a member of my family it is my culture. This kind of thing is why I ask.
If you wanted to participate in the discussion with a less abrasive nature, you could share that story from your mother’s perspeyand how it became your own personal culture.
However, I would consider it not to be your culture, but a family tradition. Your culture is more rooted in community than just your own family in my opinion.
I think if you open your mind a little you may discover someone challenging your beliefs can be helpful to a conversation.
That’s part of the culture I grew up in: arguing and challenging each other as part of talking. Feel free to try it out or adopt it.
You know I understand you. That was the way with me too. It took me a long time into adulthood to tone that down as I wasn’t making friends and people seemed to think I was an asshole. It really sucked cause I seriously didn’t mean any harm or disrespect, but most took it that way for some reason.
Now, after endless questioning of myself, I’ve learned to adapt to my audience.
I have a really hard time with it because it seems so non-spontaneous. What even is the point of discussing things without disagreement?
I see these conversations that are just people agreeing with each other and I just don’t get it. I don’t want to be a part of it.
But I don’t want to be alone.
Err, I don’t see a point in disagreeing for the sake of it - I have a similar problem to you though. I get awkward or silent when I don’t have anything original, new or even interesting to say, like you are uncomfortable with ‘agreement’.
Persuasion works best when you work off commonalities rather than differences. Though I understand you’re trying to go for combative argumentation.
