Asking “so what do you do for a living?” when meeting someone new as if their job defines them. It’s one of the first questions Americans will ask someone when meeting them for the first time. I am American, but as I understand it, this question is far less common elsewhere in the world.
This has always gotten under my skin as well. I generally downplay it to make my job sound as common as possible, and I do not return the question. What I do for money has very little influence on who I am or what I enjoy.
I ask, “So what do you do?”
If they answer with hobbies and interests, they’re more my kind of person. If they answer with their job stuff, well that’s just their main life thing.
If you ask an American they will assume you MEAN their job, whether it’s their “main life thing” or not, because that’s how people talk here
My default answer to that is ‘As little as possible.’
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Well aren’t you just a barrel of laughs :)
I just ask, in a screaming tone, WHO DOES NUMBER TWO WORK FOR???
They usually just look at me, and assume there’s been some kind of language barrier. Nope. I’m just referencing an obscure scene that nobody remembers from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. A film that came out in 1997. So a lot of people these days weren’t even BORN when that movie came out.
You show that turd who’s boss!
Can we get a courtesy flush?
Depends on where in America, too. It literally is question #1 in D.C., but has been less so elsewhere, in my experience.
I feel it’s a bit tacky as a first question, but if I’m not asking it at some point I personally feel like I’m not making a real effort to know someone.
For a lot of people I think it’s just their go-to ice breaker since most people have a job or some kind of education they are involved in.
I personally really enjoy hearing about many people jobs since they really open my eyes to a different lifestyles and working environments out there, or I might get the scoop on workplace drama stories.
I usually wait for the other person to bring up work. There’s no reason to assume, because idk, maybe they’re a stay at home parent, maybe they’re in between jobs or just got laid off, maybe they do work but it’s shitty. There are all sorts of reasons someone wouldn’t want to talk about it.
Also, “where do you go to church?”
I just try not to be around people that would ask that
Pretending they’re well travelled by bragging about how many states they’ve visited.
I certainly wouldn’t call that “well-traveled” and bragging is kinda dumb in general, but it is worth pointing out that the US does have a huge diversity of different cultures, demographics, and environs in different states (so much so that they can often feel like different countries), so it’s perhaps not as quaint as it sounds. It’s not like traveling within a European country. Much closer to traveling within the EU.
Still would never call that being “well-traveled”, though.
that is not exclusively american thing
Yo, I went to South Korea once¹
¹been at airport waiting for a transfer flight to the US
But okay for real, I’ve been to China.² I’m a legit international traveller! 😏
²Was born there lol. Does immigration to the US technically count as “travelling”?
If you made it out of the airport, I’d say that counts. I’ve connected in South Korea and Taiwan several times since i was a kid, but never long enough of a layover to make it out of the airport.
No we just waited in the building for like idk 10 hours it felt like.
It must’ve been so boring since I don’t remember much if it.
But I do remember being at a store in the airport and saw something cost like 10,000 and kid-me was like: “omg why is it so expensive? is every foreign country this rich?” (keep in mind, I think I was literally the only one in my entire school and out of everyone I know, that was emigrating, at least to my knowledge, so it felt like a sort of “privilage” to kid-me)
Then my dad was like: “That Korean money, its like [$5-$10 USD]” that’s the moment I learned of the existence of other currencies, mind… blown… not everyone uses the same money.
Lol, naïve young me was so funny.
Idk why but I think I felt a bit anxious.
My mom told me to not share the fact that I was about to immigrating to the US to any of my peers, to keep it a secret because “people might get jealous”.
So in my mind I immediately thought like some “bad guy” is gonna assassinate my family if it got leaked. (I was like 7, my thoughts went wild okay lol)
I’m not sure how long I keep it in me, I think I might’ve told classmates like the last month or so… right before we left… don’t remember
So yea…
I always dwell on the past and think of alt-timelines… like what if that never happened and I was still in China… would I have found out about the internet outside of the wall?
Would I have made more friends? (since I would’ve never got the language barrier issue that damaged my self-esteem)
Would there be no bullying? I mean no racial differences… so might’ve been less conflicts…
But then again, this current timeline… this unique experience allowed me to understand multiculturalism and be more accepting of people of different national origins and different skin colors, and I understand LGBT stuff more.
So yea… this is an interesting timeline, my story has been kinda interesting… hopefully the future and ending is just as interesting if not more interesting.
Then my dad was like: “That Korean money, its like [$5-$10 USD]” that’s the moment I learned of the existence of other currencies, mind… blown… not everyone uses the same money.
I remember my experience with that. Doing the math in my head and realizing how much more expensive things were at the airport in Tokyo-Narita than the electronics shops around Bangkok.
Would I have made more friends? (since I would’ve never got the language barrier issue that damaged my self-esteem)
Do you mean learning English later than your peers? If so, I had a similar experience. I didn’t learn English until kindergarten and it made it harder to make friends. Though there were other factors (big one being my dad was paranoid about me being kidnapped by the parents of other students, so I never got to hang out with any of them outside of school), I think they outcome is largely the same. Especially if the other kids were the type to let that be a dealbreaker for engaging with you. I found it easier to get to know other students to whom English was a second language.
Would there be no bullying? I mean no racial differences… so might’ve been less conflicts…
Somehow in my case, I saw more white kids getting bullied by other white kids than I ever experienced of myself or other people of color I went to school with. Though I suppose I was one of the few in my graduating class. Also somehow I managed to gain a reputation for being one of “the least Asian” kids at the school. Of which there were maybe 10 during any given school year.
didn’t learn English until kindergarten
I went through all the way to 2nd grade in China.
My mom convince the school in NYC to put me in 2nd grade again, this time in the US in English. She told me she want to give me a better chance at improving my English…
It’s much different, when you’re 2nd grade, you’re expected to already speak the language.
I mean, I don’t think I even knew Mandarin till Kindergarden (I think the media at home was mostly HK-based, dubbed in Cantonese), yet I still managed K - Grade 2 fine
As opposed to 2nd grade with English… that was so foreign to me.
I found it easier to get to know other students to whom English was a second language.
Yea I got along with other Cantonese speakers very well. Don’t really think I had much bullying from other Cantonese speakers. Mandarin speakers were rare and I kinda felt slightly more distant from them, but still feel kinda have a connection.
paranoid about me being kidnapped
Lol my mom went all in on the “stranger danger” teaching.
Every stranger want to kidnap you. Reject candy, they want to drug you and steal organs of little boys and sell little girls into prostitution. Becareful of cars, bad guys are gonna hop out and pull you in.
Jesus chist that shit scared me.
I think Mainland China had a lot of kidnappings for some reason. Authorities didn’t do shit about it.
I kinda developed a habit of looking behind me every so often, make sure no “bad guy” is following.
I think I developed separation anxiety because of this.
I kinda get scared of teachers that would hand out candy because I think it could be poison.
But then again my mom was fine with halloween trick-or-treating? Lol?
I think Mainland China had a lot of kidnappings for some reason. Authorities didn’t do shit about it.
My parents gave me the impression that it was somewhat common in Bangkok too, but I didn’t need to worry as much because I’m not an attractive woman and/or rich looking white tourist.
But then again my mom was fine with halloween trick-or-treating? Lol?
Asian parents are so inconsistent like that. It’s weird how common it is. My parents were worried about me getting poisoned because of that whole Tylenol poisoning thing from the 80’s but didn’t bat an eye whenever the school called about my allergic reactions to peanut exposure. Even before they found out my case wasn’t life threatening. Same thing with peanuts in Halloween candy before I cared enough to read the labels to make sure I had regular M&Ms and not the peanut variety.
Invading other countries, ignoring international law, supporting palestinian genocide, toppling foreign governments… i find them kinda annoying you know?
Lmfao at the super salty person.
As an American, I find all of these criticisms largely true and things I also find annoying about us and our culture.
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Treating their assumptions about others as facts.
Being Northern Irish I see this a lot. Always about The Troubles, Political Identity, and the modern working of Northern Ireland.
When Michelle O’Neill became First Minister all the plastic Paddy’s came out the woodwork to say that Ireland would be united in 5 years time.
Despite Unionists still holding the majority of seats, the larger share of votes, and British being the most popular political identity.
Having to answer constant questions about Americans.
Their support of pedos.
Shooting children.
I haven’t heard of a school shooting in a long time. I can’t tell if that’s because they stopped happening, or if it’s because they happen so often that it’s not even considered newsworthy anymore.
… yeah it’s the second one. The US does not go a week without one really, you’ll find reports of them on local channels along with the traffic reports, weather forecast and car accidents. It rarely makes national news.
I want off the ride. To be sure.
There are multiple mass shootings per day in the United States. This page keeps track as they come in.
Hey, 2 January was clean! Give 'em some credit!
They did the shooting in Venezuela that day.
They waited till the third to do the attack, so that it would be the anniversary of us capturing Noreaga.
Ah yes. I was still awake after midnight on the 2nd when I saw the news, so it went down on that date in my mind.
They absolutely aren’t as widely reported; but not because of desensitization, it’s for the same reason suicides aren’t reported. Theres been studies showing it’s “contagious” and that reducing coverage helps suppress further occurences.
Then the action of reporting less should be combined with actively dissuading gun owners from mass shootings. So it has a noticeable impact and doesn’t just feel like people sticking their heads in the sand. It’s a human enough response, but USA has hard coded into their legislation and that can’t ever be challenged, apparently.
Okay? Don’t think I disagree, but that’s also not relevant to explaining the specific reason it’s being reported less.
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Just like the number of fatalities in the school
It’s only quietly annoying because we legalized gun silencers this year!
(Technically suppressors, and they’ve technically been legal for a while, but they were previously heavily regulated and hard to get the right to manufacture, distribute, or sell, and now it’s much easier, and no longer taxed at the federal level).
The only thing that’s changed is the $200 stamp tax was removed from the process. Everything else including registration and the background check remains the same. Wait times had only really come down from ~a year to a month or less for most cases because the ATF finally got their systems in a decent state for form 4 eFile.
The last one I bought early last year took about a week for the form to be approved. The first one I ever bought a decade ago took nearly a year.
I wanted to avoid overexplaining the joke, but it’s also worth pointing out that the slight shifts in federal law this year is only a part of a broader push around state laws and American gun culture more broadly (and I’d expect them to keep lobbying for more federal deregulation after this year too), to where it’s now more economically viable to manufacture, distribute, and sell suppressors. According to this source’s analysis of ATF stats, we went from less than a million lawfully registered suppressors in 2016 to 1.5 million in 2018 to 2.6 million on 2021 to 4.9 million in 2024.
There’s a broader shift underway, and I was just making a joke about it.
Gotcha, yeah, I could see the change bringing forward more suppressors on the market that are built with cheaper materials and meant to be more like wear items than something meant to last for years as the market had been for the US because of the regulations.
I’ve only heard from hunters/target sport shooters in other countries where suppressors are less regulated because gun ownership was more restrictive; that they have a lot more access to cheap suppressors then we do.
Thinking cheaper automatically means you’re getting more value out of something, (example: I got this whole cake that can feed 10 people for $15 bucks!) ignoring the quality of that thing.
Thinking something expensive automatically means you’re getting something of better quality (example: This bottle of wine is over $100. It’s definitely better than one that uses much better methods of wine production that only costs $20).
Basically, my beef is with Americans having little sense of discernment and/or lack of good taste.
I reject the assertion that this is an American thing… I’ve been in enough other countries and they’re all mostly consumerist cultures that care more about perceived social value than actual quality.
Perhaps, but America is known to export their “culture”, including consumerism. Maybe it’s tainting the world at large…
The same variety every country finds annoying about tourists from different cultures because foreigners. Loud, demanding, not obeying local social cues or courtesies, not speaking any of the language, walking too slow because tourist, crowding, messing up local living conditions thanks to vacation rentals, drunks, etc.
Talking loud
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pancake and honey on it
whaaaaa?
I confess, I mostly expected this post to contain things that also annoy me about my fellow Americans, but here I am now, rocked to my core
Wait, is it actually that rare in the US? I thought honey was a standard alternative!
I’m a usaian and this is the first time I’ve ever heard of pancakes with honey. Could be a regional thing though. The country is a big place.
Interestingly, people who use honey often do it as a ‘healthier’ alternative to high-fructose corn syrup brands, though maple syrup actually has more minerals like calcium and potassium. Is honey the standard where you are from?
No it definitely isn’t I’ve never heard of honey on pancakes only on toast. Maple syrup is the normal pancake topping. We actually can get the real stuff pretty easily where I am too because Minnesota is practically Canada.
Fun fact: in America most common brands of both honey AND maple syrup are just flavored high fructose corn syrup. It’s not like we don’t have the real stuff on the same shelf, but you have to pay attention to the labels or you might get some bullshit.
A huge amount of the global honey industry is fake. The UK just had a whole big to-do over it.
It is, and the thought that someone would be annoyed by it shocks me
I know Canada is more famous for it, but we produce an absolute fuckton of maple syrup in the states.
Honey is for peanut butter and a drizzle of honey sammiches, baklava, and biscuits, not pancakes or waffles.
I’m American, but I’ve heard in a lot of countries they hate how we start talking to someone who is still kind of far away. Like when your friend is approaching from the other direction and you say “Hey, how’s it going?” but you have to talk more loudly because he’s several paces away.
