Saturday, February 2, 2008

Cultural Surprises: What would people find unique or different?

When someone visits your country of city, what is something they might find surprising or different? This could be anything related to language, customs, geography, weather, social interaction, or religion. In my area, there is a train that people use to travel around the city, and you have to buy a ticket to ride it; however, you don't have to show it to anyone unless a train official asks. In six years of riding the train, I've only been asked three times to show my ticket. This system might not work in many places, but people here are pretty honest to pay for a ticket even if no one asks to see it. Of course, if you ride the train without purchasing a ticket and they catch you, you have to pay a fine. It's a great and easy train system to get around.

Please share your ideas on one unique thing about your area.

Randall

3 comments:

  1. I think that one of the first things tourists notice when coming to Brazil for the first time is that people don't need to hide a bottle of beer (or a beer can) from a policeman when walking down a street or when standing on the corner of a street with a group of friends. We're allowed to drink alcoholic drinks almost everywhere in town. However, it's illegal to drive after having a few glasses of beer (or any alcoholic drink). In fact, it's been the cause of many car accidents here for the past few years.

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  2. In my country, Japan, you can see many vending machines outside. You can buy many kinds of things like drink, tabacco, icecream and so on even if it's at night. I hadn't been thinking that was unusual in foreign countries. But when I was in the U.S., I could find them only in the buildings, never outside. Maybe Japan is still safe even though the situation has been changing lately.

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  3. I believe that the first thing visitors to Brazil find it different is the way we easily communicate with each other even when we first meet.

    We talk to stranger as if we've been real friends for quite a long time.

    This partly explains why we are said to be friendly people.

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Thanks for posting a comment. I appreciate your interesting in sharing your ideas.

Best,

Randall

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