You foreigners is strange peoples

[Mjolinor]

From what I've seen the "United" in USA is a myth so I would expect people to identify by state.

I have worked a lot in the US so a few quips to think about.

In 2000 I was in Cebit, immediately prior to that I was in Miami and one of the guys I was working with came to see us at Cebit, he was almost 60 years old and had never left The States. This guy was as Southern as anyone I have ever met. He flew into Berlin and had to hire a car to drive to Hanover. I met him about half way and we ate and stayed in a hotel for a night. The first thing he said to me when I asked how he found things was "they have flushing toilets".

1993 in Missouri and was a witness to a car accident. This was exactly on the Kansas City / not Kansas City border so police from the city and police from "not the city" attended ( I don't know what you call them, state troopers or something? Anyway the open hostility between these two different departments of police was something I found quite startling. If they are so hostile to each other how the hell do they solve inter-state crimes.

In South Africa the people of Dutch descent call themselves Dutch (Boers) but everyone else calls themselves South African.

My wife's uncle used to be a salesman for a company that make dummies (pacifiers?) and the ones that went to America were bigger than those for the rest of the world so that is just the proof that Americans have big mouths. << A fact but please don't be upset by it, hopefully it will make someone smile.

Of all the people in the world the US speaks more correct English than any other place including England. It's a goddam crime that Webster made a dictionary with incorrect spelling just so that he would be remembered.

[bford903]

One thing I worry about when traveling to a different country is committing a social faux pas. As it has been stated above, Americans have big mouths and we tend to stick our foot in there when the occasion arises.

If I'm traveling to your country, I'm from Texas, what are some things that would be unacceptable to do or say socially? (I'm talking slang terms, hand gestures, dinner table etiquette)

If you have one, give an example of a faux pas you committed while traveling.

[Mjolinor]

Don't be offended if someone asks you for a fag.

[Geoff]

Don't be offended if someone asks you for a fag.

We pretty much used that for as long as I can remember, and then around the 90's it sort of got changed to "durry"

So, if someone is asking you in Australia for a Durry, it means they want a fag.

oh...

[JohnA136]

Funny you should say that. The first of this summer's One Day International Cricket matches is being played today. Australia -v- South Africa, and its is on TV. Just got my 2-year-old grandson up from his afternoon nap and plonked him in front of the TV. Got him practising his "Owzat!!!"

Practising during a game with the South Africans is a bit like being in the nets preparing for a Test against the Poms - you don't want to get bowled, but it's not the real thing.

(The sound you hear is all the Yanks scratching their heads trying to figure out what I just said.

Old Man Emu

I have no idea what you are saying?

[Mjolinor]

• An explanation of Cricket: You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.
  Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.
  There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!
  
  

[Geoff]

Love playing cricket, cannot stand to watch it.

[bford903]

New faux pas for us Americans...

Lebron James has demonstrated that apparently hugging a royal is bad form. So if you go to across the pond, don't touch the royals.

[Marm]

Thought a King > Prince........

[Marm]

• An explanation of Cricket: You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.
  Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.
  There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!
  
  

Sounds like the explanation of Omaha Hold'em:

What you do is get four cards. Doesn't matter much what they are because nobody really looks at them anyway. Next, they put three cards on the board. It doesn't matter what they are because nobody really pays any attention to the flop either. Then one more card for the turn and another one for the river. Same betting scenario as before. Doesn't really matter much what they are, except, for a few of the players that may have "cheated" and looked at their hole cards. These players may now fold if they have absolutely no outs. (Mostly bad sports.) Now, at the showdown, everybody turns over their cards and helps the dealer figure out who has the best hand. You MUST play two cards out of your hand so this usually takes a while and and the winning hand is usually found out after a little bit of searching by all of the players and a partially confused dealer. The dealer now pushes the pot to the wrong player and everybody yells at him and he smiles glibly and says, "Oh yeah,,,sorry" and then sends it in the right direction. Then, after all of that excitement dies down, everybody lets out a collective sigh of relief and gets ready to wind up and do it all over again. Fun game