Local habits
 

I'm touring some Chinese cities right now, and the inhabitants of Beijing and Yulin (and probably every other Chinese city) love to spit. They spit everywhere -- sidewalks, polished marble floors, even inside elevators. Or maybe they spotted my silver Nike cap and had to get rid of the bile that spontaneously formed in their mouths.

What unappealing habits of local inhabitants have you witnessed, whether in your own territory or foreign land?

I don't know if this counts as being unique, or at all, but there is an unfortunate habit of street racing at night. Cars can be heard revving around at night and honking at the same time every night, and it usually makes headlines or at least some page of the newspaper when someone ends up getting injured or worse as the result of said street racing. There must be something appealing about these roads that are practically dead at night.

You know, I see a lot of spitting in my workplace, Blah. Nothing against my Mexican co-workers (we're BUDDIES), but man, they spit absolutely everywhere. As for my community, I can't really think of any habit around here that's outside of the ordinary. However, I do recall traveling around the New England area, and people have this habit of saying "of" when telling the time to indicate the proximity to the next hour. For example, "twenty of five" means it's 4:40. That's a bit odd to me. =/

I live next to a few long stretches of country road, and it's a near perfect spot for racing. They can be heard pretty much every night, but I don't think anyone's been hurt yet. That, or it just doesn't get much attention; people crash into an almond tree and die on these roads all the time!

Other than that, and being ultraconservative, hating gays, and killing liberals, that's about it.

The only local habit in my town that I've noticed is being white and pretending to be black.

Assholes in big shiny dually diesel trucks. Nothing pisses me off more than to see someone using a RIDICULOUSLY powerful truck, but it's always shiny-clean and probably has never been off-road. There are shitloads of folks around here who drive just absolute behemoths only for getting from point A to point B. I have a truck, but I have a tendency of making use of the truck bed quite often (tools, moving, farm work, etc).

Another thing that bugs me are lift kits. Mexicans have their low-riders. Blacks have their spinners. White folk have their lift kits.

It's basically a truck on huuuge wheels and the truck itself is elevated even HIGHER above said huge tires. I saw one bozo getting in to one where the bottom lip of the doorway (where your foot goes) was about neck-high to him. He had a date that he had to hoist in to the god damn car. They're the most useless things around in my opinion. You aren't a monster truck and even if you DID try to run over a car in that monstrosity, you'd tip over because you're too top-heavy and your shocks are reduced to absolute shit as a result of using the kit.

That's the main beef I have. When college folks are in town, you can't drive with your windows down without hearing some ridiculously loud "BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP" racket just because some dude likes trying to make up for his dick size.

I live in southern California. Despite this, I live in one of the reddest counties in the state.

Biggest obnoxious habit around here is twofold: churches that are so blindingly wealthy that they make the Vatican look dull, and the unfortunate tendency to dress "as they would in LA", which is of course not at all the same.

The churches around here have bathrooms with guards, scented urinals with individual pages from their weekly newsletter/magazine being displayed prominently for reading's sake, and auditorium halls that could hold a concert. This is not an "lol rich is bad" argument, but how commercialized does religion need to be?

The other obnoxious thing is the dressing. People here boast that we live "in southern CA!" and that, "You know, we live only an hour from the OC!" and dress like it. I'M NOT KIDDING. Adults say this. Kids say this. Teens say this. They were over-the-top outfits to try to look sophisticated. Once, a friend from LA was in the area and kept bursting out laughing, saying, "They think we wear THIS?"

I've noticed Chinese people tend to do that on my school's campus as well. There also seems to be a lot more Asian smokers than any other group.

You mean everybody doesn't do this? :psyduck:

It bugs the crap out of me when people talk like that, and every time I hear it, it takes me a few seconds to process just what they mean. It isn't "twenty of five"; it's "twenty 'till five". Man...

No, I am pretty sure everyone does in fact do this.

O yea. That's a good one. I do it all the time.

"What time is it?"
"Ten of."
"TEN OF WHAT!?!"
"Ten of five?"

I know, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Especially the "of." We also do the "ten past" bit. I guess we kind of expect everyone to know the hour. We're a very time-conscious people - we need to get there yesterday. It explains our driving habits. ^_^

I've been a lot of places, but I can't really think of any major regional differences. Even in Europe, I am at a loss.

This might be annoying to some people...

I know in Iowa (where I live) if you're walking and you pass someone you're either expected to say "Howdy" or "Hello" or wait for the other person to say it first and then respond. It's pretty awkward for people that move here from big cities out of the state. It can get annoying when you're in a bad mood or trying to get somewhere fast. People seem to get pretty offended if you don't greet them.

Ugh, I never thought it was true till all my friends who just visited China told me the same thing. I think she also ever saw a chinese dump her/his shit in front of her. *gasp*

On related note, my father is also a chinese, he also spits occasionally to road while driving, he glared me with angry eyes after I said if it's just so despicable.

In Indonesia, dont ever expect someone to be punctual, every events probably will start 1 hours from planned time. Also people still lack of environment awareness, they could easily treat river or road like a personal trashbin. :(

Wow, I didn't expect so many people to sound off on the time bit. No, not everyone tells time like that Pang, as Namek pointed out. Here in the midwest (and everywhere else I've ever lived), and perhaps (though not positive) everywhere else, we say "twenty til five". Being up in the Binghamton area, I heard everyone using "of", and I took notice immediately because it was the first time I've ever heard it being used like that to tell time. I mean, it was part of the language, being used on local radio and news, everything. Trust me, it's a regional thing.

There's another thing I've noticed. Again, I have no idea if it's New England being different from everywhere else, the Midwest being different from everywhere else, but throughout my entire life mostacholi has always been mostacholi. Having encountered dozens (maybe hundreds) of people while in the proximity of the food and hearing them call it that, while also hearing and reading that name in culture, and seeing freezer goods with that name and never anything else, I've always thought that THIS:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l1...mostacholi.jpg

was mostacholi. I swear to God, that's what it's called around here. However, while I was up North, when I heard people talking about "Baked Ziti", I had no idea what the hell they were talking about. Furthermore, when I told them that it was mostacholi, they had no idea what the hell I was talking about, and vice versa back at home. I'm starting to think that maybe that latter is the norm, considering I'm finding a lot of mostacholi pictures in Google Images when I type in "Baked Ziti", but almost none when I actually do type in "mostacholi". Kinda makes my head wanna 'splode.

Okay, I'm done.

In St. Louis, everyone asks everyone, teenager or adult, where they went to high school. The Catholic high school network, especially, is quite amazing. I mean that EVERYONE asks that question to people they are meeting for the first time.

"Hi, my name is Sue."
"Hi, I'm Bob."
"Where do you go to school?"

Kind of weird, I guess.

Even in the south I hear the "twenty of five," or sometimes "twenty to five," which is even more annoying if you ask me.

I don't even know where to start. One thing I see a lot of is redneck guys walking around convenience stores with no shirt or shoes. They won't let people do that in grocery stores anymore, but you can apparently still get by with it in gas stations and convenience stores.

Also, people here use confederate flags as home and auto decor, which I don't get seeing as how the confederacy is no more. It's like displaying the flag of the former republic of Yugoslavia.

Everyone tans here. EVERYONE. Well, all the females over the age of 12 do. And then they wonder why they look like they're 50 when they're 30. Women here are usually very tan, very blonde and have fake nails. I see women like this everywhere I travel in the U.S., but not nearly as many of them as I see in my area of the country. White-blonde hair, brown skin and looooong acrylic nails. That is the portrait of a Southern Lady.

'twenty off five' would make more sense.

People wear stupid t-shirts here. Guys wear those super emo RAMONES shirts or those with a list of concerts on the back (?) and girls are so super intelligent here, it is unbelievable, they wear shirts with slogans like "I have a boyfriend, but he's not jealous" or "WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET", hehehe. It is a disaster.

Must be a New England thing. I've never heard this said in Arizona ever. I've heard "Quarter till Five", meaning 4:45, or "Almost Five" meaning anywhere from 4:52 to 4:58.

As for topic: The drivers here (Phoenix Metropolitan Area) are really bad, and one thing that pisses me off (And has scared the shit out of me on a couple of occasions) is that when some car is in the turn lane at a major intersection, and there's several cars in that lane, if the light turns yellow, about 2-3 more cars will turn then they should.

In fact, I'd say about only half the population slows down if they see a yellow light too. HOLY FUCK GOTTA BEAT THAT LIGHT I COULD BE 2 MINUTES LATE TO STARBUCKS!

Its not all bad though, when I went to California in July for vacation, I noticed right away that Phoenix's Freeways are a lot better kept up, and organized.

I use of, to, past, after, and 'til. Am I just really weird with how I describe the time? :(

Why is 'to' more annoying? It actually makes some sense grammatically, unlike 'of'.