Cultural Guide For Americans Moving to Belgium

[foxgrrl]

Does anyone know of a book or website which tells you about all of the little cultural differences you never notice while you're immersed in your own culture. I mean, like a guide for: If you travel to <foo>, these are the tiny differences you'll encounter in your daily life. (Most guides just have the big things).

Like for example, in Belgium, in the supermarket, you're expected to bag your own groceries. And (sometimes) the bags cost 0.10€ each. For context, if you're unfamiliar with the US system: In the US, employees of the grocery store bag your items for you. So if you don't know this when you visit Belgium, you stand around in the check out line, while everyone looks at you funny.

Comments

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

Sorry if you got embarrassed. I hope you're having a good time otherwise.

[alfrecht.livejournal.com]

Yes, in every bit of Europe I've ever been to, self-bagging is the norm; and in some places that have bag levies now (like Ireland), you do get charged if you ask for a bag, which is why it's always good to carry an empty backpack or some such thing when going to shops...

[qaexl.livejournal.com]

That is starting to happen in the US too. IKEA is importing some of their culture in. Kroger's and Walmart have resusable bags on for sale, and self-checkout is becoming the norm, rather than the exception.

-Q

[roadknight.livejournal.com]

They do this in Italy too. I got the hint when the checkout woman at PAM asked me "saccheto?"
and when I said "si!" pointed me down to the end of the stand where the bags were.
Hope you're having an otherwise good time.
Shopping locally in foreign places is awesome BTW...

[centauress.livejournal.com]

In Japan or Korea, if you try to bag your own groceries, they're insulted. o-o

[qaexl.livejournal.com]

It isn't quite what you are asking for; the book is Culture Code. I think I mentioned it on my lj a couple times. It has a lot more general patterns than speciics.

-Qaexl

[adularia.livejournal.com]

I've heard of a similar book (series, really) called Culture Shock. There are editions for many countries. dymaxion was very excited about her copy when she went to Germany for a month.

[ivy]

Yeah, there's "Culture Smart" (the short versions, which basically are 100 pages of history 101 and things that will offend people) and "Culture Shock" (the medium sized versions, which get into more depth about values that guide behaviour). I get whichever ones are available before heading off to a new country, and they do save me from doing things I would not have realized were dumb. No one book is going to cover everything, but they definitely help.

[qaexl.livejournal.com]

That's neat. I'll have to check them out sometime.

-Q

[arethinn]

Seconded. "Culture Smart" was what I was going to recommend.

[aestetix.livejournal.com]

For situations like that, I try to watch what all the other customers are doing and imitate it.

[eqe.livejournal.com]

In Minnesota (and most of the midwest I've seen, Detroit excepted), only the very fanciest grocery stores have baggers. At least up 'til 2005, both paper and plastic bags were free, and were the norm; nobody except the hippiest of urbanites had reusable grocery bags.

(Actually, I take that back -- a not-high-end family-owned grocer in Calumet also had baggers from my earliest memory, but that was more of a Full Employment In An Economically Depressed Area program than anything else. Also, Michigan's minimum wage law allowed them to pay children 14-16 less than the adult minimum wage, and to deduct for expected tips, IIRC. The kids were happy to do it to get some spending money.)

[digitalsidhe.livejournal.com]

The closest thing I've ever seen to such a compendium is this page, which probably isn't really what you're after — but it does at least point in the direction you're headed. "Customers at grocery stores bag their own groceries. Since bags cost money, customers usually bring their own bags, re-used from previous visits" would fit perfectly fine into the "Everybody knows that" section of the page.

[anaisdjuna.livejournal.com]

Hee hee :-) There are lotsa things. I think most books are country specific, but a book on that idea from a systemic perspective would be interesting albeit hard to write given all of the little differences such as those your other friends mention here. Check out forums for expats of the particular country you are contemplating. Or talk to Americans who've lived different places. I'd be happy to have a conversation with you on the subject.

[solarbird]

Thinking of moving to Belgium?

[cyberspice.livejournal.com]

Every european country (including my own) that I've shopped in has the same or a similar system. I actually have to really try hard *not* to automatically bag my own groceries when I'm in the US. For some reason we don't use paper bags so they're all plastic. So in order to encourage people to use their own or to reuse (and so not cause a plastic bag mountain) many stores charge.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

It's almost impossible for such a guide to really exist at a practical level. While some stuff may hold as generally true, there's a lot more variation in a country the size of the US. Our own culture differs from the cultures of other areas of the US more often than not. The grocery bagging thing stands as an excellent example: while a lot of places in the US have baggers, there are also a lot of places that don't. In almost every case, bags remain free. And in at least one case that I know of, in Hancock MD, you check out and put all of your items back in your cart unbagged, then go over to a little table near the exit of the store and bag them there, rather than bagging them at the checkout line itself. I haven't seen any other store that operates that way, but it wouldn't surprise me if more exist. It's just not the norm where I usually shop. First time I stopped there on the way to Thresholds, it confused the hell out of me.

[wolphin.livejournal.com]

Some of the Lonely Planet guides have things like that in them, but it would be up to what the author thinks of as being important. I can remember one of the ones I had for a country in Europe (can't remember which one) had a little section on buying food from a supermarket. (Really complicated, you asked at one counter, got a ticket for an item, paid for it at another counter, went back to the first and picked it up. Don't ask me about what to do for bagging things)

When I was travelling I always skulked around the checkouts for a few minutes watching others so I had a vague idea what was going on.

[foxgrrl]

Oh, what brings you to my wonderful college town? This.

Yeah, I went to the Match on Bondgenotenlaan. I'm familiar with the mayonnaise thing from previous trips to Berlin and Amsterdam. I'll eat in the late night [pizza/gyro] snak shops, but I'm not going to touch any standard fast food place while I'm here. (Not that I even do that anyway in the states.)

Lately I've mostly been eating stuff from the places around the Grote Markt (Which I guess includes Brusselsestraat) and stuff on Naamsestraat, since it's where I usually end up walking a lot. (It's where I'm currently staying.)

[foxgrrl]

I was actually at De Wiering last night! I'm actually craving spicy stuff. I know there are several Tandori places around here, and I saw one Mexican place in an unpaved ally (the one with the floating girl statue at the end). But my boyfriend tells me that you can't get good Mexican anywhere in Europe, and to avoid which claims to be Mexican. That and I like Ethiopian/Eritrian food, but I don't know if there's much of that around here. (I was going to just ask Google eventually.)

Anyway, I'm actually on the KUL campus right now (in Heverlee I think). But if you're nearby, which you seem to be, we can meet up for dinner later.

[foxgrrl]

I have a meeting from 14:00 to 15:00 tomorrow, but then I'm free after that. (I'll probably be busy before 14:00 also.) I'm leaving for Berlin on Wed. afternoon, and I'll be back on Jan 2 or thereabouts. But then I go back to the States on Jan 6. My current cell number is 0487/340.461 and if you see a blue and green haired transsexual, wearing three coats and long white scarf walking around, that's me.

From what little I know about your from your LJ, you seem to be a really interesting person.

[foxgrrl]

Erf, so it turns out I also have a meeting with the department head, sometime between 15:30 and 19:00. And no one knows exactly when. So the only time I'm definitively free is after 19:00, and possibly earlier. If you have a cell phone, I can just call/text you when I'm free.

Ethiopian restaurant

[driesverachtert.livejournal.com]

There's an Ethiopian restaurant at the Brusselsestraat 59.
They have a website at: http://www.houseoflalibela.be/