12 Chinese Travel Tips for Visiting America

Mental Floss ^ | March 21, 2014 | Therese Oneill

[Vince Ferrer]

I have had conversations with Chinese and Indians about the fact that I would like to build a strawbale house for myself. It blows their minds that I would want to do that, as building one’s own house is a sign of deep poverty to them.

[Slings and Arrows]

Most of the other comments are either obvious or silly,

To someone living within our culture, perhaps. To an outsider, not necessarily.

[dangerdoc]

Bump

[Redcitizen]

Pandas: Eats, shoots and leaves.

[Aut Pax Aut Bellum]

I worked in Kuwait before the Gulf War and was talking with a well-to-do female Pakistani computer operator during lunch. In passing I mentioned that I change the oil in my car every 3,000 miles. She looked horrified and almost recoiled. "You do your OWN work? We have people to do that." I had to explain to her about "Do It Yourself". It evidently was quite unique and a shocking concept.
My wife is Chinese and she's used to it, but her friends are stumped that I do most all the work around here myself. I explain to them I don't trust most of the mechanics around here and prefer to do it myself. I skip the saving money part...

[21twelve]

My dad was in northern scandinavia visiting a relative that was a reindeer herder. He asked how many reindeer he had. The relative replied “I will tell you if you tell me how much money you have in your bank!” My dad laughed, the relative laughed, and they carried on.