Here is the Culture Shock I Experienced as a European migrating to the USA

A little background: I lived in Germany from 1990–2000 then moved to the US. My family is originally from Central Asia. I have been living in various states ever since (Tennessee, Florida and now California). What follows is the culture shock I experienced AT THE TIME OF MY ARRIVAL in the US.

1. Hyper Capitalism

EVERYTHING IS A PRODUCT. EVERYTHING! Food? Its a product. Drinking water? Its a product. News on TV? Its a product! Your neighbor who is a church pastor sells his own DVDs on the internet, God is a product too?

America runs on over-consumption and hyper debt. The two go together to make the Capitalism flywheel go round and round. Most of the populace doesn’t even notice this. They are as unaware as a Goldfish inside a goldfish bowl. Spend, eat, work — repeat.

While Germany is a Social Democracy and people can start businesses and sell things, it certainly wasn’t as bad as it is here from what I remember. The Government truly works for the people as opposed to businesses or corporations as it is the case in the US. Germany has strict regulations, strict laws that all businesses must follow and the only beneficiary are the German people.

2. Wrong Social Incentives

Everybody is focused on making money so they can buy more useless things and brag to people that don’t really matter. Nobody cares about relationships, family, friends, classmates, coworkers etc. They say they do but really, everybody is superficial. Everything is “Hey you scratch my back and I scratch yours”. Being South Asian, we are brought up to respect our family, our parents, our friends and neighbors. When we form friendships, it is usually for life. We don’t just befriend people to “get a promotion at work” or for other sinister reasons. People here value individualism. Everybody is on their own. Help? I don’t need help! I am my own person, my own God! I can provide for myself! I don’t need your help! This is survival of the fittest right? YOU WORK, WORK, WORK AND EVENTUALLY DIE. That’s the entirety of life.

Reminds me of a discovery channel documentary I once watched. It talked about a certain male mouse that copulated with hundreds of female mice for days without rest, sleep, food or drink — at the end of this “orgy” the male mouse drops dead! Americans are like the male mouse, and the female mouse is “Money”!

3. Healthcare System is a Joke

What the hell is this? Deductibles? Co-insurance? Wait….I have to pay some money upfront then insurance kicks in but not fully? I still have to pay out of my pocket? WHAT? What the hell is a premium? Why is my insurance covering some drugs but not others? Why can’t I just go to any doctor? Wait….if I go to this doctor here — its going to be CHEAPER? But if I decide to go to another doctor somewhere else I get charged a higher price or my insurance isn’t going to cover the doctor visit? HMO, PPO, EPO, in-network, out-of-network, HOLY FUCKING SHIT! Who came up with this garbage healthcare system?

CAPITALISM DID THAT’S WHO!

This garbage of a healthcare system was designed to extract the maximum amount of MONEY from the “patient” to make the insurance company and it’s shareholders rich.

But wait….I thought we lived in a Christian nation…with VALUES and a code of ethics and morality? Out the window! Greed comes first!

Let me tell you how it worked in Germany (when I used to live there) you get a single card — it looks like a credit card. With this card you can go to ANY DOCTOR anywhere in Germany and get healthcare. No phone calls need to be made beforehand to check whether they “take your card” no — it just works. Your doc orders you the meds and you are all set. You don’t even see a single bill. In the 10 years I lived there, I have not paid a single cent out of my own pocket! NOT A SINGLE CENT. Qualitatively, healthcare in Germany is 100x better than the healthcare you get in the US.

Let me repeat that just in case in did not sink in fully.

HEALTHCARE, IN GERMANY, IS SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER THAN THE CRAPPY (AND EXPENSIVE) HEALTHCARE YOU GET IN THE UNITED STATES.

All of the republicans talking about how healthcare sucks in Europe and how they charge taxes up your ass — ARE FULL OF SHIT. I lived there, I grew up there and I know what I experienced. Your Fox News (Pseudo-News) Propaganda is not going to work on me! :)

4. Public Transportation is Nearly Non-Existent

Most Germans in cities take public transportation. IT IS THAT GOOD. It is actually somewhat of a hassle to drive a car there. Gas prices are really high (government taxes the shit out of gasoline to incentivize its citizens to take public transportation and guess what — works like a charm).

In the US, if you don’t have a car you do not get around — period. Your car is basically like your shoes. In larger U.S. cities public transportation is almost acceptable but still way worse when compared to what’s available in Europe. In rural areas and smaller towns, public transportation is non-existent.

Why does public transportation suck such so much in the US? Well, because public transport is generally provided by the government (like the postal service) but since government is forcefully kept small in the US by the businesses and corporations, government services suffer. Who is hurt by this? The average person not the rich and wealthy.

5. Super Biased News & Media

Most American’s don’t understand the concept of “unbiased” news. What does that mean exactly? UNBIASED does not mean the news should support YOUR PERSONAL VIEWS (whatever they may be) it should speak to the TRUTH without supporting a set agenda IRRESPECTIVE OF YOUR VIEWS. Well, you see, that is not how American news works.

In America, you subscribe to a news agency or organization that support YOUR VIEWS. If you are a Leftist Liberal you subscribe to MSNBC and the New York Times, if you are moderate you watch CNN and if you are right winger or conservative you are most likely over the age of 60 and your brain has degenerated so far into the realm of delusion that you believe Fox News is actually a reputable news source.

I watch Fox News occasionally to get a good laugh, or watch the countless parodies normal people make of their reporting on YouTube its basically comedy and entertainment in news format. There is way too much fiction to qualify Fox News to be a real news agency.

All the American news in general are laced with so much opinion, bias, spin, rephrasing and distortion of reality, you’d get dumber just by watching it. EVERYTHING IS SENSATIONALIZED to a point of ridiculousness. Most people just tune it out completely, it is as if the reporters are fighting each other vs providing real and valuable news.

There is a reason why German news is considered “boring” and why the German news anchors are said to pose like robots in front of the camera! The news anchors purposely DO NOT SMILE, DO NOT MAKE BIG FACIAL EXPRESSIONS NOR BODY MOVEMENTS TO PROVIDE A NEUTRAL STANCE WITHOUT COMMUNICATING BIAS WHEN DELIVERING THE NEWS. That is how real news should be done!

Where do I get my news? I Love the BBC! (British Broadcasting Corporation) for their amazing content (like documentaries and long-form programs and reporting) and news in general. The bias is kept to a minimum and they are doing a much better job than any of the American News agencies. Occasionally I will watch German news just to get a fresh “outside” perspective on world-events. For business and investing related news I go to the Wall Street Journal. Occasionally I tune to CNN whenever a Hurricane is set to hit Florida as my parents live there, other than that I am tuned out like most people. I also love the National Geographic but that isn’t really news per say ;)

6. Imperial Vs Metric System

Among one of the most annoying things experienced by Europeans visiting or emigrating to the US is the usage of the Imperial system in the country. While the rest of the world has already switched to its modern equivalent — the metric system, somehow America has missed the memo. Even Britain who invented the darn thing is now slowly but surely switching over to the metric system.

The imperial system with its pounds, feet, inches etc. makes as much sense as quantum mechanics makes sense to a gnat. But most Americans, as always, are oblivious to this.

In the metric system, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weights one gram and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade — which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. Whereas in the American (Imperial) system, the answer to “How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?” is “Go f*ck yourself”, because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.

7. Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

If there is one thing I’d say Americans excel at besides having the biggest army — it must be entertaining the masses. Holy-moly there are more TV channels in the US than there are colleges (at least it seems that way). All those sheeple need to be entertained so they can keep working and spending. We don’t want anyone using their head and think for themselves! Oh no! That would be futile!

8. They Love “FREE-DUMB”

Americans get a hard-on every time they see an American flag followed by the word “Freedom”. At first I didn’t get it. They can’t drink alcohol in a public. (Must cover alcohol containers with a brown paper bag). No public show of affection between couples (PSA). You can’t buy fireworks (the cool kind) like rockets and big crackers. What freedoms are they talking about? In Germany, you can literally go nude to a park and no-one is going to bother you! No — not a designated area for the nude — just ANY park — pick a park, take your clothes off and bask in the sun. No one is going to bother you or look at you weird — THAT’S FREEDOM! Germany (and all of Europe) is arguably much more “free” than the US.

9. American Sports

I remember my very first “Pep rally” at high school in Tennessee. They announced on the PA system that every student (all 2000 of us) had to report to the gym. I had no idea what was going on so I went. They had the music blasting and cheerleaders dancing and all kinds of circus celebration going on. I asked one of my fellow immigrant friends what the hell was going on here? He said “its to celebrate the football team”.

Now remember — I came from Germany and football is HUUUGE there! I got all excited — “REALLY?” Whoa, they are throwing this big block party for the soccer players? MAN, I am starting to love America ALREADY!

Those big dudes came out wearing some type of body armor while carrying a ball that had the wrong shape.

DUDE!!!!

THIS ISN’T THE FOOTBALL I’M USED TO, IT’S FRIGGEN’ AMERICAN RUGBY!

There were a bunch of other weird sports which I had never seen — lacrosse for example and baseball. I was surprised to see how “diverse” the athletic interests of the teenagers have been. In Germany, if you were a male — you were going to play soccer — THAT’S IT. Even if you weren’t all that athletic — you still “tried” to play soccer. There was basketball and volleyball and all other types of sports but they were so minor, they didn’t even matter. Soccer was the king of all sports.

I never got used to American sports. Not even motorsports. Instead of NASCAR, we had Formula 1 in Europe — it was the shit!

Yeah — soccer? Not very popular here. I ended up becoming great friends with a bunch of Mexican soccer players at my high-school. At our games, literally 5 people showed up. No music, no cheerleaders. Nothing.

“Where did America go wrong?” I thought.

10: Absurd Litigation Culture and Strange Laws

US history is filled with bizarre legal cases and laws that make people elsewhere stratch their heads. For example, the fact that prostitution is illegal unless you film the sex act and call it porn, then it’s legal.

How about the sea world case where the family of a man who had sneaked into the orca tank and got killed by the orca sued sea word for failing to display public warnings that the whale could actually kill people and won the case! They are called “killer whale” for a reason!

Some woman sued McDonald’s for getting burned by the hot coffee they were serving and won! ITS FUCKING HOT COFFEE WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

It’s gotten so bad that manufacturers of kitchen knives have to display warning labels that the knife could be used to injure or kill people and if they don’t, some schmuck could sue them. Same thing with zoos who were sued when the wild animals in them attacked a person.

All of this comes down to….yes you guessed it — MONEY! Lawyers are incentivized to bring cases to court because if they win, they get a huge chunk of the settlement money (30% and more!) hence lawyers basically become “legal sharks”.

The notion of “patent trolls” also bears a mention which are basically lawyers and people who employ lawyers to register a patent that is INCREDIBLY BROAD. For example — a patent for a website that has BUTTONS and then sue the shit out of everyone who decides to have websites with buttons. (Grossly oversimplified but you get the point).

Finally, and this hits home for me as I grew up eating Kinder Surprise Eggs, is encountering laws that make no fucking sense to a rational human being. Buying an AR-15 is ok but buying the Kinder Surprise Eggs (chocolate egg that has a toy inside) is illegal! WOW! By the way — these laws are still present to this day! This is what can happen when the government has no power but the National Rifle Association does!

Interesting fact: Look again at the picture above of the two children. Do you notice anything odd about that picture? You may notice that the Kinder Surprise egg is actually PHOTOSHOPPED into the hand of the Asian kid because they couldn’t actually get a real one in the USA as it is banned! The AR-15 is real however, they had two of them just in case! How fucking sad is that?

In Conclusion: If any of my writing has offended you as an American, remember what I said at the very beginning. The above points refer to the “culture shock” I felt when arriving in the US for the first time. Culture shocks tend to be almost always negative hence the overall negative “feel” of the writing. There are many positives about living in the US. People are generally more friendly, outgoing and hardworking. The melting pot nature of the country allows you to meet people from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds. Starting a business here in the US is super easy which isn’t the case in Germany. Also note — I now live in California — some call it “The Europe of the US” and I absolutely LOVE IT HERE. All Europeans should move here — you will feel right at home! It will make missing Europe a little easier. It is also one of the most expensive states to live in but hey — you get what you pay for ;)

*BFQ titled posts are originally “Banned from Quora”, a social network for questions and answers. Most Quora writers will post their banned content elsewhere on the internet for the enjoyment of the public. Original link to the content: https://qr.ae/pNvBM7