Filed under: Connecticut
Of course i don’t really mean i’m in Italy.
How do you try not to stick out like a sore thumb in the U.S. without resorting to a fake accent? You adapt to the language style–ask for ‘napkins’, not ’serviettes’–and say ‘wrap it’ instead of ‘pack the food’ (further elaboration below).
You work the American culture–say ‘bless you’ when someone near you sneezes. When you need to get past someone, never say ‘Sorry’… ‘excuse me’ would be more appropriate. And don’t say ’sorry’ when someone says ‘excuse me’ to get past you–it’s not necessary.
Your weight? Think pounds, not kilograms. You drive on the right side of the road and read your speedometer in miles, not kilometers. You try American-branded cars… we just switched to a Ford Taurus from a Mitsubishi Lancer 
)
You tip 15 percent at restaurants. When you can’t finish your dinner at the restaurant, you get it wrapped and bring it home for supper or next day’s b’fast/lunch/dinner.
You become a member of the library as well as supermarkets like Big Y, Shaw’s and ShopRite (i’ve 2 cards out of 3!).
And of course, you adopt American spelling (much as i hate it), which isn’t too difficult since i last worked with an American company.
Ok, there’s more to it i know. Share yours!
But one thing i can’t Romanize, or Americanize, myself to is the sink grinder. There’re no garbage bins in the apartments and neither are they located within the apartment blocks, so we actually need to walk to the rubbish dump to throw milk cartons, food remnants etc. The point is, the sink grinder is meant to relieve some of this rubbish… nothing too heavy-duty like bones but the regular veg bits, meat fats etc. But i just can’t bring myself to do it, except for the occasional ‘oops, it dropped in’.
But i have to agree that it’s a very fine idea. Why do we not have that in SG?!
