When I came here, United State, I did not know any social norm that American know and accept usually. So, unintentionally, I broke some social norm. Maybe my experience is very common in Korean.
The first social norm that I broke is leaving a tip for the waiter. I cannot be familiar with this custom because there is no tip custom in Korea. As far as I remember, when I went to Japanese restaurant located adjacent to Olemiss, I just paid food price without any tip. I did this rude behavior several times whenever I went to there. Finally, one of my friends who is a American said to me “Do you hate these waiters? Why do not pay any tip?” When I heard this, I really was surprised and so sorry for my ignorance of tip. After this shocking experience, I always make sure whether I paid tip or not whenever I leave restaurant.
The second thing is dressing up for formal place. Even though in Korea, people tend to dress up for formal places such as, wedding, graduation, and so on, most Korean just go to art place for watching opera, musical, or something like that. So, when I traveled to New York during winter break, I made a decision to experience opera in broad way. I bought a ticket and went inside. At that moment, I noticed that every people dressed up formally except for me. They did not look at me directly but I could feel their gaze. I really hoped to turn off light and start opera immediately. When I said this story to a friend of mine, he said that although there is no designated rule to dress up, almost 100% American accept the rule as a public rule like social norm.
These two things are my experience to break up social norm of my America life.
Oh, Lee. Your situation was better than mine. Your friend just told you “Do you hate the waiter?”, right? My situation was much worse. When I traveled to New Orleans with my friends. We went to a restaurant to have lunch. The happening was happened there. When we finished eating, I didn’t put any tip and the waitress got angry looking at it. I was so surprised at it. In Japan, we don’t need to pay any tip because service is our hospitality. Due to the horrible experience, I try to put some tip whenever I go to a restaurant.
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