The Behavior of Americans

I have been living in the U.S. almost for a year. When I arrived at the U.S., I was very surprised by the behavior of Americans because I thought that Americans would be same as much as Turkish people.
However, you should be careful before asking questions to Americans even if it is related to your assignments. For example, when I was studying in D1 level at SAL a year ago, my oral communication class teacher gave me an assignment which was about interviewing other teachers at SAL. In order to complete that assignment, I had to prepare some questions. At that time, I could only speak a little bit English, so I prepared very easy questions, such as ‘’Do you have a car?’’, ‘’Are you married?’’, and ‘’Where do you live in San Jose?’’. When I asked those questions, one of the SAL teachers didn't want to answer some of them, and she told me that I should not ask those kinds of questions because they were very personal. I was very disappointed by that situation because it was the assignment, and I thought that there was nothing wrong with asking those questions. After a while, I realized that Americans often do not like to be asked about their private lives. For this reason, I can make a generalization about Americans that privacy is the main policy for most of them. 

If you are coming to the U.S. to start a new job, you should forget about going out on weekdays because you might not find anyone to hang out with. The reason why you might not find anyone is that most Americans do not prefer to go out for fun during the week. Weekends are very important for them. I remember one of my American friends told me that she couldn't wait for Friday. I asked why, and she told me that she would go out with her friends. I smiled to her answer and asked why she didn't go out on weekdays. She told me that she worked on week days. She was extremely happy because it was her free time to go out. However, we Turkish people can go out whenever we want. We usually do not worry about what days we go out. 

Time is crucial in the U.S. because it equals money. For this reason, you should manage your time efficiently. In addition, Americans might have very strict rules about time. For example, after work, they usually do not do their jobs because they think that they have their own personal lives. So if you do not follow this rule, you may run into trouble. You should separate the professional life and the personal life. 

When I came to the U.S., I was also surprised by another thing, which is that most Americans dress casually at work. Therefore, if you are used to wearing formal clothes at a workplace, the casual clothing habit might seem strange to you at the beginning. For example, my brother is an engineer, and I thought that he should wear a suit. When I asked him why he didn't wear the suit, he told me that his boss didn’t wear a suit either. In addition, you should be prepared to see many kinds of dresses which can be sometimes too strange. In the U.S., no one stares what others are wearing. I think that is a good thing because you do not worry about your appearance as you do in Turkey. 

You should think twice about what being friendly is for Americans. When you first arrive at the U.S., you will probably think that Americans are very friendly because you will see many people on the street who smile and say hello. However, this is only formality. You should not take it too seriously. They might seem very friendly, but having a good friendship and becoming close friends are often very difficult. For instance, I met someone, and we exchanged our contacts. However, when I wanted to meet second time with her, she had always excuses. In my opinion, it is really hard to become close with Americans.