culture shock

If you have a chance to visit a foreign country for a year, where would you go? What kinds of the culture shock would you expect? And how would you conquer it?

If I have a chance to visit a foreign country for a year, I would go to the U.S.A.
The first culture shock I think it would be the “Everyday Courtesies”. I have heard that it is common courtesy to say “Thank you” or “Thanks” when we receive anything whether it is a purchase handed to us by a saleswoman, or a gift, or the receipt from a salesclerk. If someone does service for us, such as pumping our gas and opening the door, we also must say “Thank you”, or “Thanks”.

The second culture shock I think it would be the “Tipping Culture”. How much we should tip and when is an important preparation. Tips are given to waiters and waitresses, although we don’t need to tip people who serve us at a fast-food take-out restaurant or a cafeteria. A minimum restaurant tip would be 10%; if the service has been good, 15% is the normal amount. If the server has been especially helpful, and we taken a lot of their time, we should leave 20%.
Taxi drivers also receive tips, usually 10%. If they have helped us with a lot of luggage, or made a special effort to get us somewhere on time, we might give a bit more.
If hotel or airport staffs help us carry out our bags, we should give them a minimum of 50 cents per bag, or $1 if the bags are large and heavy. If we’re careful to tip them properly we have a better chance of them sending our luggage to the right airport.
When we get our hair cut, it is also proper to give a tip at 10%, some shops have special envelopes for this purpose.

The third culture shock I think it would be the prominent issue, “Sexism”. Sexism describes any act or statement that discriminates on the basis of gender. We should remember that sexism is not just related to obvious issues like sex roles and job hires; it is reflected in our attitudes and behaviors which may offend some people.
Comments such as “Women are bad drivers”; “She’s a woman so she wouldn’t understand”; and “Man are rude” are not wise statements to make. If we don’t want to get a reputation for being sexist, we better don’t make any assumption about everyone of a certain sex.

America has trouble with inter-racial tensions and discrimination. Some of the Racism is based on the history of slavery, immigration laws and recent world events. I heard this is not a problem for Asian students, however, about the racial or ethnical comments, we might be wisest to simply walk away, in case we might found our response makes no impact, or causes a very defensive.