visible difference and hidden difference

What are the visible difference and hidden difference that a foreigner to your country might notice? Give reasons if possible.

Foreigners in Taiwan, they might notice our staple food is rice, rather than a slice of meat. If they go to a seafood restaurant or a common restaurant, they might notice we drink Taiwanese bear or rice wine with the meal rather than table wine.

In hidden culture scope, they might be shocked by our system of education including nursery schools, elementary schools, junior-high schools, high schools, vocational schools, collages, universities, institutes, and cram schools. Lots of our students go to cram schools every phase to advance to a higher and national school. In addition to our doctrine of advancing to higher school, they might wonder why our kids drag to school with dragging a heavy bag.

Foreigner wants to know somebody, they might ask her or him for a date to dine, but we might ask for her or his MSN account or cell phone number or wretch album.

Foreigner students may notice that the students here study wider than them, but in depth, their courses are much deeper. We have lots courses every semester, and each course use only one textbook, while each of their courses related to many books, references, and theses.

Westerns may have a tendency to feel that everyone is rude here, because “Please” and “Thank you” are not used as often as they are. It is common courtesy to say “Thank you” or “Thanks” when they receive anything whether it is a purchase handed to them by a saleswoman, or a gift, or the receipt from a salesclerk. If someone does service for them, such as pumping the gas and opening the door, they also say “Thank you”, or “Thanks”. But here, we don’t do that so often, or we don’t do that at all.