Quora精選：到了美國才知道

Answered by Aniruddh Chaturvedi

Aniruddh Chaturvedi 回答：

1. Nobody talks about grades here.

這里沒人談論分數(shù)。

2. Everyone is highly private about their accomplishments and failures. Someone's performance in any field is their performance alone. This is different compared to India where people flaunt their riches and share their accomplishments with everybody else.

在美國，人們極其重視自己成敗的隱私，任何人在任何領域的表現(xiàn)只是他自己的事情。而在印度，人們喜歡到處炫耀自己的財富和成就。

3. Rich people are thin/ well maintained, poor people are fat. This stems from the fact that cheap food is fatty, rich people don't eat cheap food — they tend to eat either home-cooked food which is expensive or eat at expensive / healthy places. Unfortunately, it is expensive to be healthy in America.

一般來說，富人身材保持得很好，窮人則很胖。這是因為富人不吃廉價食物，而那些廉價食物往往油脂含量較高；他們更喜歡買昂貴的食材在家里做著吃，或是在提供健康食物的高檔餐廳就餐。不幸的是，在美國，保持健康是一件奢侈的事情。

4. Support towards the LGBT community—it's fairly normal to be part of the LGBT community; it's not considered a mortal sin if you like someone in your own gender or if you aren't comfortable being male/female/etc. Proof of this is the LGBT Pride Day held in every city etc.

支持同性戀、雙性戀及變性者組織（LGBT）——人們認為加入LGBT很正常，并不會將同性戀行為或?qū)ψ陨硇詣e的不認同視為不可饒恕的重罪。每個城市都會舉辦的同志驕傲日就是很好的證明。

5. The way that stores price their products makes no apparent economic sense, and is not linear at all. For example, at a typical store:

商品標價不大能用經(jīng)濟學規(guī)律來解釋，而且價格和數(shù)量不成正比。舉個例子，在一家普通商場里：

• 1 can of coke : $1.00
  
• 12 cans of coke : $3.00
  
• 1 H?agen-Dazs ice cream bar : $3.00 　　
  
• 12 H?agen-Dazs ice cream bars : $7.00

• 1聽可樂：1美元
  
• 12聽可樂：3美元
  
• 1支哈根達斯冰棍：3美元
  
• 12支哈根達斯冰棍：7美元
  

Americans are encouraged to buy in bulk, which often leads to a lot of waste.

美國人鼓勵批量采購，但這往往帶來大量浪費。

6. Serving Sizes:

食品分量

American serving sizes are HUGE! Let pictures do the talking:

什么都是大號的！不說看圖：

The largest size of iced coffee in Cafe Coffee Day India

印度咖啡館“Cafe Coffee Day”里最大號的冰咖啡。

compared to:

對比：

I honestly don't understand why anyone would ever drink 32oz of iced coffee a day, but hey, to each his own.

我實在想不通誰能一天喝掉近一升的冰咖啡，但是，各有所好嘛。

If you're not convinced, perhaps this would do a better job of showing the contrast:

如果你不信，快看下面的鮮明對比：

^ That's the standard size of a packet of Lays in India.

^ 印度樂事薯片的標準包。

^ Yes, this is not a typical size, but I've seen similarly sized packages of chips being sold at Walmart and Costco.

^ 這個不是標準包，不過我曾在沃爾瑪（Walmart ）和好市多（Costco）看到過這樣大包的薯片。

I've noticed that entree sizes are huge as well. I am by no means a small eater, but it usually takes me at least 1.5 meals to finish the entree.

我發(fā)現(xiàn)餐館的主菜量也很大。我胃口可一點兒都不小，可美國餐館里的一頓飯往往夠我平時吃一餐半。

7. An almost-classless society

社會階級差別極小

I've noticed that most Americans roughly have the same standard of living. Everybody has access to ample food, everybody shops at the same supermarkets, malls, stores, etc. I've seen plumbers, construction workers and janitors driving their own sedans, which was quite difficult for me to digest at first since I came from a country where construction workers and plumbers lived hand to mouth.

多數(shù)美國人的生活水平大致相當。人人都有充裕的食物，去一樣的雜貨店、超市、商場等等。我還見到很多水管工、建筑工、清潔工開著他們自己的汽車，剛開始我實在沒法理解，因為在印度，這些工人都還過著朝不保夕的日子。

Almost all sections of society are roughly equal.

美帝基本實現(xiàn)了共同富裕。

譯注：

1. mortal sin

指不可饒恕的重罪，天主教會中指十分嚴重的罪惡，犯此罪惡者死后會受到懲罰，除非被教會寬恕。

2. LGBT Pride Day

(1) LGBT

LGBT是女同性戀者（Lesbians）、男同性戀者（Gays）、雙性戀者（Bisexuals）與跨性別者（Transgender）的英文首字母縮略字。1990年代，由于“同性戀社群”一詞無法完整體現(xiàn)相關群體，“LGBT”一詞便應運而生、并逐漸普及。

在現(xiàn)代用語中，“LGBT”一詞十分重視性傾向與性別認同文化多樣性，除了狹義的指同性戀、雙性戀或跨性別族群，也可廣泛代表所有非異性戀者。

(2) Pride Day

“石墻事件”（Stonewall riots）在同性戀維權(quán)的歷史上是一個標志性的事件，它引發(fā)了美國同性戀群體維權(quán)的行動，并擴展到世界范圍內(nèi)。

石墻騷亂是指發(fā)生在紐約的一次同性戀者和警察間的一系列暴力沖突。這次騷亂開始于1969年6月27日星期五，在石墻旅館外，格林威治村的同性戀住所。這是第一次有同性戀者拒絕警方的逮捕。在石墻騷亂以前，警方對同性戀酒吧和夜總會的搜捕行動是城市同性戀者生活的一部分。接吻、牽手、甚至在同性戀酒吧出現(xiàn)都是被逮捕的理由。

1970年6月27日在紐約舉行的石墻周年紀念同志大游行，將6月27、28日兩天定為同志驕傲日。

3. 美國藍領階層

不論在哪個國家，藍領階層的收入都不算太高，但他們的確是社會的重要組成部分。藍領和白領不能狹隘地以體力勞動和腦力勞動來做出區(qū)分。在美國，藍領工作往往是指需要穿工作服、手工操作、按小時支付工作以及大部分時間不在辦公室中工作的工種。美國的藍領也存在收入偏低的問題，但有些藍領職業(yè)的收入甚至比一些白領還高。部分高薪藍領還需要專門的、長期的職業(yè)訓練和學習。